Chapter 3 - The Checkmate
The walk across the ballroom felt like a royal procession.
Whispers erupted like wildfire. Heads turned. By the time we reached the Rossi table, Liam was standing up, his face pale, sweating profusely. Amber looked confused, her smug smile faltering as she stared at the sheer, overwhelming power radiating from the man holding my arm.
"Dad," Liam stammered, his eyes darting frantically between me and his father. "What... what are you doing with Luna?"
"I am escorting the most beautiful, intelligent woman in this room," Nico replied, his voice echoing clearly over the sudden hush of the surrounding tables. "A woman who, until yesterday, I believed was entirely out of my reach due to a misplaced sense of loyalty to a boy who did not deserve her."
Liam physically recoiled as if he had been struck.
Amber, desperate to reclaim the spotlight, stood up and tried to laugh dismissively. "Oh, please. Luna is just trying to make Liam jealous. She's so predictable."
Nico didn't even fully turn his head to look at her. He simply shifted his dark, freezing gaze to my sister, and the entire table fell dead silent.
"I do not know who you are," Nico said to Amber, his tone laced with absolute disgust. "But you are wearing cheap perfume, your posture is terrible, and you are currently clinging to the biggest disappointment of my life. Do not speak to the woman on my arm again."
Amber gasped, her face burning a violent shade of red as she shrank back into her chair.
"Dad, you can't talk to her like that!" Liam protested weakly.
"I can," Nico corrected, his voice dropping to a dangerous, terrifying register, "and I will. In fact, Liam, this is the last conversation we will be having for a very long time."
Liam froze. "What?"
"I have spent the last three years watching you coast on my name," Nico stated coldly. "I tolerated it because I believed Luna was a stabilizing influence. I thought she would make a man out of you. Now that you have thrown her away for..." He glanced at Amber dismissively. "...whatever this is, my patience has expired."
Nico pulled a sleek silver phone from his jacket pocket and placed it on the table.
"I am freezing your trust fund," Nico announced. "You are stripped of your Vice President title at Rossi Enterprises, effective immediately. I want your company car keys left with my security team by midnight, and you have until the end of the month to vacate the penthouse I pay for."
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"Dad! You're ruining my life over a girl?" Liam shouted, panic completely overtaking him.
"No," Nico said softly, pulling me closer to his side. "I am ruining your life because you lack integrity. And I am claiming the woman you were too stupid to keep."
