Chapter 6 - The Seventh Chair
Michael Jennings had taught Clara how to ride a bicycle.
He had attended every birthday until she was 17.
When Thomas died, Uncle Michael paid their rent for 6 months.
Then he supposedly died during a hiking accident in Colorado.
Clara had mourned him too.
Now he sat beside Domenico Rossi.
Alive.
Janus.
The betrayal was almost too large to process.
Anne collapsed into a chair.
“You told me Michael was dead.”
Kessler’s recorded image smiled.
Apparently, even Anne had not known.
Dominic paused the video.
“Your family makes mine look functional.”
Clara gave him a look.
“Too soon.”
“Definitely.”
Ben laughed.
A tiny, exhausted laugh.
For 3 seconds, they were simply people.
Then the lights died.
Gabriel shouted.
Emergency red lights flickered on.
“Move!”
The first explosion tore through the wine cellar.
Janus was destroying the Velvet Oak.
Dominic grabbed Clara.
Gabriel carried Ben.
They escaped through the utility tunnel seconds before the underground room collapsed.
Outside, flames climbed from the restaurant.
Evidence disappeared in smoke.
But Ben still had the flash drive.
That changed everything.
At Dominic’s safe house in Westchester, they examined it.
Most files were encrypted.
Clara recognized the structure.
Her father’s puzzles.
For 6 hours, she worked.
Dominic stayed beside her.
He brought coffee.
Said almost nothing.
At dawn, Clara finally asked:
“Why do you trust me?”
“I don’t.”
She looked offended.
Dominic continued.
“I believe you.”
“That sounds like trust.”
“No. Trust is believing someone cannot hurt you.”
“And believing me?”
“Knowing you could and hoping you won’t.”
Clara studied him.
“That’s incredibly unhealthy.”
“I’m a mafia boss.”
“Fair.”
He almost smiled.
Clara cracked the first file.
A list of offshore accounts appeared.
Then politicians.
Corporate executives.
Police.
Federal agents.
Enough corruption to dismantle careers across America.
Dominic read silently.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
He pointed.
PROJECT ORPHEUS.
Files described a plan to consolidate East Coast organized crime under one controllable structure.
Janus had deliberately provoked wars.
Gallagher versus Rossi.
Moretti versus Bellini.
Street violence was not chaos.
It was pruning.
Janus removed unpredictable leaders and replaced them with obedient successors.
Dominic’s father had discovered it.
That was why Vittorio died.
Then Clara opened another file.
Her breath caught.
Dominic Rossi was listed as FINAL CANDIDATE.
“They weren’t trying to kill you,” Clara said.
Dominic understood.
“They were testing me too.”
The poisoned glass.
Gallagher’s death.
The hospital.
Every event measured Dominic’s response.
Janus wanted to know whether he could be controlled.
Gabriel found another file.
“Boss.”
It contained surveillance photographs.
Dominic from childhood onward.
School.
Funeral.
First arrest.
First meeting as boss.
And Clara.
Photographs began when she was 8.
“This is impossible.”
Someone had watched her for 16 years.
One photograph showed Thomas taking Clara into Central Park.
On the back was a digital note:
SUBJECT RETAINS SEQUENCE AFTER 19 MONTHS.
Her father had been testing her memory.
Then Ben noticed something.
“Why am I not in most of these?”
Clara searched.
He was right.
Ben barely appeared until his leukemia diagnosis.
Why?
Anne suddenly began crying.
Everyone turned.
“What?” Clara asked.
Anne shook her head.
“Mom.”
“I promised Thomas.”
“Dad is dead.”
“That doesn’t make the promise disappear.”
Clara stood.
“What did you promise?”
Anne looked at Ben.
“You aren’t Thomas’s biological son.”
Silence.
Ben stared.
“What?”
Anne’s face crumpled.
“Thomas loved you. You were his son in every way that mattered.”
“Who is my father?”
Anne could barely answer.
“Vittorio Rossi.”
Dominic stood so abruptly his chair fell.
Clara stared between Dominic and Ben.
No.
Anne explained.
Years earlier, during Thomas and Vittorio’s attempt to expose Janus, Anne and Vittorio had become close.
Too close.
Ben was born from the affair.
Thomas knew.
He chose to raise him anyway.
Dominic looked at Ben.
“My father?”
Ben looked sick.
“So you’re…”
“My half-brother.”
The room became utterly silent.
Clara sat down.
Her brother was Dominic Rossi’s brother.
Janus had not discovered Ben because of Clara.
They wanted him because he was Vittorio’s second son.
A potential heir.
A backup candidate.
Dominic walked outside.
Clara found him near the lake.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good. Me neither.”
He laughed once.
Then his expression broke.
“My father had another family.”
“Apparently my mother did too.”
Dominic looked toward the house.
“He loved Ben?”
Anne had said Vittorio never knew.
Thomas had kept the secret.
Clara leaned against the railing.
“My father raised another man’s child and died protecting both of us.”
Dominic nodded.
“He sounds like a better man than most I knew.”
Clara looked at him.
“You’re not what I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
“A monster.”
“And?”
“I haven’t decided.”
Dominic stepped closer.
Rain began lightly.
“You switched my glass.”
“I switched Gallagher’s too.”
“You saved my life.”
“And ended his.”
“That guilt belongs to the man who poisoned it.”
Clara wanted to believe him.
Dominic touched her cheek.
Slowly enough that she could move away.
She didn’t.
Their kiss was brief.
Unexpected.
Almost gentle.
Then Gabriel interrupted.
“Sorry.”
Neither looked sorry.
Gabriel held the laptop.
“We decrypted another file.”
Inside was a schedule.
Janus’s leadership summit.
Tomorrow night.
Ellis Island.
Every member would attend.
Domenico.
Michael.
Kessler.
All of them.
Dominic looked at Clara.
“They’re gathering because they think they’ve won.”
Clara closed the laptop.
“Then let’s disappoint them.”
But across the lake, hidden behind trees, a camera lens focused on them.
A photograph was taken.
Seconds later, it reached Michael Jennings.
He smiled.
May you like
Then he gave one instruction.
“Activate Benjamin.”
