Chapter 5 - Dinner With the Devil
Sienna did not scream.
That surprised Adrian.
She simply stared at the photograph until every trace of color left her face.
Then she said, “We're going.”
“No.”
“My brother is there.”
“And that's exactly why Alessandra took him.”
Sienna rounded on him.
“Then tell me what your alternative is.”
Adrian had none he liked.
Theo had been removed from the safe apartment between security shifts. Two guards were unconscious, not dead. Sienna’s mother had been left untouched.
It was deliberate.
Alessandra wanted leverage, not chaos.
By seven the following evening, the Valente estate glittered as though nothing had happened.
Sienna entered on Adrian’s arm wearing a dark green dress.
No visible weapons.
No visible fear.
The family gathered around the same table where her morning sickness had exposed the impossible.
Alessandra sat at Vittorio’s old place.
“Beautiful,” she said.
Sienna smiled.
“You kidnapped my brother.”
Forks stopped moving.
Alessandra sighed.
“So direct.”
Adrian remained standing.
“Where is he?”
“Safe.”
“Corrado?”
“Also safe.”
Rocco entered behind them.
Alessandra’s expression changed.
“Brother.”
“Alessandra.”
“You finally chose a side?”
Rocco looked toward Adrian.
“I should have chosen it nine years ago.”
Luca entered next.
Now Alessandra’s composure cracked.
“You too?”
Luca pulled out a chair.
“Family dinner, right?”
For the first time, Sienna saw uncertainty in Alessandra.
Good.
Adrian sat beside his wife.
Under the table, his hand found hers.
Alessandra lifted her wine.
“To the unexpected heir.”
Nobody drank.
She smiled.
Then admitted almost everything.
Matteo had initiated the original conspiracy, but Alessandra had preserved it after his death.
She had discovered that Vittorio’s trust gave her a path to control.
All she needed was patience.
Adrian childless.
Luca compromised.
Rocco discredited.
She had spent years building evidence linking Luca to crimes he had never committed.
Within months, federal investigators would have received it.
Then Adrian’s marriage changed everything.
“You were supposed to be temporary,” Alessandra told Sienna.
Sienna’s eyes narrowed.
“My marriage?”
“Your usefulness.”
Adrian’s jaw flexed.
Alessandra continued.
“Rocco chose perfectly. Debt. No powerful relatives. No political connections. And most importantly, no possibility of a child.”
“Except there was.”
“Yes.”
Her smile vanished.
“That was inconvenient.”
Sienna wanted to cross the table.
Instead she squeezed Adrian’s hand.
“Where is Theo?”
Alessandra nodded toward a servant.
A laptop appeared.
Live video showed Theo and Corrado inside a room.
Alive.
Sienna leaned forward.
“Release them.”
“After Adrian signs.”
A folder slid across the table.
Adrian opened it.
Transfer documents.
He would surrender his controlling interest in Valente Holdings to Alessandra.
Sienna looked at him.
“No.”
Alessandra smiled.
“If he refuses, your brother dies.”
Adrian picked up the pen.
Sienna grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
“Sienna.”
“She'll kill us anyway.”
Alessandra’s eyes sharpened.
Sienna looked directly at her.
“You spent nine years planning this. You don't leave witnesses.”
Adrian slowly lowered the pen.
Pride flashed across his face.
Alessandra's smile disappeared.
“You think pregnancy makes you important?”
“No.”
Sienna leaned forward.
“I think your desperation does.”
Silence.
“You burned my bakery. Poisoned my food. Kidnapped my brother. All because of a baby smaller than my thumb.”
Alessandra stood.
“You have no idea what I built.”
“Then why are you afraid of me?”
That did it.
Alessandra slapped her.
Adrian rose so violently his chair crashed backward.
Every guard in the room reached beneath a jacket.
Sienna caught Adrian’s hand.
“Don't.”
His eyes went to the red mark forming on her cheek.
“Sienna.”
“Don't give her what she wants.”
Alessandra laughed.
But she had made a mistake.
A tiny microphone was sewn beneath Sienna’s necklace.
Everything had been recorded.
The confession.
The kidnapping.
The threat.
Marco was listening from three blocks away with two retired federal investigators Adrian trusted.
But they still needed Theo’s location.
Sienna glanced at the laptop.
A church bell sounded through its speakers.
Once.
Twice.
Then a train horn.
She knew that sound.
Her father used to take her and Theo to a wholesale flour warehouse in Queens.
A church stood beside the elevated tracks.
Sienna looked at Luca.
He understood.
He casually touched his watch.
A signal.
Marco moved.
Alessandra noticed.
Her eyes narrowed.
“What was that?”
Luca smiled.
“Indigestion.”
Then the lights went out.
Someone shouted.
Glass shattered.
Adrian pulled Sienna down and covered her with his body.
Gunfire erupted from the hallway.
Not inside the dining room.
Security fighting security.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Rocco shouted Luca’s name.
Then a scream came from the staircase.
When the lights returned, Alessandra was gone.
So was the folder.
Adrian looked toward the open terrace doors.
“Marco!”
His earpiece crackled.
“We found the warehouse. Theo is alive.”
Sienna almost collapsed.
“And Corrado?”
A pause.
“Alive. But Alessandra’s men are moving.”
Adrian helped Sienna upright.
Then Marco said something else.
“Boss, you need to know this.”
“What?”
“The kidnappers had orders.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“What orders?”
“If the transfer failed, they were supposed to kill Theo and Corrado.”
Sienna gripped the table.
Marco continued.
“But there was another order.”
“For whom?”
“Sienna.”
Adrian went utterly still.
“They weren't supposed to kill her.”
Sienna stared.
“Then what?”
Marco hesitated.
“They were ordered to take her alive.”
Adrian looked toward the dark terrace.
“Why?”
Nobody answered.
Then Rocco whispered:
“The baby.”
And Sienna understood.
May you like
Alessandra did not simply want Adrian’s heir eliminated.
She wanted control of it.
