He Chose Her, So I Chose to Disappear Forever Chapter 25

He Chose Her, So I Chose to Disappear Forever Chapter 25

At last, Luca opened his eyes.

The assistant rushed on. “The video from the wedding is making the rounds with our allies. No one wants to hand

over business or manpower to a man who can’t keep his own promises. Two of the port captains have stopped paying tribute, and our partners have frozen shipping routes.”

The Moretti family’s power rested on loyalty, protection, and promises that could be trusted.

In front of every important witness, Luca had proven his

promises were worthless.

He hadn’t just betrayed Elena. He had turned the sacred Fules of family protection into a joke.

Three days later, Luca stood before the long conference table

and publicly accepted full responsibility.

He offered no defense.

“I’m the one who failed to protect her,” he said, his voice

hollow. “I’m the one who drove her into the sea.”

He took off the signet ring that marked his authority as

second-in-command and placed it on the table before his

father.

No one had asked him to kneel.

But he dropped to one knee before the entire long table anyway, bowed his head, and begged the family to keep searching for Elena.

It was the first time in his life he had ever lowered his head in

public.

And it was the most useless.

The search continued for months, but it yielded nothing.

Luca lost his place as heir. The captains who had once

answered to him now shifted their loyalty to the new

second-in-command. He no longer attended family

meetings or involved himself in their business.

Bianca, for publicly exposing the movements of family members, abusing her protected status, and betraying that protection, was permanently exiled from Seattle’s circles. Her social media was erased, and every door that had once stood open to her was locked and barred.

I watched all of this unfold through encrypted channels.

Luca never left that house.

He spent his days by the window that looked out at the sea, clutching the ring they had recovered from the boat. He drank heavily. Sometimes he talked to the empty air, sometimes he would burst into sudden, manic laughter, and

then he would cry until he could hardly breathe.

He still had people searching every port where I might

conceivably surface.

I never responded.

No body, and no reunion.

That endless, gnawing uncertainty would stay with him for

the rest of his life.

That was the price he had to pay.

But it was his alone to bear.