Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT HE CHOSE HER OVER HIS EMPIRE
The first bullet entered through the kitchen window.
Daniel shoved Celeste to the floor.
Glass exploded over them.
Ruth screamed from the hallway.
“Basement!” Daniel shouted.
Celeste crawled.
Another bullet struck the wall.
Then another.
This was not intimidation anymore.
They were being hunted.
Daniel returned fire while Celeste dragged Ruth toward the basement stairs.
Her hand covered her stomach.
Not my baby.
Not my baby.
Not my baby.
Outside, engines roared.
Celeste expected more gunfire.
Instead, the shooting stopped.
Men shouted.
Tires screamed against gravel.
Then silence.
Daniel looked through the broken window.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Celeste whispered.
Daniel did not answer.
A familiar voice came from outside.
“Daniel.”
Vincenzo.
Celeste closed her eyes.
Of course.
He had not followed her.
But he had followed Rinaldi.
Daniel opened the door with his weapon raised.
Vincenzo stood in the yard.
Blood covered one sleeve.
Behind him, Enzo and several men secured two attackers.
Vincenzo’s gaze found Celeste.
Everything else disappeared from his face.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He exhaled.
Then his knees nearly gave out.
Celeste saw it.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Not important.”
“It’s important if it’s yours.”
Vincenzo looked at his arm as though noticing it for the first time.
“Graze.”
Daniel approached.
“How did they find this house?”
“That,” Vincenzo said, “is what I came to tell you.”
He produced a phone recovered from one attacker.
On the screen was a list of locations.
Safe houses.
Federal vehicles.
Daniel’s name.
Celeste’s alias.
Daniel went pale.
“Someone inside Justice is feeding Rinaldi.”
Vincenzo nodded.
Celeste stared at Daniel.
“You said his organization had a leak.”
“It does.”
Vincenzo looked toward her.
“We both do.”
The conspiracy was larger than any of them had understood.
Rinaldi had bought men inside the Duca organization and federal law enforcement.
Valentina had merely been the visible piece.
Celeste felt suddenly exhausted.
“I want out.”
Vincenzo looked at her.
“Then you’re out.”
She almost laughed bitterly.
“You can’t just say that.”
“Yes, I can.”
“No. Your enemies know about this baby.”
“I know.”
“Your life followed me across the country.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying—”
“I’m going to dismantle it.”
Celeste stopped.
“What?”
“My organization.”
Even Daniel stared.
Vincenzo continued calmly.
“The ports. Distribution. Collections. Everything illegal that gives Rinaldi a reason to consider my child valuable.”
Enzo turned toward him.
“Boss.”
Vincenzo ignored him.
Celeste searched his face.
“You would give it up?”
“I should have given it up before it cost me you.”
“Don’t do this as a grand gesture.”
“I’m not.”
His eyes remained on hers.
“I’m doing it because our child deserves a father whose business doesn’t put bullets through the kitchen.”
Something shifted inside Celeste.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But perhaps the first stone moving away from a door she had sealed shut.
Vincenzo spent the next three weeks doing something nobody in Chicago believed possible.
He dismantled his own empire.
Evidence went anonymously to prosecutors.
Illegal contracts were terminated.
Warehouses emptied.
Accounts closed.
Men who wanted legitimate exits received them.
Those who refused discovered that Vincenzo was no longer protecting them.
Rinaldi panicked.
And frightened men made mistakes.
The largest came when Valentina contacted Celeste.
She called at 4:02 one morning.
“Please don’t hang up.”
Celeste sat upright.
“How did you get this number?”
“I don’t have time.”
Valentina was crying.
Real crying this time.
“Rinaldi is going to kill me.”
Celeste said nothing.
“He thinks I failed.”
“You helped him target my child.”
“I didn’t know that was what he wanted.”
“You knew I was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
Valentina sobbed.
“I wanted you gone. I wanted Vincenzo. I was jealous and stupid and cruel. But I never agreed to hurt a baby.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
“What do you want?”
“I have records. Everything. Payments. Names. The federal contact.”
“Give them to Daniel.”
“I can’t trust anyone.”
“Then why trust me?”
Valentina became quiet.
“Because you left Vincenzo.”
Celeste almost laughed.
“What does that prove?”
“That you’re the only person in this entire mess who chose something other than power.”
The line went silent.
Then Valentina whispered an address.
A motel outside Flagstaff.
Celeste immediately called Daniel.
Daniel called Vincenzo.
By sunrise, they had a plan.
But Rinaldi moved first.
When Vincenzo entered the motel room, it was empty.
Blood marked the carpet.
Valentina was gone.
On the bed lay her phone.
And a note.
BRING CELESTE DUCA TO CHICAGO.
Below it was an address.
Vincenzo crushed the paper in his hand.
Enzo asked, “What do we do?”
Vincenzo looked toward the rising sun.
“The one thing Rinaldi doesn’t expect.”
“What?”
“We tell Celeste the truth.”
No manipulation.
No deciding for her.
No protecting her by taking away her choices.
May you like
For perhaps the first time in their marriage, Vincenzo would place the decision entirely in his wife’s hands.
And he had no idea what she would choose.
