Chapter 12 - The Harbor Warehouse
The bullet struck the stone beside Titan.
Dante hit Stefano before he could fire again.
The lighter fell.
I kicked it away.
Titan clawed at the hidden wall.
I found the release.
Marcus fell through the opening.
Hands tied.
Alive.
I held him.
Behind us, Dante and Stefano fought with the fury of two generations.
Stefano reached for the gun.
Titan stood between him and Dante.
For one terrible second, everyone expected the old story to repeat.
Killer dog.
Blood.
Death.
But Titan did not attack.
He simply blocked Stefano.
Growling.
Controlled.
Waiting.
Dante picked up the gun.
Stefano laughed.
“Do it.”
Dante aimed.
“Your father would.”
“No.”
Dante lowered the weapon.
“That’s why I won.”
Federal agents entered seconds later.
Stefano was arrested.
Alive.
So was Gabriel, captured beneath the pier after trying to reach a boat.
The evidence survived.
Northstar did not.
Over the following weeks, arrests spread through three states.
Business executives.
Corrupt officers.
Private contractors.
A judge.
Two prosecutors.
The client who had engineered my veterinary suspension.
The investigation into my license reopened.
My former clinic director admitted he had been pressured to lie.
My suspension was vacated.
My record cleared.
But none of that fixed everything.
Life did not become perfect because the villains were arrested.
Marcus had nightmares.
Dante barely slept.
Claudia and her son had seventeen years of absence between them.
Nonna had secrets she could not apologize away in one conversation.
Titan needed surgery.
And I still had no apartment.
“You do,” Dante said.
We were in the laundry room again.
Titan was recovering in the same steel basin area where everything began.
I looked at Dante.
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“You were going to offer me a house.”
“A cottage.”
“No.”
“Apartment?”
“No.”
“Room?”
“No.”
“Closet?”
I smiled despite myself.
“I’m not accepting property from you.”
“Fine.”
He leaned against the basin.
“Pay rent.”
“That sounds suspicious.”
“I’ll charge market rate.”
“You own half the neighborhood.”
“Then I understand the market.”
I laughed.
Titan lifted his head.
Dante became serious.
“You don’t have to stay because of him.”
“I know.”
“Or Marcus.”
“I know.”
“Or because you think you owe my family.”
“I definitely don’t.”
“Good.”
He looked at me.
“Then stay because you want to.”
That was different.
Before I could answer, Claudia entered.
She held a sealed envelope.
Evelyn’s handwriting.
FOR ROSIE — AFTER NORTHSTAR.
My mother had prepared a final letter.
I took it outside.
Read it beneath the old oak tree.
Rosie-Bird,
If you are reading this, you survived my mistakes.
I wanted to protect you from the truth.
Sometimes protection becomes another kind of lie.
I am sorry.
Marcus deserves to know Alessandro was his father, but he deserves even more to know that Daniel loved him too. Biology does not erase the man who chose to raise him.
You will be tempted to spend your life repairing what we broke.
Don’t.
Build something.
Love somebody.
Help animals.
Laugh loudly enough for your good ear to hear it.
And when Titan finds you, trust him.
He was always better at judging people than we were.
Love, Mom.
I cried.
Not elegantly.
Not quietly.
Dante found me but did not speak.
He simply sat beside me.
After a while, I put my head on his shoulder.
“I’m staying.”
He breathed out.
“Because you want to?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Temporarily.”
“Of course.”
“Stop smiling.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
Titan limped over and lay across both our feet.
For the first time in weeks, the world felt still.
Then Marcus came running from the mansion.
He carried the master ledger.
“Rosie!”
I stood.
“What?”
“There’s another page.”
“What page?”
“One they missed.”
He handed it to Dante.
At the bottom of Northstar’s original founding agreement were three signatures.
Daniel Whittaker.
Stefano Castellano.
And a third name.
A name none of us expected.
Evelyn Whittaker.
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My mother had not merely discovered Northstar.
She had helped create it...
