Chapter 5 - The Navy Pier BallroomThe grand ballroom at Navy Pier was a glittering spectacle of crystal chandeliers, orchestral music, and Chicago’s elite. When the massive double doors swung open and the announcement echoed through the hall—“Vincent DeLuca and Ms. Emily Hayes”—every single conversation died instantly.
Heads whipped around. Forks froze midair.
Every eye in the room locked onto us. I felt a brief flash of the old panic—the crushing weight of judgment that Tyler had spent years embedding in my mind. Too fat. Too ordinary.
Then Vincent’s hand covered mine where it rested on his arm, giving a firm, grounding squeeze.
We walked down the long, red-carpeted aisle between the tables. I kept my chin high, my shoulders back, looking straight ahead. To my left, I spotted Tyler and his fiancé sitting near the front. Tyler’s face had gone completely pale, his mouth slightly open in absolute horror as he realized the waitress he had publicly humiliated three nights ago was now entering the city’s most exclusive event on the arm of its most feared ruler.
Vincent led me directly to the VIP table at the center of the room, ignoring the murmurs, gasps, and flashing cameras of reporters stationed near the press gallery.
As we took our seats, city officials, banking executives, and powerful syndicate capos rushed over—not to gawk, but to pay their respects, nodding deferentially to Vincent and offering polite, cautious smiles in my direction.
"See?" Vincent murmured, pouring a glass of sparkling water and sliding it toward me. "They were never laughing at you, Emily. They were only ever echoing the smallness of the man who tried to diminish you."
I took a sip of the water, feeling a warm, powerful surge of adrenaline wash away the last lingering shadows of my past.
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"They're watching us," I whispered, glancing around the room.
"Let them watch," Vincent replied, a rare, genuine smile touching the corners of his mouth. "Because tomorrow, the headlines won't be about a mafia boss pitying a waitress. They'll be about the day Vincent DeLuca introduced Chicago to his equal."
