Chapter 46
Chapter 46
VALENTINA’S POV
The De Luca mansion was silent when I returned that night, a silence so dense it felt like gelatin wrapping around every corner. The lights were off; only the moon filtering through the tall windows cast long shadows over the marble. My footsteps echoed like gunshots in the empty foyer, my heels marking a rhythm made of pure restrained rage.
I hadn’t cried on the way back. The tears had dried long ago, replaced by something colder, more dangerous: absolute clarity.
Sebastián had humiliated me with my own mother. In her bed. In her house.
And now he was going to pay.
I climbed the stairs slowly, each step a decision. I passed by Sofia’s room—my daughter was sleeping, unaware of the hell that was about to break loose—and continued to my bedroom. The one I would never share with that man again.
I poured myself a whisky, the amber liquid trembling in the crystal glass. I drank it in one swallow, feeling it burn, feeling it strengthen me. Then I sat at the vanity and looked at myself in the mirror.
The woman staring back at me was no longer the same. Her eyes were harder, her mouth tighter, the expression lines marked by years of swallowed humiliations.
But that ended today.
I took out my phone and dialed a number I had saved months ago. A contact I had obtained at one of those endless dinners with family associates—a journalist who moved in the underworld, who traded in secrets the way others traded in drugs.
He answered on the third ring.
“Mrs. De Luca?” The voice was male, cautious. “I wasn’t expecting your call.”
“I have information,” I said firmly, without preamble. “Information that will make you famous. About the De Luca family.”
There was a pause on the other end, the sound of someone adjusting in his chair.
“What kind of information?”
“The kind that destroys empires,” I replied, taking another sip. “Dirty business, money laundering, ties to the Sicilian mafia. All documented. All real.”
I could hear his breathing quicken.
“And what do you want in return?”
I smiled bitterly at my reflection.
“I want you to publish everything. Every name, every transaction, every secret. I want to see Sebastián De Luca fall from the pedestal where he believes he’s untouchable.”
“That’s… that’s suicide, ma’am. Your family would destroy you.”
“They already destroyed me,” I said coldly. “I’m just returning the favor.”
I hung up before he could respond.
The next number was even more dangerous. A contact in the prosecutor’s office, someone who had been investigating the family for years without success. I offered him exactly what he needed: evidence, documents, offshore account names.
Everything I had gathered over years of marriage, kept as a life insurance policy I never thought I’d use.
Until now.
When I finished the calls, I stared at the phone. I knew there was no turning back. As soon as that information came to light, I would be a marked woman. The De Lucas did not forgive betrayal.
But I no longer cared.
I stood and walked to the closet. I pulled out a suitcase and began packing: clothes, documents, jewelry I could sell. The essentials to start over.
Far from Sicily.
Far from Sebastián.
Far from my mother.
As I was closing the suitcase, I heard footsteps in the hallway. Heavy, familiar. The door opened and there he was.
Sebastián.
His shirt was unbuttoned, his hair disheveled, his eyes bloodshot. He smelled of whisky and guilt.
“Valentina,” he said hoarsely. “We need to talk.”
I turned toward him calmly, crossing my arms.
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Please, let me explain—”
“Explain what?” I cut him off, my voice rising. “That you’ve been screwing my mother for who knows how long? That you’ve turned me into the laughingstock of all Sicily?”
He stepped toward me, hands outstretched.
“It was a mistake. A moment of weakness—”
“Don’t lie to me!” I shouted, the tears threatening but holding them back. “I saw the way you looked at her. I saw the way she looked at you. This isn’t a mistake, Sebastián. It’s calculated betrayal.”
He fell silent, guilt written across every line of his face.
“What are you going to do?” he finally asked in a low voice.
I smiled, a cold smile that didn’t reach my eyes.
“I already did.”
He frowned, confused.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that in the next few hours, all of Italy will know who the De Lucas really are. Every dirty secret, every illegal deal. Everything will come to light.”
I watched the color drain from his face, watched his fists clench.
“What did you do?”
“What I should have done years ago,” I said firmly. “Free myself from you.”
Sebastián took a threatening step toward me, anger replacing guilt.
“If you destroy this family, you destroy yourself. The twins, Sofia, Marco… they’ll all pay for your revenge.”
“They’ll be fine,” I replied. “Far from this hell you call home.”
We stared at each other in silence, two enemies in what had once been a marriage.
“I won’t forgive you for this,” he said in a low, dangerous voice.
“I don’t need your forgiveness,” I answered. “I just need you to suffer the way I have suffered.”
I grabbed my suitcase and walked toward the door. He didn’t try to stop me.
When I reached the hallway, I turned back one last time.
“Oh, and Sebastián… give my regards to my mother.”
And I left, leaving behind the mansion, the marriage, the life I had known.
Outside, the cool Sicilian night air struck my face. I took a deep breath, feeling for the first time in years something close to freedom.
I knew the storm would come. That the De Lucas wouldn’t let me go easily. But for now, as I walked toward the car with my suitcase, I felt something I thought I had lost:
Power over my own life.
And that was worth any price.