Chapter 5 - The Betrayal Inside the Family
“Marco.”
Dante turned.
Marco froze.
Lia stepped backward.
Evan struggled to sit up behind the glass.
Marco's hand moved.
Dante moved faster.
He slammed Marco against the wall.
Security surrounded them.
“Don't!” Evan shouted weakly.
Everyone stopped.
“He didn't do it.”
Lia stared through the doorway.
“But you said Marco.”
“I said Marco knows.”
Dante released him.
Marco rubbed his throat.
“That would have been useful five seconds earlier.”
Evan almost smiled.
Then pain stopped him.
Marco confessed.
Three months earlier, someone approached him.
A woman claiming to have evidence that Elena Moretti was alive.
Marco followed the lead secretly.
He found Elena.
And Margaret.
They recruited him into Thomas's operation.
“You were working with them?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?” Dante asked.
“Because Elena made me swear.”
“My mother outranks me now?”
“She raised me.”
Dante exhaled.
Fair enough.
Marco knew who injected Lia.
A nurse hired for the private birthday event.
Her name was Cassandra Vale.
She worked for Isabella.
The drug had been intended to erase Lia's memory before she could activate the trust.
But Cassandra arrived too late.
Lia had already married Dante.
“Where is she?”
“Dead.”
Isabella had eliminated her.
The conspiracy was collapsing inward.
Everyone who knew too much was becoming expendable.
Evan asked Lia to sit.
“I need to tell you something.”
He had spent five years inside Isabella's organization.
At first willingly.
He believed she was helping him destroy the Morettis.
Then he discovered the truth.
By then, leaving meant death.
So he stayed.
Collected evidence.
Waited.
“Why take Sophie?”
“I didn't.”
Security footage had shown him because he was trying to save her.
Isabella's men were already following Sophie.
Evan intercepted them.
He almost got her away.
Almost.
Sophie squeezed his hand.
“He kept them from hurting me.”
Lia looked at her brother.
Five years of anger disappeared.
Not the pain.
But the anger.
“Come home.”
Evan's eyes filled.
“I don't know if I know how.”
“We'll figure it out.”
Dante quietly left them alone.
Later, Lia found him on the hospital rooftop.
New York glittered below.
“You keep disappearing when things get emotional.”
“I’m Italian. We're supposed to do the opposite.”
She laughed.
It surprised both of them.
Then silence returned.
“Why did you marry me?”
“You asked.”
“That's not enough.”
“It was last night.”
“Dante.”
He looked at her.
“I knew about the trust.”
“There.”
“But I didn't know you controlled it.”
“What did you think?”
“That marriage would prevent Isabella from accessing it.”
“So you benefited.”
“Yes.”
“Did you want to marry me?”
His eyes changed.
“That question is more complicated.”
“Try.”
“I had watched you for six months.”
“Creepy.”
“Yes.”
“You admit that easily.”
“I've been called worse.”
He had seen her working at a small publishing company.
Taking the subway.
Bringing groceries to an elderly neighbor.
Arguing with a landlord who tried to evict a single mother.
Celebrating Sophie's promotion.
Calling Margaret every Sunday.
“I knew too much about you before you knew anything about me.”
“That's not romantic.”
“I didn't say it was.”
“Then what?”
“It made it impossible to think of you as merely Thomas Evans's daughter.”
Lia's pulse shifted.
“Did you like me?”
“Yes.”
The answer was immediate.
“And last night?”
“You were furious.”
“Still sounds like me.”
“You accused me of being arrogant.”
“Definitely me.”
“You said my penthouse looked like a Bond villain's waiting room.”
She smiled.
“I stand by that.”
Dante smiled too.
It transformed him.
For one second, he was not a mafia boss.
Just a man.
Lia looked away first.
“We need to survive tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
The permanent-control deadline approached.
Isabella had one remaining strategy.
Prove the marriage invalid.
She filed an emergency lawsuit alleging Lia lacked capacity.
If the court annulled the marriage before midnight, the trust would revert.
They had to prove Lia entered willingly.
The courthouse footage helped.
So did her recording.
But Isabella had produced toxicology results showing sedatives in Lia's blood.
“She drugged me after the wedding.”
“We have to prove timing.”
Dr. Keller could estimate.
Not precisely enough.
Then Sophie remembered something.
At 11:55 P.M., Lia had video-called her.
After the wedding.
Sophie had recorded part of it because Lia was laughing and teasing her.
The video showed Lia coherent.
Happy.
Holding up the ring.
“Look what I did.”
Sophie laughed on screen.
“You married the scary hot guy?”
Dante looked offended.
“Scary?”
Lia smiled.
“Focus.”
Then video-Lia said something important.
“He tried to stop me three times.”
Dante looked at Lia.
She stared at the screen.
Her past self continued.
“But I read every page. Dad was right. This is the only way.”
Proof.
At 11:55 she was lucid.
The injection happened after midnight.
They had their defense.
Court convened at 4 P.M.
Isabella appeared through attorneys.
Lia testified.
She admitted she did not remember signing.
Then explained why.
Isabella's lawyer attacked.
“You expect this court to believe a twenty-one-year-old woman voluntarily married a notorious organized-crime figure less than an hour after meeting him?”
Lia looked at Dante.
“No.”
The lawyer smiled.
“Then—”
“I expect the court to believe evidence.”
She presented the recording.
The courthouse footage.
Sophie's video.
Thomas's documents.
The judge denied the emergency annulment.
Dante and Lia remained married.
Outside, reporters surrounded them.
Lia froze.
Dante stepped in front of her.
She touched his arm.
“No.”
He looked back.
“I'll do it.”
She faced the cameras.
“Yes, I married Dante Moretti voluntarily.”
Questions exploded.
“Do you love him?”
Lia paused.
Dante watched her.
“I've known him for less than two days.”
Reporters laughed.
“So no?”
Lia looked at Dante.
“I know he ran into gunfire to save my brother. I know he gave me every chance to leave. I know he was willing to surrender his empire to save my friend.”
She looked back at the cameras.
“I don't know what that becomes.”
Dante's eyes never left her.
“But I intend to find out.”
They returned to the penthouse.
For the first time, Lia did not feel like a prisoner entering it.
At 11:58 P.M., they stood beside the windows.
Two minutes.
Dante held out his hand.
“You can still end this.”
“What happens if I do?”
“I lose joint control.”
“And Isabella?”
“She gets another opportunity.”
“What happens to me?”
“You walk away.”
“With protection?”
“For as long as you need.”
“Even if I divorce you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His expression softened.
“Because protection was never payment for marriage.”
11:59.
Lia looked at the ring.
Then at him.
“I stay.”
Midnight.
Dante exhaled.
The trust became permanent.
His phone immediately vibrated.
Then hers.
Then every device in the room.
A scheduled message.
Thomas entered.
His face went pale.
The screen displayed a countdown.
24:00:00.
Twenty-four hours.
Beneath it:
IF THE TRUST ACTIVATES, RELEASE PROTOCOL BEGINS.
Lia looked at her father.
“What release protocol?”
Thomas whispered:
“The evidence.”
“That’s good.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the evidence includes the identities of undercover agents, witnesses, and innocent families.”
The countdown ticked.
23:59:41.
May you like
Someone had altered Thomas's system.
And in twenty-four hours, every secret would become public.
