Chapter 3 - THE HUNT BEGINS
Inside the private study of the Vital estate, the air smelled of spilled scotch and copper.
Luca Vital stood behind his mahogany desk, his knuckles bruised and bleeding where he had driven his fist through the thick oak paneling of the wall. Three floor lamps were knocked over, lightbulbs shattered across the Persian rug.
Giana sat on the leather sofa, clutching a glass of ice water with trembling hands, her mascara running down her flushed cheeks. "Luca, please... stop pacing. You're scaring me."
Luca turned on her so fast she gasped. His eyes were bloodshot, his tailored dinner jacket discarded on the floor, his white shirt unbuttoned at the neck.
"I'm scaring you?" Luca growled, stepping over the shattered glass until he was standing over her. "My pregnant wife just walked out into a category-four blizzard with three point two million dollars of my operational capital, and you're telling me you're scared?"
"She... she took money?" Giana stuttered, her eyes widening in disbelief. "How could she take money? She didn't even have her purse!"
"She didn't need her purse, you idiot!" Luca roared, slamming his hand down on the armrest. "She built the financial system! She has every passcode memorized! While you were shopping on Oak Street with my credit cards, Elena was setting up secondary routing codes that I didn't even know existed!"
The double oak doors of the study burst open.
Marco, Luca’s chief of security—a broad-shouldered man with a scarred face and an assault rifle slung over his tactical vest—hurried into the room. His boots were dripping with melted snow.
"Boss," Marco reported, his voice tight. "We swept the estate grounds. She slipped through the old maintenance gate near the salt silos. Tire tracks confirm a secondary vehicle picked her up fifteen minutes ago."
"Whose vehicle?" Luca demanded, seizing Marco by the collar of his vest. "Give me a name!"
"We checked the security footage from the nearby traffic cams before the snow knocked out the power lines," Marco said, flinching slightly under Luca's terrifying grip. "It was Martha Vance’s old sedan. They took the northern exit toward I-94."
Luca released Marco’s collar and ran both hands through his slicked-back hair, breathing like a wounded animal. "Issue a regional alert to every crew we have from here to Milwaukee. I want every gas station, every motel, every private airstrip watched. If anyone sees a pregnant woman matching Elena's description, they call me directly. No one touches her. No one talks to her. You bring her straight to the private clinic in Barrington."
"And Martha?" Marco asked coldly.
"Put Martha in a cellar until I decide what to do with her," Luca spat.
"Wait!" Giana stood up, her voice high and panicked. "Luca, what about the federal investigators? If Elena goes to the U.S. Attorney with those documents from your desk—"
Luca whirled around and slapped Giana hard across the face.
The sharp crack echoed through the cavernous study. Giana tumbled back onto the leather cushions, clutching her reddening cheek, gasping in shock and pain.
"Don't speak her name," Luca warned in a low, lethal whisper. "You told me she was weak. You told me she was fragile, that she would sign the guardianship papers the second we threatened her with the medical report! You promised me she wouldn't fight back!"
"She... she was supposed to be weak!" Giana sobbed, tears spilling over her hand. "She was always the quiet one! She spent her whole life pleasing Dad, pleasing you—"
"She was protecting her child," Luca cut her off, his voice dropping into a hollow, terrifying register. "A woman protecting her child isn't quiet, Giana. She's lethal."
Luca turned back to Marco. "Call my brother in Detroit. Tell him I need six untraceable tactical units at the estate by dawn. And tell the family doctor in Barrington to clear the entire top floor of his clinic. When I find my wife, she isn't leaving that room until my son is delivered."
"Yes, Boss," Marco said, bowing his head quickly before rushing out of the room.
Luca stepped over the broken glass and stopped near the doorway console table. He looked down at the platinum wedding ring resting quietly on top of the glossy ultrasound photograph.
May you like
He reached out with a trembling hand, picking up the small piece of thermal paper. In the harsh ambient light, the tiny, perfectly formed face of his unborn son stared back at him.
A heavy knot of realization tightened in Luca’s chest like a slow-poisoning wound. Elena hadn't just left him; she had stripped him of his future, his heir, and his soul in a single night. And for the first time in his ruthless life, Luca Vital realized that all his money, all his soldiers, and all his terrifying power meant nothing against a mother who had decided he no longer existed.
