Chapter 4 - Dinner with the Morettis
The applause lasted less than thirty seconds.
The consequences began immediately.
I grabbed Luca’s arm the moment we reached a hallway away from the ballroom.
“What was that?”
He remained infuriatingly calm.
“A declaration.”
“I noticed.”
“You wanted them to believe us.”
“I wanted them to believe we were dating.”
“They do.”
“You told an entire ballroom I was the only woman you would ever choose.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“Because it was believable.”
I stared.
“You are impossible.”
“I’ve been told.”
“By me.”
“Frequently.”
I turned away, trying to breathe.
The hallway smelled of pine and candles. Somewhere behind the closed doors, the party continued, but my heart was still hammering.
“This ends tomorrow.”
Luca said nothing.
I looked back.
“Luca.”
“We agreed.”
“That wasn’t an answer.”
His jaw tightened.
“We agreed.”
Before I could push further, footsteps approached.
Isabella appeared.
Alone.
She stopped several feet away.
For once, the polished society smile was gone.
“Could I speak to Luca?”
I expected him to say yes.
Instead, he said, “Emma stays.”
Isabella looked at me.
Then at him.
“Of course she does.”
There was no hostility in her voice.
That made it worse.
“I’m not here to create a scene,” she said. “My father may disagree.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“What did Carlo tell you?”
“That tonight was supposed to make an announcement inevitable.”
Emma’s fake relationship had just collided with a real arrangement.
My stomach tightened.
“What announcement?”
Isabella answered me.
“An engagement.”
I looked at Luca.
He had told me there was an expectation.
He had not told me how close it was.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Isabella tilted her head.
“You suspected.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“Not to my father.”
Luca took a slow breath.
“Isabella, I never agreed to marry you.”
“I know.”
Her voice was surprisingly gentle.
“I never agreed to marry you either.”
That stunned me.
Luca too.
Isabella gave a small, tired smile.
“You’re not the only person our families make plans for.”
Something inside me softened toward her.
She continued.
“My father believes joining our families strengthens both sides. Your grandmother likes tradition. Your uncles like the financial advantages. Everyone has been talking as though our opinions were administrative details.”
“Then why didn’t you refuse?” I asked.
Isabella looked toward the ballroom doors.
“Because refusal is easy when you have somewhere else to go.”
There was sadness in that sentence.
I understood there was more to her story, but this was not the moment.
“What happens now?” I asked.
“Now?” Isabella said. “My father becomes difficult.”
Luca’s mouth hardened.
“He’s always difficult.”
“This time he believes you embarrassed him publicly.”
“That’s his problem.”
“Luca.”
The warning in Isabella’s tone sounded familiar.
Like mine.
She stepped closer.
“There are agreements between Moretti Holdings and Rinaldi Capital that depend heavily on personal trust.”
“Business agreements.”
“Yes.”
“Then they should survive business scrutiny.”
“Should.”
That word mattered.
Isabella looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For what they’re about to do to you.”
My skin chilled.
Luca moved slightly between us.
“No one is doing anything to Emma.”
Isabella’s eyes met his.
“You can’t protect her from newspapers.”
“I can try.”
“Or your board.”
His expression changed.
“Why the board?”
Isabella hesitated.
“My father has been speaking to Victor Hale.”
Luca’s entire body went still.
I knew Victor Hale.
Vice chairman of Moretti Holdings.
Luca’s late father’s closest business partner.
A man Luca tolerated but never trusted.
“What about?” Luca asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Isabella.”
“I genuinely don’t.”
She looked frustrated.
“I heard your name. Emma’s. The family trust. That’s all.”
Then she walked away.
I turned slowly toward Luca.
“The family trust?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I’m getting extremely tired of that word.”
He rubbed a hand over his jaw.
“My father structured part of the company strangely before he died.”
“Strangely how?”
“I control Moretti Holdings operationally.”
“I know.”
“But certain voting shares remain inside a family trust until I turn thirty-five.”
“When do you turn thirty-five?”
“February.”
“And then?”
His silence made me nervous.
“Luca.”
“There are conditions.”
“Of course there are.”
I folded my arms.
“What conditions?”
“Marriage simplifies them.”
I stared at him.
The pieces clicked together horribly fast.
“Your family doesn’t just want you married because they want grandchildren.”
“No.”
“They want you married because it affects control of the company.”
“Yes.”
“And Carlo Rinaldi wants Isabella married to you because that puts his family beside yours when those shares transfer.”
“Yes.”
I laughed once without humor.
“And you thought this information was unnecessary when asking me to pretend to be your girlfriend?”
“I thought it would make you refuse.”
“You were right.”
“I know.”
I took a step back.
“You used me.”
His expression changed.
“No.”
“You needed someone your family would believe.”
“Yes.”
“You needed to disrupt an engagement.”
“Yes.”
“You needed to send a message to the Rinaldis.”
“That was not why I chose you.”
“But it was convenient.”
Luca’s voice hardened.
“Emma.”
“No.”
I had spent years watching powerful men explain away manipulation with calm voices and expensive suits.
I would not let Luca do it to me.
“I agreed to one night of pretending to help you survive an uncomfortable family party.”
“I know.”
“I did not agree to become a piece in a corporate succession battle.”
“You’re not.”
“Then tell me why you chose me.”
He opened his mouth.
Stopped.
That hesitation hurt more than it should have.
“Exactly.”
I turned.
His hand closed lightly around my wrist.
Not trapping.
Asking.
I looked down at it.
He released me immediately.
“I chose you,” Luca said quietly, “because every other woman would have been a lie.”
I didn’t move.
His voice became lower.
“You are the person I call first when something goes wrong.”
“That’s my job.”
“You’re the person I trust with decisions no one else sees.”
“My job.”
“You know when I haven’t eaten. When I haven’t slept. When I’m angry before I say a word.”
“Also my job.”
“You know what my mother’s favorite Christmas song was.”
That stopped me.
He continued.
“You know which anniversary I leave the office early every year, even though I never explained why.”
His mother.
I knew.
I had never asked.
“You remember my grandmother’s prescriptions. You send Julian birthday gifts in my name because you know I’ll forget. You keep coffee in my office for my uncle because he hates mine.”
I looked at him.
“Those are small things.”
“No.”
His eyes held mine.
“They’re the things that make up a life.”
The hallway suddenly felt too quiet.
“Luca…”
“I chose you because when I imagined standing in that room with someone beside me, you were the only person I could tolerate.”
I almost smiled despite myself.
“That may be the least romantic confession ever made.”
“I’m learning.”
Then footsteps approached again.
This time it was Julian.
He looked serious.
That frightened me more than anything.
“Luca.”
“What?”
Julian glanced at me.
Then back at his brother.
“Victor Hale is downstairs.”
Luca frowned.
“He wasn’t invited.”
“I know.”
“Why is he here?”
Julian swallowed.
“He says there’s an emergency board meeting Monday morning.”
My stomach tightened.
Luca’s voice became cold.
“About what?”
Julian looked directly at me.
“Emma.”
Silence.
“What about me?” I asked.
Julian hesitated.
Then answered.
“Apparently someone is claiming Luca has been hiding an undisclosed personal relationship with an employee whose compensation he controls.”
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Julian added the part that changed everything.
“And Victor says if they can prove it started before tonight, they’re going to accuse Luca of violating the company’s ethics rules.”
Luca’s face became unreadable.
I understood immediately.
Our fake relationship had lasted less than two hours.
May you like
And somehow it had already become evidence in a corporate war.
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