Chapter 7 - The Banishment
The silence in the grand hallway stretched so thin it felt as though it might snap. Luca didn't check my apron pocket. Instead, he slowly pulled his arm away from Vanessa's grip, stepping past her as if she were a ghost. He walked over to the mahogany console table where the house intercom panel sat, flipped a toggle switch, and spoke a single command into the master line.
"Marcus, pull the live feed from corridor west-three, timestamp zero-eight-fourteen," Luca ordered, his tone flat and terrifyingly calm.
Vanessa's calculated tears stuttered. The trembling in her lip faltered for a fraction of a second before she forced the expression back onto her face. "Luca, what are you doing? Why are you checking cameras? She's standing right here with the stolen property in her uniform!"
"Because," Luca said without turning around, "my security system records every square inch of this estate twenty-four hours a day. Including the dressing room corridor."
A heavy pause settled over the hallway. Within moments, the speaker crackled to life as Marcus, the head of security, transmitted the high-definition playback directly to the console screen. The grainy, sharp footage played out across the small monitor: Vanessa pulling the diamond bracelet from her own handbag, stalking down the hallway, and forcefully shoving it into the pocket of my black apron while I was holding the linen stack.
The color drained entirely from Vanessa's face. The pristine socialite mask shattered, leaving behind a look of sheer, unadulterated panic.
"That... that's edited," Vanessa stammered, her voice cracking as she stepped backward. "That's a fabrication—she set me up!"
Luca turned around slowly. The look in his dark eyes wasn't anger; it was an abysmal, freezing void. He walked right up to her until she was forced to press her spine against the carved wooden molding of the double doors.
"Get out," Luca said.
"Luca, you can't—my family has backed Moretti enterprises for decades—"
"I said, get out," Luca repeated, his voice dropping into a register that brooked zero argument. "If you ever set foot on Moretti property again, or if I ever catch you or your associates within a mile of Teresa Caruso's building, I won't just banish you from high society. I will strip every single asset your father owns down to the studs."
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Vanessa stared at him, realizing with sudden, crushing finality that her status, her money, and her threats meant nothing against the wall he had just erected. She snatched her handbag from the console table, gave me one final look of venomous hatred, and bolted through the front doors, slamming them hard behind her.
The guards stepped back into their posts without a word. The hallway fell quiet again. Luca let out a slow, heavy breath, his shoulders dropping slightly as he turned his attention back to me.
