Chapter 7 - When the Empire Began to Fall
By sunrise, every television station in New York was reporting the arrests.
Victor De Santos.
Matteo De Santos.
Two retired police officers.
Three construction executives.
A former union official.
And by noon, Samuel Price's gubernatorial campaign office was surrounded by reporters after federal prosecutors confirmed they were reviewing financial evidence connected to him.
Rafael watched none of it.
He was sitting in Nate's room.
The boy had fallen asleep clutching Elena's hand.
After returning from the warehouse, Nate had refused to let her out of his sight.
Elena didn't complain.
Rafael stood near the doorway.
She looked up.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I tried.”
“And?”
“Every time I close my eyes, I'm back in that warehouse.”
Rafael understood.
“You saved us.”
“No.”
“Maya did.”
“You gave her the evidence.”
“I should have done that years ago.”
“You didn't have it years ago.”
Rafael looked toward Nate.
“I had enough other reasons.”
Elena understood what he meant.
His organization had done things she would never approve of.
Rafael wasn't suddenly innocent because he had discovered Victor's crimes.
That mattered.
“I need to shut parts of it down,” he said.
Elena was surprised.
“Parts?”
“The illegal parts.”
She stared.
“That sounds simple when you say it.”
“It won't be.”
“People will fight you.”
“Yes.”
“Your own people?”
“Yes.”
“Could they kill you?”
He looked at her.
“Yes.”
Elena's expression tightened.
“Then don't say it like you're discussing weather.”
“What would you prefer?”
“I don't know. Concern?”
“I am concerned.”
“You have an interesting face for concern.”
Nate stirred.
Both went quiet.
He opened his eyes.
“Mom?”
“I'm here.”
He saw Rafael.
“You too?”
“Yes.”
Nate sat up.
“Did you get the bad guys?”
Elena glanced at Rafael.
“Some.”
Nate frowned.
“Some isn't all.”
Rafael nodded.
“No. It isn't.”
The following weeks were chaos.
Federal prosecutors requested Rafael's cooperation.
His lawyers strongly advised silence.
Rafael ignored them.
For three days, he sat with investigators and described businesses, payments, relationships, and crimes committed under Victor's direction.
He did not protect himself.
That shocked everyone.
Including Elena.
“You could go to prison,” she said one evening.
“Yes.”
“And you're okay with that?”
“No.”
“But you're doing it anyway.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Rafael looked at Nate, who was building a model airplane on the dining table.
“Because he's watching.”
Elena followed his gaze.
Rafael continued quietly.
“I spent most of my life believing loyalty meant protecting people regardless of what they did.”
“And now?”
“Now I think loyalty sometimes means stopping them.”
Elena studied him.
It was the first moment she realized the man standing beside her was changing.
Not for her.
Not entirely.
For himself.
That mattered more.
The biggest threat came three weeks later.
Rafael had announced he was closing the private collection operations tied to his organization.
Dozens of businesses would no longer pay protection fees.
Several senior men were furious.
One of them was Antonio Leone.
Antonio had worked beside Rafael for eighteen years.
He confronted him inside the library.
“You can't dismantle everything because one woman looked at you like you were a monster.”
Rafael stood slowly.
“This isn't about Elena.”
“Of course it is.”
Antonio laughed.
“She brings a kid into your house and suddenly you're a social worker?”
Rafael's expression hardened.
“Careful.”
“See?”
Antonio pointed.
“You're protecting her.”
“Yes.”
“And what happens when the government finishes using you? You think they'll invite you to a charity dinner?”
“No.”
Antonio moved closer.
“Then why destroy what we built?”
Rafael looked at him.
“Because parts of what we built deserve to be destroyed.”
Antonio's face changed.
For men like him, there were unforgivable words.
Those were among them.
“You've lost your nerve.”
Rafael shook his head.
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“I finally found it.”
Antonio left.
Marco appeared from the hallway.
“He's going to cause trouble.”
“Yes.”
“We should watch him.”
“We already are.”
That night, Rafael received a call from Elena's hospital.
She had returned to work two days earlier.
Now someone had cut power to the staff parking garage.
Rafael was already moving before the caller finished.
When he arrived, Elena was standing beside her car surrounded by security.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“You called hospital security.”
“Because the lights went out.”
Rafael examined the tires.
One had been slashed.
Then another.
Not nothing.
A note was tucked beneath the windshield wiper.
GO AWAY OR HE DIES.
Elena went pale.
“Nate.”
Rafael called the townhouse.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He ran.
The drive that usually took twenty-two minutes took eleven.
The townhouse front door was open.
One guard lay unconscious inside.
Rafael's heart stopped.
“Nate!”
No answer.
“Elena, stay behind me.”
They moved upstairs.
Nate's bedroom was empty.
Elena made a sound Rafael never wanted to hear again.
Then they heard banging from the closet.
Rafael opened it.
Nate tumbled forward.
Elena grabbed him.
“Oh God.”
“They tried to take me!”
Rafael crouched.
“Who?”
Nate was crying.
“Mr. Antonio.”
Rafael went still.
“He came with another man. Mr. James tried to stop them.”
“How did you get in the closet?”
“I bit him.”
Despite everything, Rafael almost laughed.
Nate pointed toward the window.
“They heard cars and left.”
Marco arrived minutes later.
Rafael stood.
His expression was frighteningly calm.
“Find Antonio.”
Marco nodded.
Elena grabbed Rafael's arm.
“No.”
He turned.
“I know that face.”
“What face?”
“The one where you decide somebody doesn't get to breathe anymore.”
Rafael stared at her.
“He came for Nate.”
“I know.”
“He threatened a child.”
“I know.”
“You expect me to let that go?”
“No.”
Elena moved closer.
“I expect you to decide what kind of man you're trying to become.”
Rafael's jaw tightened.
“What would you do?”
“Call the federal agents.”
He laughed bitterly.
“You really believe they'll fix everything?”
“No.”
“Then—”
“But if you execute him, everything you've done these past weeks becomes a lie.”
That stopped him.
Nate stood in the hallway behind her.
Watching.
Again.
Always watching.
Rafael remembered his own father.
He remembered Victor teaching him revenge.
Then he looked at Nate.
“I'll call them.”
Elena exhaled.
Three hours later, Antonio was arrested attempting to leave the city.
Nate fell asleep on Rafael's couch.
Elena sat beside him.
“You did the right thing.”
Rafael looked toward the boy.
“I hated every second of it.”
She smiled faintly.
“Doing the right thing usually isn't as satisfying as movies make it look.”
Rafael looked at her.
“You smile at me more now.”
“Don't get used to it.”
“Too late.”
May you like
For the first time since this began, Elena laughed.
And Rafael realized he liked the sound far more than he should.
