THE MAID BROKE DOWN OUTSIDE THE MAFIA BOSS’S OFFICE—THEN HE HEARD WHO WAS THREATENING HER DYING BROTHER AND CLAIMED HER BEFORE THE WHOLE CITY

Twenty-four hours later, the medical convoy had successfully delivered the marrow harvest to St. Jude’s. The transplant surgery had taken six grueling hours, but the head surgeon had walked out of the operating room at dawn with a smile on his face. Sam had pulled through. The marrow had taken. He was in recovery, stable, and finally healing.

Back at the Costello estate, the reckoning had arrived.

The grand dining hall had been cleared of its ornate furniture. In the center of the marble floor sat a single wooden chair beneath the crystal chandelier.

Dominic Vance was tied to the chair with heavy industrial zip-ties, his bespoke Italian suit torn, his face battered from an interrogation that had lasted all night. Standing around the perimeter of the room were twenty of the syndicate’s most trusted capos and lieutenants, watching in grim silence.

Victor stood at the head of the room, looking pristine and untouchable in a dark navy three-piece suit.

Beside him, standing with her head held high and her hands folded in front of her, was Sadi. She wore a tailored black dress, the bruises on her arms hidden, her hazel eyes completely devoid of the fear that had once defined her.

"You have five minutes to justify your treason, Dominic," Victor said, his voice flat, emotionless, and terrifying.

Dominic spat blood onto the polished marble, glaring up at his cousin with pure venom. "Treason? You call it treason to save this family from your weakness?"

"Weakness?" Marcus echoed from the doorway, stepping forward with the stolen Black Ledger in his hands. "You sold out our shipping routes to the Albanian cartels. You took kickbacks from Mick O'Shea's human trafficking and loan sharking rings. You funneled syndicate funds into private offshore accounts in the Caymans."

"Because Victor has gone soft!" Dominic screamed, straining against the zip-ties. "For ten years, we ruled through fear! Now he builds hospital wings! He donates to charities! He refuses to expand into narcotics! And now... now he brings a scrub maid into the inner circle? He makes an invisible nobody the future head of the Costello bloodline?!"

Dominic turned his wild, bloodshot eyes toward Sadi, his lips curling into a sneer.

"She’s an orphan from the East End gutter, Victor! Her father was nothing! A common dockworker who drank himself to death!"

Sadi took two steps forward, stopping inches from Dominic’s chair.

"My father didn't drink himself to death, Dominic," Sadi said, her voice cutting through the room with absolute clarity. "He was murdered at the Red Hook docks twelve years ago when a shipping container of illegal weapons 'mysteriously' went missing. You were the harbor foreman back then, weren't you?"

Dominic’s sneer froze on his face. A flicker of genuine panic flashed across his eyes.

"How... how do you know about that?" Dominic stammered.

Victor stepped up beside Sadi, resting a supportive hand on her shoulder. "When Marcus raided Mick O'Shea's safehouse yesterday, we recovered Mick's private files. Mick was your errand boy for twenty years, Dominic. He kept receipts. He kept audio recordings. Including the recording where you ordered the hit on Michael Hayes because he refused to sign off on your illegal arms shipments."

The capos around the room began to mutter angrily. Murdering an innocent dockworker to steal syndicate weapons was a gross violation of the Costello code of conduct.

"You didn't just target me because I was vulnerable, Dominic," Sadi whispered, looking down at the man who had orphaned her and Sam. "You targeted me because you knew that if Victor ever looked closely at my family's file, your entire empire of lies would collapse."

Dominic looked around the room, realizing that not a single capo would raise a finger to save him. The men who had called him brother looked at him like a dead man walking.

"Victor... please," Dominic begged, his arrogance completely evaporating into pathetic whimpering. "We’re blood! We’re family! You can't execute your own cousin!"

Victor looked at Dominic with the cold, detached gaze of an executioner.

"You ceased being my family the moment you targeted a sick child in a hospital bed," Victor said softly.

Victor turned to Marcus. "Take him to the harbor. The same pier where Michael Hayes was murdered. Ensure he is never found."

"No! Victor! Please! SADI, TELL HIM! SADI!" Dominic shrieked as Marcus and two burly guards dragged the chair backward out of the double doors, his screams echoing down the long marble corridor until a heavy steel door slammed shut, cutting off the noise forever.

Silence descended upon the grand hall.

Victor turned toward the gathered capos. "The council is dismissed. The Costello syndicate operates under one law, and one law only. Anyone who disagrees may tender their resignation in the courtyard."

Not a single man moved. One by one, the hardened crime bosses bowed their heads toward Victor, and then, with equal deference, toward Sadi, before silently exiting the room.

When they were finally alone, Victor exhaled a long, heavy breath, the tension leaving his shoulders. He turned toward Sadi, his eyes softening into a look of profound respect.

"It’s over," Victor said quietly. "Your father has justice. Sam is healing. Dominic Vance is gone."

Sadi looked down at her hands, the red scars slowly fading, replaced by smooth new skin.

"Is it really over, Victor?" she asked softly.