Chapter 8 - The Federal File
Agent Nolan Pierce stepped forward.
Leora recognized him.
He had led Renzo’s arrest.
Pierce denied everything.
Then Leora showed him the document.
His denial stopped.
Renzo’s men stiffened.
Federal officers raised their weapons.
Leora stepped between two worlds ready to destroy each other.
“No.”
Renzo looked at her.
She held up the agreement.
“This is evidence.”
Pierce’s face tightened.
“It’s not what you think.”
“Then explain.”
Isabella laughed from the floor.
“He can’t.”
Pierce had recruited Isabella.
But instead of dismantling her network, he had used it.
Confiscated money disappeared.
Targets were redirected.
Investigations were buried.
Isabella gave Pierce criminals.
Pierce gave Isabella protection.
Renzo had become inconvenient because he was unknowingly cleaning legitimate Matera businesses that still carried hidden channels from the old network.
So they decided to remove him.
Gianna’s betrayal had merely been the public mechanism.
Leora looked at Isabella.
“You used her.”
“I use everyone.”
Renzo heard that.
Including him.
His mother did not need to say it.
Pierce suddenly moved.
His hand went toward his weapon.
A federal officer tackled him.
Within seconds, he was restrained.
The structure began collapsing.
Accounts were frozen.
Warrants issued.
Officials suspended.
Tarquin agreed to cooperate.
Gianna did too.
Conrad survived surgery.
Elias entered protective custody.
Salvatore surrendered voluntarily to answer for crimes he had committed decades earlier.
And Renzo?
Renzo walked free.
For now.
Leora found him outside the hospital two days later.
“You disappeared.”
“I’ve been busy.”
“Saving everyone?”
“Reconciling accounts.”
He looked at her.
“That sounds more dangerous.”
She smiled.
Renzo handed her something.
His white handkerchief.
Clean.
M-417.
“You kept it.”
“You gave it to me.”
“I thought you might want to return it.”
“I considered charging you storage.”
He laughed.
It was the first time she heard him truly laugh.
Then his expression changed.
“Dinner.”
Leora blinked.
“What?”
“Have dinner with me.”
“Is this because I prevented you from spending twenty years in prison?”
“No.”
“Because I exposed your mother?”
“Definitely not.”
“Then why?”
“Because I would like to have dinner with Leora Vance.”
No one had ever made her name sound like an answer.
She almost said yes.
Then her phone rang.
Miriam Vale.
Leora answered.
“What happened?”
The attorney sounded shaken.
“The federal evidence vault was breached.”
“What was taken?”
“One file.”
“Which?”
“Your father’s.”
Leora’s stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
Then Miriam said, “But whoever took it left something behind.”
“What?”
“A death certificate.”
Leora closed her eyes.
“Whose?”
There was a pause.
“Yours.”
Leora looked at Renzo.
May you like
Miriam continued.
“And according to the certificate, Leora Vance died twenty-eight years ago...”
