Chapter 11 - What Dante Never Signed
Ruby felt the word like a blade.
"Yes."
Dante walked toward the stage.
He was alone.
No visible weapon.
No guards.
Lorenzo smiled.
"You came."
Dante ignored him.
Ruby couldn't.
"You knew I could take everything from you."
"Yes."
"Before we married?"
"Yes."
"And you never told me."
"No."
Ruby laughed bitterly.
"Of course."
Dante stopped several feet away.
"I was going to."
"When?"
"After the threat was contained."
"Which threat? We have seventeen."
His mouth almost twitched.
Ruby hated that she noticed.
Catherine stepped between them.
"Dante married you because keeping you close made the succession claim controllable."
Dante looked at her.
"No."
"You expect her to believe you?"
"I don't care what you believe."
His eyes returned to Ruby.
"I care what she believes."
Ruby folded her arms.
"Then convince me."
Dante took the marriage contract from Lorenzo's hand before anyone realized he was moving.
Lorenzo reached for his weapon.
Dante stopped.
"Shoot me and you'll never get her signature."
Lorenzo froze.
Dante opened the contract.
From inside the binding, he removed a folded page.
The annex.
He gave it to Ruby.
"Read it."
She did.
The language was dense.
But one clause stood out.
Upon execution by Ruby Gallagher Moretti, all hereditary Moretti voting interests shall transfer to the claimant.
Below it were two lines.
Ruby's signature.
Dante's acknowledgment.
Ruby frowned.
"My signature isn't here."
"No."
"You could have asked me to sign."
"Yes."
"You could've tricked me."
Dante's jaw tightened.
"Yes."
"But you didn't."
"No."
"Why?"
His voice lowered.
"Because I never wanted your inheritance."
Ruby looked at him.
"Then why hide the annex?"
"Because if anyone discovered it, you'd become a target."
"Lorenzo already knew."
"Not where the document was."
Ruby glanced at Catherine.
"How did you?"
Catherine looked away.
Dante said, "Because she wrote it."
Ruby stared at her adoptive mother.
"What?"
Catherine swallowed.
"I was a lawyer before I married Patrick."
"You created the succession annex?"
"With Vittorio."
Ruby's mind reeled.
"Why?"
"To create a lawful escape hatch."
"From what?"
"The Moretti organization."
Dante answered.
"Vittorio wanted the empire dismantled."
Lorenzo laughed.
"Convenient."
Dante looked at him.
"That's why you were never meant to inherit."
Lorenzo's face hardened.
Dante continued.
"My father knew the organization had become poisoned. He wanted someone outside it to hold final authority."
Ruby looked at the paper.
"Me."
"You."
"Why didn't you dismantle it yourself?"
Dante's expression changed.
"Because I thought I could reform it."
"Did you?"
"Some of it."
Ruby saw the truth in his face.
Not all.
He had spent years carrying a legacy he hated because walking away would leave worse men in control.
Catherine spoke softly.
"Dante refused to sign the annex because his acknowledgment would activate your claim."
Ruby looked at him.
"You refused?"
Dante nodded.
"For you."
"Or yourself?"
"For both of us."
At least he was honest.
"If I activated it, every enemy my father had would know you controlled the organization."
Ruby thought of bullets through the mansion window.
Maybe he had been right.
Lorenzo stepped closer.
"Enough family therapy."
He raised his gun.
Federal lights suddenly flooded the auditorium.
"Drop it!"
Agent Sloan's voice echoed.
Lorenzo grabbed Catherine.
Gun to her head.
Elena screamed.
Ruby froze.
Dante moved slightly.
Lorenzo shouted, "Don't."
Agents surrounded entrances.
Sloan appeared.
"It's over."
Lorenzo laughed.
"No."
He dragged Catherine backward.
"You think the ledger matters? Half the names are dead."
"Enough are alive," Sloan said.
"Not the important ones."
Ruby looked at him.
"Vale."
Lorenzo smiled.
"Vale isn't the top."
Everyone froze.
Patrick's ledger had named Sebastian Vale at the top.
Unless there was someone above him.
"Who?"
Lorenzo looked at Catherine.
She went pale.
Ruby saw it.
"You know."
Catherine closed her eyes.
Lorenzo smiled.
"Tell her."
Catherine shook her head.
"Tell her!"
Ruby stepped forward.
"Who is above Vale?"
Catherine looked at Ruby.
Tears filled her eyes.
"No one is supposed to know."
"Mom."
Catherine flinched at the word.
Ruby repeated it.
"Mom. Tell me."
Catherine whispered a name.
"Father Michael."
Ruby frowned.
The priest from St. Matthew's?
The man who baptized her.
Presided over Catherine's funeral.
Presided over Patrick's funeral.
Blessed Ruby and Dante's marriage.
Dante's face darkened.
"The priest."
Catherine nodded.
"He moved money through charities for decades."
Lorenzo laughed.
"The holy man."
Ruby stared.
"Where is he?"
Catherine answered.
"At St. Matthew's."
Of course.
Lorenzo began backing toward a side exit.
Sloan raised her weapon.
"Stop."
Lorenzo pressed the gun harder against Catherine.
Ruby saw Dante shift.
A tiny movement.
She understood.
Distract him.
Ruby stepped forward.
"Lorenzo."
He looked at her.
"You said I was supposed to belong to your family."
His eyes narrowed.
"You were."
Ruby held up the annex.
"If I sign this, I become the controlling heir."
"Yes."
"And I could give everything to you."
Dante stared at her.
Lorenzo's attention locked onto the paper.
"Yes."
Ruby reached for a pen.
"Then let Catherine go."
"Ruby," Dante said.
She looked at him.
Trust me.
She hoped he understood.
Lorenzo pushed Catherine away.
"Sign."
Ruby placed the paper on a piano.
She uncapped the pen.
Lorenzo moved closer.
Closer.
Dante waited.
Ruby lowered the pen.
Then she drove it through the paper.
Lorenzo shouted.
Dante lunged.
Gunfire cracked.
Catherine dropped.
Agents swarmed.
Lorenzo fought violently.
Marco appeared from the balcony and tackled one of Lorenzo's men.
Within seconds, Lorenzo was pinned.
Ruby ran to Catherine.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
Dante approached.
Blood stained his side.
Ruby's face drained.
"Dante."
"Not mine."
She touched his chest anyway.
He caught her hand.
For a second, everything else disappeared.
Then Agent Sloan's phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
"What?"
Everyone looked at her.
She lowered the phone.
"St. Matthew's is empty."
Catherine stood.
"Father Michael?"
"Gone."
"Where?"
Sloan looked at Ruby.
"He left one message."
Ruby's stomach tightened.
"What?"
Sloan handed her the phone.
A photograph showed Patrick kneeling inside an unfamiliar room.
A gun pressed to the back of his head.
Under it were six words.
BRING ME THE ORIGINAL MARRIAGE CONTRACT.
Ruby looked at Dante.
May you like
Then down.
The contract was no longer on the stage.
