23. The Breaking Point #3
Luca's expression shifted immediately—softening, attentive. He crouched down to her level, taking the edge of the poster carefully as if it mattered. "You did this?"
Ava nodded hard. "I made them better."
He read them slowly, eyes moving from line to line. When he reached rule four, something in his face tightened—subtle, almost imperceptible—but he didn't look away.
"Grown-ups keep promises," he repeated quietly.
Ava beamed. "That one is the most important."
Behind him, I lowered myself slightly, just enough that my voice would only reach him. My hand brushed the back of his shoulder as I leaned in, careful not to interrupt her moment.
"She wrote down the promise she needs most," I murmured. "Don't make her regret believing it."
His jaw flexed once.
Ava was still smiling up at him, waiting.
I straightened, my expression smoothing back into something controlled, something professional, something that would not crack in front of her.
"We're going to the house," I said lightly, as if nothing in me was shaking. "You decide which promise you're keeping."
Then I took Ava's hand before she could notice anything had changed, and led her out before he could answer.
The elevator doors had almost closed when Luca's hand shot between them.
They bounced open.
He stood in the corridor with the House Rules poster folded once in his fist and the unsigned contract tucked beneath his arm. His breathing was hard, like he had sprinted the entire length of the resort.
Ava tightened her grip on my hand.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"To end this."
He stepped toward the elevator, but Ava tugged free of my hand.
"I'm coming."
Luca stopped. "No, baby. You and Riley are going to the house."
"I want to come."
"There will be cameras," I said gently. "Lots of people talking at once. It might be loud."
Ava touched the shark headphones around her neck as if reminding us she had already thought of that. "I have these."
Luca crouched in front of her. "That doesn't mean you have to be in the middle of this."
Ava looked at the House Rules poster folded in his fist.
"But those are our rules."
Luca's expression tightened. "They are."
"And you're taking them with you."
He glanced down at the dolphins along the edge of the poster, understanding settling over his face.
Ava touched his wrist. "If you're telling them about our family, I should come. I'm in it too."
The simple logic of it silenced both of us.
She did not understand contracts or financing or the trap Victor had built. But she understood that her father was taking their rules somewhere important, and she wanted to go with him.
Luca looked at me.
I glanced toward Ava's headphones, then crouched beside her. "You keep these on. You stay with me the whole time. And the second it feels like too much, we leave. No arguing."
"Okay."
Luca searched her face once more before standing.
"All right," he said quietly. "Together."
He stepped inside and pressed the button for the penthouse level.
The ride lasted five floors, and no one spoke. Ava leaned against me. Luca stared at the dolphins on the poster as if they had become evidence.
When the doors opened, noise hit us first.
Victor's investor suite had been turned into a media room. Two cameras faced a backdrop printed with Luca's name. A publicist held a microphone. Investors clustered near the windows beside a tray of untouched champagne, as though Luca's surrender were already a completed deal.
Victor smiled when he saw him. "Perfect timing."
Luca walked straight past him.
"Dad?" Ava called.
He stopped at the table where the fight contract waited beneath a silver pen. Then he looked back at her.
Something in his face changed. Not softened. Settled.
He placed the House Rules poster beside the contract.
Victor's smile vanished. "We go live in six minutes."
"No," Luca said.
A camera operator lowered his headset. The room quieted one conversation at a time.
Victor stepped closer. "Think carefully."
"I have."
Luca picked up the contract.
For one horrible second, I thought he meant to sign it. Instead, he tore it down the center. The rip sounded impossibly loud.
Victor lunged forward. "What the hell are you doing?"
Luca tore it again. Pages fluttered onto the polished floor around his shoes.
"Those contracts are legally binding."
"Not without my signature."
"You'll lose everything."
"Then I rebuild."
One of the cameras swung toward him. The red light blinked on.
Victor saw it too. "Turn that off."
Luca faced the lens.
"Men like Victor built their fortunes by telling me what I owed them. My body. My name. My pain." His voice stayed steady. "I don't owe them another piece."
He reached for Ava, and she ran into his arms. Then his eyes found mine.
"I almost made the same mistake again."
My throat closed.
Victor shouted for security, but no one moved.
Luca held Ava tighter, stared straight into the cameras, and said, "My family isn't for sale."
I had watched his fists buckle men. The words did worse.
Every phone in the room rose at once. Victor's face twisted with fury as the cameras kept rolling.
Luca had chosen us.
Now Victor was going to make him pay for it.