Chapter 6 - What Salvatore Did That Night
Khloe looked at her father.
"What did you do?"
Salvatore said nothing.
Carlo smiled.
"Tell her."
Elena stood.
"Khloe, listen to me."
"No."
Khloe kept her eyes on Salvatore.
"All night people have been telling me they lied to protect me."
Her voice shook.
"I'm finished being protected."
Salvatore looked twenty years older than he had at Grand Central.
"The fire wasn't an accident."
"I know."
"I mean all of it."
Carlo leaned against a crate, enjoying every second.
Salvatore continued.
"I knew Carlo planned to kill Vincent."
Vincent, hidden outside with Anthony, was listening through Khloe's concealed microphone.
Khloe stared.
"You knew before you entered the warehouse?"
"Yes."
"Then why did you go?"
"Because I planned to record Carlo admitting it."
"You used Vincent as bait."
Salvatore closed his eyes.
"Yes."
Khloe stepped backward.
Carlo laughed softly.
"There it is."
Salvatore looked at her desperately.
"I thought I could control it. I knew about the maintenance hatch. I knew how we'd escape."
"But the fire spread too fast."
"Yes."
"And you pushed Vincent through."
"Yes."
"Then what?"
Salvatore's voice became rough.
"I tried to follow. The platform collapsed."
Khloe waited.
"I woke near the river. Someone had pulled me out."
"Who?"
Salvatore looked at Elena.
"Your mother."
Khloe turned.
Elena nodded.
"I followed him that night."
"Why?"
"Because I knew Salvatore was planning something dangerous."
Carlo interrupted.
"Such a devoted wife."
Salvatore ignored him.
"Elena got me out. I was burned. Injured. Carlo believed I was dead."
"Then three weeks later you wrote the letter."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you come home?"
Salvatore's eyes filled.
"Because federal agents approached me."
Khloe remembered the ledger.
"You became a witness."
"I already was. But now they wanted me hidden."
"And you agreed."
"I believed Carlo would kill you and Elena if he knew I survived."
"That still isn't everything."
Salvatore looked down.
"No."
Carlo's smile returned.
"Tell her who gave the federal investigators the evidence that destroyed Vincent's father."
Salvatore answered.
"I did."
Khloe frowned.
"Wasn't he corrupt?"
"Yes."
"Then why does that matter?"
Vincent's voice came unexpectedly from the darkness.
"Because my father was murdered three days before he was supposed to testify."
Carlo spun.
Vincent emerged.
Anthony followed.
Carlo's men appeared along the catwalk above.
Vincent stopped.
Carlo smiled.
"Now we're all together."
Vincent looked at Salvatore.
"You knew my father planned to testify?"
"Yes."
"And you knew Carlo knew?"
Salvatore hesitated.
"Yes."
Vincent's anger surfaced.
"You could have warned me."
"I couldn't reach you without exposing myself."
"You could've tried."
"I had a wife and daughter."
"And I had a father."
The two men stared at each other.
Twenty years of buried resentment filled the warehouse.
Khloe finally understood the real tragedy.
Every person had chosen secrecy.
Every person had justified it as protection.
And secrecy had destroyed them anyway.
Carlo clapped slowly.
"Beautiful."
Khloe turned toward him.
"You did all this."
"No, sweetheart."
Carlo smiled.
"They did."
He pointed toward Salvatore and Vincent.
"I merely learned that frightened men destroy themselves better than enemies ever could."
Khloe saw the trap.
Carlo wanted them angry at one another.
Wanted old guilt to become new violence.
She looked at Vincent.
"Don't."
Vincent didn't move.
Carlo's expression tightened.
Khloe continued.
"Your father betrayed you first. My father used you. Both are true."
Salvatore flinched.
"But Carlo lit the fire."
She looked at Carlo.
"Carlo kidnapped my mother."
Then toward Marco.
"Carlo took Daniel's daughter."
Back to Vincent.
"He wants everyone blaming everyone except him."
Vincent's shoulders relaxed slightly.
Carlo stopped smiling.
"Smart girl."
"Waitress."
Khloe corrected him.
"You should've kept ignoring us."
Carlo's eyes hardened.
"Give me the ledger."
Khloe held it up.
"You mean this?"
"Khloe," Salvatore warned.
She opened it.
Then tore one page out.
Carlo stepped forward.
"Stop."
She tore another.
"Do you really think this is the only copy?"
Carlo froze.
Daniel had scanned every page.
Copies were already moving toward investigators.
Carlo didn't know that.
"You have nothing," he said.
Khloe touched the microphone beneath her collar.
"We have your confession."
Carlo laughed.
"I confessed to nothing."
Vincent spoke.
"You admitted my father arranged the warehouse attack with you."
"Twenty-year-old crime."
"You admitted Salvatore was collateral damage."
"Meaningless."
Khloe stepped closer.
"You kidnapped Elena tonight."
"Prove it."
A voice came from the entrance.
"I can."
Daniel Russo entered.
Carlo's face changed.
Daniel held his phone.
"Sofia is safe."
Marco stepped backward.
Daniel looked at him.
"And Marco has been sending me messages for three years."
Marco stared.
"What?"
Daniel smiled.
"You thought you were informing on Carlo's enemies."
He lifted the phone.
"You were documenting Carlo's organization."
Carlo turned toward Marco.
"You idiot."
That single reaction said everything.
Daniel continued.
"Financial crimes. Extortion. Kidnapping. Conspiracy."
Carlo's calm finally cracked.
"Kill them."
Nobody moved.
Carlo looked upward.
The men on the catwalk remained still.
Anthony smiled.
"They work for me."
Vincent looked at him.
Anthony shrugged.
"You told me to prepare."
Sirens sounded outside.
Carlo's face emptied.
"Police?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Federal agents."
Carlo looked toward the rear exit.
Salvatore blocked it.
"Twenty years," Salvatore said.
Carlo pulled a gun.
Everything happened quickly.
Elena screamed.
Vincent moved.
Khloe saw the barrel swing toward her father.
She didn't think.
She shoved Salvatore aside.
The gun fired.
A light shattered.
Anthony tackled Carlo.
Daniel grabbed the weapon.
Federal agents flooded the warehouse.
Marco dropped to his knees.
Carlo struggled beneath Anthony.
"Get off me!"
Vincent walked over.
Carlo looked up.
"You think this changes what you are?"
Vincent said nothing.
"You'll always be Moretti."
Vincent crouched.
"Maybe."
He looked toward Khloe.
"But I get to decide what that means tomorrow."
Agents handcuffed Carlo.
Marco was arrested.
Elena ran to Salvatore.
For several seconds they simply stared at each other.
Then Elena struck his chest.
"You idiot."
"I know."
She struck him again.
"Twenty years."
"I know."
Then she wrapped her arms around him.
Khloe watched.
She wanted to believe this was the ending.
But endings weren't that simple.
Vincent stood beside her.
"You okay?"
"No."
"Good answer."
She laughed weakly.
Then an agent approached Daniel.
They spoke quietly.
Daniel's face changed.
"What is it?" Khloe asked.
Daniel looked at Vincent.
"Carlo wasn't the only person named in the evidence."
Vincent already understood.
"Me."
Daniel nodded.
The old ledger, the financial records, the recordings—everything would expose crimes committed under Vincent's leadership too.
Khloe looked at him.
"You knew this could happen."
"Yes."
"What are you going to do?"
Vincent stared at the police lights outside.
For years, men had moved aside when Vincent Moretti entered a room.
Tonight there was nowhere left to go.
He reached slowly inside his jacket.
Anthony tensed.
Vincent removed his phone.
He handed it to Daniel.
"Everything is there."
Daniel stared at him.
"Everything?"
"Accounts. Names. Payments. All of it."
"You understand what you're giving me?"
"Yes."
Vincent looked at Khloe.
"You told me to try being different."
She remembered.
"I didn't think you'd listen."
"Neither did I."
An agent approached.
"Mr. Moretti."
Vincent turned.
The agent held out his hand.
"You're coming with us."
Vincent nodded.
Then another SUV screeched to a stop outside.
A federal officer ran through the warehouse door.
He shouted Daniel's name.
Daniel turned.
The officer held up a phone.
"We've got a serious problem."
He looked directly at Khloe.
"Someone just emptied Carlo Vescari's offshore account."
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The amount was ninety-three million dollars.
And the transfer had been authorized using Salvatore Grace's name.
