“She’s killing him!”
The maid’s scream echoed through the Moretti estate as Dante Moretti rushed into the nursery with his pistol drawn.
His six-month-old nephew, Leo, lay motionless on the carpet. Vivienne Cross, Dante’s fiancée, knelt over him with a silver blade near his throat. Blood stained her pale dress.
Clara, the trusted maid, crawled toward Dante in tears.
“She attacked the baby! Shoot her before she finishes it!”
Dante aimed at Vivienne.
“Drop the blade.”
“He can’t breathe,” Vivienne replied without looking up. “His airway is completely blocked.”
“You have three seconds.”
“If I stop, he dies.”
Dante fired—not at Vivienne, but through the window beside her.
At that same moment, Vivienne completed an emergency incision in Leo’s throat.
The baby’s chest suddenly rose.
A weak cry filled the nursery.
Dante lowered his weapon and fell to his knees. Vivienne had not been hurting Leo. She had performed an emergency procedure that saved his life.
Then Dante noticed Clara’s expression.
She was not relieved.
She looked terrified that Leo had survived.
Sal, Dante’s adviser, searched Clara’s room and found poison hidden inside a bottle of infant medicine. There were also secret payments from a rival organization—and documents proving Clara had tampered with the car that killed Leo’s parents.
Clara had planned to eliminate the entire Moretti bloodline. When the poison caused Leo’s throat to swell, she accused Vivienne, hoping Dante would kill the only person capable of saving him.
Clara tried to escape, but the guards stopped her at the gates.
Later, Dante found Vivienne alone beside Leo’s crib.
“I nearly killed you,” he admitted.
“But you didn’t.”
“I trusted the wrong person.”
Vivienne looked at the sleeping baby.
“Then learn from it.”
Dante gently took her hand.
Their engagement had begun as a business agreement between rival families. That night, it became something real.
Clara was handed over to the authorities, the evidence cleared Vivienne’s damaged medical reputation, and she returned to surgery.
Months later, Dante stood beside her as Leo took his first steps.
For the first time, the Moretti estate was no longer ruled by fear.
It had become a home.
