Chapter 3 - The People Behind the Paper
The next morning, before the city awoke, Luca took Emma to the South Docks—the working-class beating heart of the city.
The air was thick with the smell of salt water, diesel exhaust, and cold morning fog. Rows of massive brick warehouses lined the harbor, where hundreds of men in heavy jackets were loading cargo containers onto ships.
Luca walked beside Emma, dressed in a long wool overcoat. Everywhere he walked, tough, calloused men stopped what they were doing, tipping their caps or bowing their heads in quiet respect.
“Why did you bring me here?” Emma asked, wrapping her coat tighter around her shoulders against the biting sea breeze.
“I wanted you to see what your father was fighting for,” Luca replied, leading her toward a modest two-story brick building that bore a faded wooden sign: Maritime Workers Benevolent Union.
Inside, the hall was filled with long wooden tables where elderly men were playing chess and young mothers were sitting with small children, waiting for community assistance.
An older woman with silver hair and warm, tired eyes looked up from behind a reception desk. Her face lit up the moment she saw Emma.
“Mercy on us,” the woman gasped, rushing out from behind the desk. She looked at Emma’s face, her eyes misting over with tears. “You... you have Arthur’s eyes. You’re little Emma.”
Emma froze. “You knew my father?”
“Knew him?” The woman took Emma’s hands in her own, her palms rough and warm. “Child, my name is Mary Gable. My late husband worked the crane line at Sterling & Vale for thirty years. When he lost his leg in an industrial accident nineteen years ago, the company cut his medical insurance overnight.”
Mary squeezed Emma’s hands tightly.
“Your father spent three months fighting the legal department until he got us a check from the Welfare Trust,” Mary said, her voice trembling with emotion. “It paid for my husband’s surgery and saved our home. When the company froze the trust a few years later, Arthur came here and promised us he would lock the master key away where Sterling couldn't touch it.”
Emma felt a lump form in her throat. All those years, she had watched her father come home late at night, exhausted and stressed, sitting at the kitchen table by candle-light with stacks of ledger books. She had thought he was just obsessed with numbers.
She hadn't realized he was keeping a lifeline alive for hundreds of desperate families.
“He never stopped fighting for you,” Emma whispered, tears finally slipping down her cheeks.
“And now you’re here,” Mary said softly, glancing up at Luca with deep respect. “With Mr. Vale. The people on these docks haven't forgotten Arthur Carter, my dear. If you need an army to take back what belong to these families, every man on these piers will stand behind you.”
Emma turned to look at Luca. He stood near the entrance, giving her space, his expression dark and guarded, but his eyes carried a profound, protective warmth.
In that moment, something shifted inside Emma’s heart. She had spent years feeling isolated, hidden away in a dusty basement, believing she was alone in the world after her father’s death. But standing in this room, backed by a community that remembered her father’s honor and protected by a man who treated her like royalty, she felt an overwhelming sense of purpose.
She stepped back toward Luca, looking up into his face.
“I’m ready,” she said firmly.
May you like
“Ready for what, Emma?” Luca asked, resting a large, warm hand against the small of her back.
“To go to that board meeting,” Emma declared, her hazel eyes blazing with fiery determination. “And burn Richard Sterling’s empire to the ground.”
