Chapter 11 - The Door Beneath the Casino
Daniel Bennett emerged.
Chloe exhaled.
“Dad.”
But Antonio raised a gun.
“Don't move.”
Chloe stared.
“What are you doing?”
Antonio's eyes remained on Daniel.
“Ask him where Victor is.”
Daniel stopped.
“I don't know.”
“Wrong answer.”
Leo stepped between the men.
“Enough.”
Antonio lowered the weapon slightly.
Daniel reached into his coat.
Marco raised his gun.
“Slowly.”
Daniel removed a recording device.
“Victor called me.”
He pressed play.
Victor's voice filled the church.
Bring Antonio and the evidence to Pier Seventeen tomorrow. Or Isabella undergoes the procedure and Amelia's original files disappear forever.
Leo looked at Antonio.
“You have the evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Why fake your death?”
“To make Victor careless.”
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
Pain entered Antonio's face.
“Yes.”
“You watched me mourn you.”
“Yes.”
“You don't get forgiveness because your plan worked.”
“I know.”
Leo turned away.
Chloe understood more than anyone.
Protection could become cruelty when it stole another person's right to know the truth.
Antonio looked at her.
“I'm sorry.”
“You should be.”
“I thought distance kept you safe.”
“My mother thought the same.”
Amelia lowered her eyes.
Chloe touched her belly.
“This ends with us.”
Leo looked at her.
“Yes.”
No more secrets.
No more inherited wars disguised as family duty.
They made a plan.
Not Antonio's.
Not Leo's.
Chloe's.
The next morning, federal investigators received copies of Antonio's evidence through three separate attorneys.
If Victor destroyed the originals, it no longer mattered.
Richard agreed to testify.
Bradley provided financial records.
Isabella was located.
And Pier Seventeen became a trap.
Victor arrived believing he was collecting the only evidence capable of destroying him.
Instead he found Chloe waiting beside Leo.
“You brought her?” Victor laughed.
“She insisted,” Leo said.
“I usually do,” Chloe replied.
Victor's smile vanished when black SUVs appeared behind him.
Not Moretti vehicles.
Federal agents.
Victor looked at Antonio.
“You.”
Antonio nodded.
“It ends here.”
Victor laughed.
“Nothing ends. Do you think those documents erase thirty years?”
“No,” Chloe said. “But they erase what you built with them.”
Victor's gaze moved to her belly.
“You think that child makes you powerful?”
Chloe shook her head.
“No.”
She took Leo's hand.
“She made me stop being afraid.”
Victor reached inside his coat.
Agents shouted.
Leo moved in front of Chloe.
A shot rang out.
Victor fell.
Alive.
Wounded in the shoulder.
Handcuffs followed.
No dramatic execution.
No disappearance.
Leo had chosen something harder.
A courtroom.
Records.
Testimony.
Consequences.
As Victor was placed into an ambulance, he looked at Chloe.
“You still don't understand.”
She stopped.
“Understand what?”
“Why Antonio wanted Leo to have an heir.”
Antonio went pale.
Victor smiled.
“Ask him about the first Moretti child.”
Leo turned toward his father.
“What is he talking about?”
Antonio said nothing.
Victor laughed as the ambulance doors closed.
Back at the casino, Leo demanded answers.
Antonio finally led them beneath the vault.
There was another door.
One Leo had never known existed.
Antonio unlocked it.
Inside stood a crib.
Old.
Covered.
Beside it were photographs of Leo as a baby.
And another infant.
Chloe stared.
“Who is that?”
Antonio sat heavily.
“Your sister.”
Leo stopped breathing.
“I don't have a sister.”
“You did.”
“Did?”
Antonio opened a file.
“Her name was Lucia.”
Leo took it.
The final page had been removed.
Again.
He looked at his father.
“Where is she?”
Antonio whispered, “I don't know.”
May you like
Then the hidden door behind the crib clicked.
It was unlocking from the other side.
