Chapter 4 - The Ledger Behind the Wall
“Bring the drive,” Victor said through the video.
Marisol stepped toward the phone.
“Let her go.”
Victor smiled.
“You look like your father when you’re angry.”
“Don’t say his name.”
“I loved Mateo.”
“You killed him.”
Victor’s smile faded.
“He chose the wrong side.”
Dante took the phone.
“Victor.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“Dante.”
“You look disappointed.”
“I heard rumors you survived.”
“I’m difficult.”
“Yes. Your father complained about that.”
Dante’s eyes hardened.
“Where’s Russo?”
“Busy inheriting your empire.”
“That requires me dead.”
“Eventually.”
Dante smiled without warmth.
“Then why am I still alive?”
Victor leaned closer to the camera.
“Because Adrian needed your signature.”
“He won’t get it.”
“We no longer need it.”
Dante’s smile vanished.
Victor enjoyed that.
“You see, Dante, your disappearance changed several votes.”
“What votes?”
“Your board.”
Rafe cursed under his breath.
Victor continued.
“By midnight, Moretti Shipping belongs to Adrian.”
“And you?”
“I finally get what your father promised and never delivered.”
Marisol stepped forward.
“My mother.”
Victor looked at her.
“Bring the drive.”
“Where?”
“You already know.”
Pier 14.
The video ended.
Marisol grabbed her coat.
Dante caught her arm.
“No.”
She jerked free.
“My mother is there.”
“And twenty armed men.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“Why?”
The question came out sharper than she intended.
Dante stared at her.
The room became very quiet.
Then he said, “Because you pulled me out of hell when walking away would’ve been easier.”
“That doesn’t make me your responsibility.”
“No.”
His voice lowered.
“It makes you someone I will not hand back to the people who destroyed your life.”
Marisol’s anger wavered.
She hated that.
Dante turned to Rafe.
“Copy the drive.”
“Already started.”
“Send everything to three outside attorneys.”
Rafe nodded.
“And federal prosecutors?”
Marisol stared.
Dante shrugged.
“I’m reconsidering my relationship with law enforcement.”
“You’re turning evidence over?”
“Evidence against Victor and Russo.”
“What about evidence against you?”
Dante looked at the folders.
“Depends what your father recorded.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
Marisol studied him.
She had expected arrogance.
Threats.
Maybe manipulation.
Instead, he was giving up leverage.
“You’ll go to prison if the drive implicates you.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re still sending it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dante looked at her.
“Because men like Russo survive when everyone else decides protecting themselves matters more than telling the truth.”
Marisol thought about Eric.
About every lie she had accepted to preserve peace.
She nodded.
“Send everything.”
Rafe looked at Dante.
Dante nodded.
“Everything.”
The second video from Mateo revealed the rest.
Marisol almost wished it had not.
Eric Dalton had known Victor long before he met her.
Victor had arranged their introduction.
The charming young banker who happened to spill coffee near her at a bookstore had not been an accident.
Their first date had not been chance.
Their marriage had not been love.
Eric had been placed in her life to watch her.
To search for Mateo’s evidence.
When years passed without finding it, Eric started manipulating her finances.
Debt.
Loans.
Isolation.
If Marisol ever discovered the truth, Victor intended to make her appear unstable and financially desperate.
A perfect witness no one would believe.
Marisol watched the video without crying.
When it ended, she stood.
Dante remained silent.
“Say something.”
“What?”
“Tell me I was stupid.”
“No.”
“I married him.”
“You married the man he pretended to be.”
“I stayed.”
“Because he spent years teaching you to doubt yourself.”
Her eyes burned.
“That sounds like an excuse.”
“It sounds like strategy.”
Marisol looked at him.
“You really understand monsters.”
“Yes.”
“Because you are one?”
Dante did not flinch.
“Sometimes.”
The honesty stopped her.
“Did you kill people?”
“Yes.”
“People who deserved it?”
“Some.”
“And the others?”
A long silence.
“Some were people I convinced myself deserved it.”
Marisol appreciated that he did not try to clean his past for her.
“Why tell me?”
“Because if you ever trust me, I want you trusting the man I am. Not the version I could sell you.”
That sentence stayed with her.
At 11:20 p.m., they drove toward Pier 14.
Dante wore a fresh black suit.
Bandage beneath the trousers.
Pistol beneath the jacket.
Marisol wore dark jeans and a borrowed coat.
Rafe drove.
Four vehicles followed at a distance.
“Victor said alone,” Marisol said.
“He lied about your father for sixteen years. I’m comfortable disappointing him.”
Pier 14 was almost deserted.
Shipping containers.
Warehouses.
Black harbor water beyond rusting railings.
Victor waited inside an old freight terminal.
Marisol saw her mother immediately.
Elena Vega sat beside a concrete pillar.
Hands tied.
Eric stood behind her.
Older than when Marisol last saw him.
Still polished.
Still handsome.
Still wearing the face she once trusted.
His eyes widened when he saw her.
“Mari.”
“Don’t.”
He swallowed.
Victor smiled.
“Where’s the drive?”
Dante stepped into view.
Victor’s face changed.
“You were told not to come.”
Dante looked around.
“People tell me many things.”
Adrian Russo emerged from behind a shipping container.
He resembled Dante around the eyes.
Gray-haired.
Elegant.
Calm.
“Nephew.”
“Uncle.”
“I’m sorry it came to this.”
“No, you aren’t.”
Russo smiled.
“No.”
Marisol looked at Eric.
“You knew my father.”
He lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
“You married me because Victor told you.”
Silence.
“Yes.”
Her mother gasped.
Marisol almost laughed.
Not from humor.
From disbelief.
“Was any of it real?”
Eric looked at her.
“Eventually.”
She hated that answer most.
“You don’t get to say that.”
“I loved you.”
“You monitored me.”
“I protected you.”
“You stole my identity.”
“To keep Victor satisfied.”
“You told me I was crazy.”
“I was trying to keep you from digging.”
“You let me believe I destroyed my own life.”
Eric stepped forward.
“I kept you alive.”
Dante moved slightly.
Only slightly.
Eric stopped.
Victor looked amused.
“Touching.”
Marisol ignored him.
“Let my mother go.”
“The drive.”
Dante held up a flash drive.
Victor’s eyes followed it.
“Release Elena.”
“No.”
Dante smiled.
“Then we waste each other’s evening.”
Russo sighed.
“This is why your father should’ve chosen me.”
Dante’s expression became cold.
“My father chose correctly.”
“Your father was sentimental.”
“He was also smarter than you.”
Russo’s eyes narrowed.
Dante continued.
“The drive was copied.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“Copies are useless if nobody receives them.”
“They already did.”
Russo looked at Victor.
Victor looked at Eric.
For the first time, cracks appeared.
Dante said, “Three attorneys. Two newspapers. One federal prosecutor.”
Marisol whispered, “You said three attorneys.”
“I added people.”
“Good.”
Victor pulled a gun.
Everything changed.
Rafe’s men emerged.
Russo’s men raised weapons.
Eric grabbed Elena.
Marisol moved instinctively.
Dante caught her.
“Don’t.”
Victor aimed at Dante.
“Give me the drive.”
“You don’t need it.”
“I need to know what Mateo knew.”
“You already know.”
“No.”
Victor’s eyes shifted to Marisol.
“He found one thing we never found.”
“What?”
“The original ledger.”
Dante frowned.
Victor smiled slowly.
“That drive is only evidence of transactions. The ledger contains names.”
Marisol remembered Mateo’s note.
The truth is in the ledger.
“Where is it?”
Victor stared at her.
“He hid it for you.”
“I don’t know where.”
“I believe you.”
That frightened her more.
“Then why am I here?”
“Because Elena does.”
Marisol looked at her mother.
Elena closed her eyes.
“Mamá?”
Eric tightened his grip.
Victor smiled.
“Ask her.”
Marisol stepped forward.
Her mother opened her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I promised your father.”
“Where is it?”
Elena looked directly at her daughter.
“Where he taught you to dance.”
Marisol’s breath caught.
Their old apartment.
The kitchen.
Mateo used to put music on Saturday mornings.
He taught Marisol salsa between the table and refrigerator.
The apartment had been sold years ago.
Victor seemed pleased.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Dante looked at Marisol.
“Do you know?”
“Yes.”
Victor raised his gun toward Elena.
“Then you’re taking us there.”
Dante stepped between them.
“No.”
Russo sighed.
“Still playing hero?”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“She goes nowhere with you.”
Victor smiled.
“What is she to you?”
Dante looked at Marisol.
Then at the men around them.
His answer was calm.
Final.
“She’s mine to protect.”
Marisol’s heart slammed once.
Victor laughed.
Eric did not.
Something ugly crossed Eric’s face.
“You barely know her.”
Dante turned toward him.
“I know enough to understand what you did.”
Eric released Elena and stepped forward.
“You think she belongs with you?”
“She belongs to herself.”
Dante’s eyes darkened.
“But anyone who comes for her comes through me.”
For the first time in years, Marisol watched Eric lose control.
He reached beneath his coat.
Marisol saw the gun.
“Elena!” Rafe shouted.
Dante moved.
A gunshot exploded through the warehouse.
Marisol ducked.
Someone screamed.
Then every light inside Pier 14 went black.
In the darkness, a hand grabbed Marisol from behind.
May you like
A familiar voice whispered against her ear.
“You should have stayed my wife.”
