Chapter 8 - THE CHOICEThe floor collapsed.
Sonia fell into darkness.
She struck concrete hard enough to lose her breath.
Dust filled her lungs.
“Sonia!”
Dante’s voice came from somewhere above.
“I’m here!”
A fire alarm screamed.
She found Emma nearby.
Robert was trapped behind fallen debris.
Luca had disappeared.
Dante climbed down through the broken floor.
Together they lifted enough debris for Robert to crawl free.
Then a second explosion shook the building.
“Move!”
They escaped seconds before flames consumed the clinic.
Outside, federal agents and police vehicles surrounded the property.
Luca was gone.
Again.
But this time he had nowhere left to hide.
His accounts were frozen.
His allies were identified.
Vinnie was arrested at LaGuardia trying to board a flight using a fake passport.
The gray-suited assassin was identified as a former physician connected to three suspicious deaths.
And Salvatore surrendered.
Dante could have fled.
Instead, he spent fourteen hours speaking with attorneys and investigators.
When Sonia saw him again, dawn was breaking.
“You stayed.”
“So did you.”
“I’m not wanted for financial crimes.”
“Technical advantage.”
She smiled despite herself.
Dante became serious.
“I need to tell you something.”
“That sentence has never ended well.”
“Lombardi’s wasn’t the only business Luca corrupted.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
“And?”
“I’m shutting down everything I can’t defend legally.”
Sonia stared.
“For me?”
“No.”
The answer surprised her.
“For myself.”
He looked through the window.
“I spent years telling myself I was different from my father and Luca because I had rules. But rules don’t make a rotten system clean.”
Sonia said nothing.
“I don’t know what comes next.”
“That makes two of us.”
Dante looked at her.
“What do you want?”
The question almost broke her.
Nobody had asked in years.
She had wanted Emma educated.
Her father alive.
Rent paid.
Bills covered.
Survival had replaced ambition so gradually she had not noticed.
“I wanted to open a restaurant once.”
“What kind?”
“Small. Warm. No dress code.”
He smiled.
“Good policy.”
“People could come in wet.”
“Revolutionary.”
“And managers wouldn’t threaten employees’ sick parents.”
“Very difficult business model.”
She laughed.
Then Dante kissed her.
Not forcefully.
Not dramatically.
He touched her cheek first and waited.
Sonia closed the distance herself.
For several seconds, Manhattan disappeared.
Then Dante’s phone rang.
He ignored it.
It rang again.
Sonia pulled back.
“You should answer.”
“I disagree.”
“Your criminal empire may be collapsing.”
“Another five minutes won’t hurt.”
She smiled.
Then the phone rang a third time.
Dante answered.
His expression hardened.
“What?”
He listened.
“Where?”
Sonia knew immediately.
“Luca?”
Dante ended the call.
“He took Salvatore.”
“What does he want?”
“Nothing.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if this was never about money anymore.”
Luca had abducted Salvatore from a federal transport after two corrupt officers staged a collision.
Dante knew where he was going.
The old Moretti estate on Long Island.
Their childhood home.
Sonia grabbed her coat.
“No.”
She stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“This ends between us.”
“Every time you say something like that, somebody kidnaps my family.”
“Sonia.”
“You don’t get to decide what risks I’m allowed to take.”
“I’m trying to keep you alive.”
“And I’m trying to make sure you come back.”
That silenced him.
Dante stepped closer.
“I have spent most of my life making sure nobody mattered enough to be used against me.”
Sonia’s expression softened.
“How’d that work out?”
“Terribly.”
She took his hand.
“Then stop going alone.”
They drove east before sunrise.
When they reached the Moretti estate, the front gates stood open.
Inside the mansion, every light was on.
Dante entered first.
Sonia followed.
In the old dining room, Salvatore sat tied to a chair.
Luca stood behind him.
A pistol rested against the old man’s head.
On the table lay one final document.
Dante stared at it.
“What is that?”
Luca smiled.
“Father’s real will.”
Dante stepped closer.
May you like
Luca’s smile widened.
“And once you read it, little brother, you’ll finally understand why all of this began.”
