Chapter 5 - The Chaos in the Ballroom
The music didn't stop immediately. For a few seconds, guests assumed it was merely a fainting spell from a dehydrated guest.
Then Elena let out a horrific, gasping wheeze, her face turning a terrifying shade of blue.
Gasps erupted through the crowd. People stepped back, clutching their pearls and expensive gowns, treating the dying woman on the floor as if she were a biohazard.
Luca whipped his head around from across the room. When his dark eyes landed on Elena choking on the marble floor, the glass of scotch in his hand shattered, shards and amber liquid exploding across the floor as his grip crushed the crystal.
"Elena!"
Luca moved with terrifying speed, cutting through the terrified crowd like a cutting torch through steel. He dropped to his knees beside her, ignoring the silk of her uniform staining with blood and saliva.
"Look at me, Elena. Stay with me," Luca ordered, his voice cracking with a raw, primal panic that shocked everyone in the room.
Camilla Vance whispered loudly to her friend nearby, "Oh, look at that, she probably drank too much cheap wine in the pantry—how disgraceful—"
Before Camilla could finish her sentence, Luca’s head snapped up. His eyes were completely black, burning with a murderous rage so intense that Camilla literally staggered backward, tripping over her own heels.
"Marco!" Luca bellowed across the ballroom.
His chief of security appeared instantly from the shadows of the doorway, gun hand twitching. "Boss!"
"Lock the doors. Nobody leaves this building. Not a single guest, not a single vendor, nobody. If anyone crosses the threshold, you shoot them in the leg," Luca commanded, his voice echoing with absolute, terrifying authority.
The ballroom descended into absolute panic. Screams broke out near the exits as armed guards flooded the room, sealing every heavy oak and iron door.
Dr. Harris, the family physician who attended all Moretti functions, pushed his way through the terrified crowd with his medical bag. He dropped beside Elena, pressing a stethoscope to her chest before pulling out an emergency epinephrine and antihistamine injector.
"She’s gone into severe anaphylactic shock," Dr. Harris shouted over the noise of the crowd, jabbing the needle directly into Elena’s thigh. "Someone poisoned her tea! If we had waited another minute, her airway would have closed permanently!"
Elena convulsed once, letting out a massive, ragged gasp of air as her lungs finally opened. She lay trembling on the floor, weeping silently, staring up at the vaulted ceiling.
Luca stood up slowly.
The ballroom went deathly, terrifyingly quiet. You could hear the wind howling outside the windows and nothing else.
May you like
Luca turned around, his cold, lethal gaze sweeping slowly across the five hundred terrified guests, until his eyes locked onto one specific person standing near the pillar.
Isabella Vance.
