Chapter 9 - The Price of Betrayal
Dominic picked up the ledger.
His name appeared beside millions of dollars.
Dates stretched back to when he was seventeen.
“Fake,” Tommy said.
Clara shook her head.
“The transactions are real.”
Dominic looked at her.
“I didn’t make them.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because the account signatures begin before you had legal authority.”
Someone had built a financial identity around Dominic before he became head of the family.
A perfect future scapegoat.
Clara traced the transactions.
They funded Salvatore.
Judges.
Police.
The Crown Club.
Everything led back to accounts carrying Dominic’s name.
“If this becomes public,” Vincent said later from his hospital bed, “Dom takes the fall for all of it.”
“That’s the plan,” Clara replied.
Dominic stared at the ledger.
“No. That was the old plan.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Salvatore could have released this years ago.”
Clara understood.
“He needs something else.”
“The final proof.”
Evelyn had deliberately left the ledger behind before disappearing.
Which meant she wanted Clara to have it.
Clara examined the binding.
One page was thicker.
She sliced it carefully.
A memory card slid out.
Video.
Isabella Castellano appeared.
Alive.
Beside her sat Evelyn.
The recording was dated three days before Isabella’s poisoning began.
“If you’re seeing this,” Isabella said, “the Kingmaker won.”
Then she named him.
Audio vanished.
Clara swore.
But Isabella held up a document.
A distinctive crest appeared at the top.
Clara recognized it.
The Aster Foundation.
Not the modern Castellano Foundation.
Its predecessor.
Founded by one man.
Judge Richard Vale.
Retired chief justice.
Political kingmaker.
Dominic’s godfather.
The man who had introduced Enzo Castellano to Chicago’s legitimate elite.
And the man scheduled to receive a lifetime humanitarian award at the Aster the following evening.
Tommy stared.
“Vale.”
Clara nodded.
“The Kingmaker.”
Dominic felt something colder than anger.
Vale had attended his mother’s funeral.
He had delivered the eulogy at his father’s.
He had placed a hand on twenty-one-year-old Dominic’s shoulder and promised that family survived.
Dominic now understood.
Vale had not been comforting an orphan.
He had been inspecting his investment.
“We expose him tomorrow,” Clara said.
“No.”
She looked at Dominic.
“Why?”
“Because Salvatore has Evelyn.”
“And?”
“And Vale will kill both of them if he realizes we know.”
Clara stepped closer.
“My mother made her choices.”
“So did mine.”
“This isn’t about your mother.”
“No.”
Dominic looked directly at her.
“It’s about you.”
Clara’s expression softened despite herself.
“I won’t let you lose your mother twice.”
For once, she had no sharp answer.
That evening, Dominic received a package.
Inside was Evelyn’s wedding ring.
And an invitation to Judge Vale’s award ceremony.
Handwritten beneath it:
BRING THE LEDGER.
COME WITH CLARA.
MIDNIGHT ENDS EVERYTHING.
Clara turned the invitation over.
Something had been written on the back in her mother’s handwriting.
One line.
TRUST VINCENT.
Dominic looked toward his brother’s hospital room.
Empty.
The bed was still warm.
On the pillow lay Vincent’s phone.
A new video message began playing by itself.
May you like
Vincent stood beside Judge Richard Vale.
And Vincent was pointing a gun directly at Evelyn’s head.
