Chapter 10 - THE LIFE THEY CHOSE
Six months later, the Rossi estate was empty.
Carmine sold it.
He bought a small house near the coast instead.
No guards.
No hidden weapons.
No men standing outside doors.
Just ocean air.
And Ivy.
She stood on the porch one morning holding two cups of coffee.
“You're awake early.”
Carmine smiled.
“I've been awake for twenty years.”
She handed him a cup.
“Then maybe it's time you learn how to sleep.”
He laughed.
It was a sound Ivy had never heard from him before.
A real laugh.
They sat together overlooking the water.
Ivy's mother's health had improved.
She had finally been able to live without hiding.
Carmine had started a legitimate security company.
No weapons trafficking.
No corruption.
No blood.
Just protection.
Sometimes Ivy still woke from nightmares.
Sometimes Carmine did too.
But they learned how to stay.
Together.
One evening, Ivy found him standing on the beach.
“What are you thinking about?”
He looked at her.
“The first night you lied to me.”
She smiled.
“I was terrified.”
“So was I.”
“You?”
“Of you.”
She laughed.
“Why?”
“Because you walked into my house carrying nothing but a duffel bag and a broken car.”
“And?”
“You were the first person in twenty years who looked at me like I could still be saved.”
Ivy stepped closer.
“And were you?”
Carmine wrapped an arm around her.
“No.”
He kissed her forehead.
“You saved yourself.”
She smiled.
Then something caught her attention.
A black envelope lay beneath the windshield wiper of Carmine's car.
Her smile disappeared.
Carmine opened it.
Inside was one photograph.
His grandfather.
Taken in prison.
But the photograph had been taken yesterday.
On the back were six words.
THE ORIGINAL LEDGER IS STILL MISSING.
Carmine stared at it.
Ivy stepped closer.
“Who sent it?”
He looked toward the darkening horizon.
“I don't know.”
“Should we be afraid?”
Carmine folded the photograph.
“No.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“You're lying.”
He smiled.
“A little.”
She slipped her hand into his.
“Then what do we do?”
Carmine looked at the ocean.
For the first time, he didn't reach for a weapon.
He reached for her.
“We live.”
They walked back toward the house together.
Behind them, the waves erased their footprints.
But somewhere across the city, a man opened an old safe.
Inside was a leather ledger.
Its first page carried the Rossi family crest.
And beneath it was a name neither Carmine nor Ivy had ever seen before.
THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION.
The man smiled.
“Let them think the war is over.”
He closed the safe.
May you like
Because the Rossi empire was dead.
But the people who had built it had only just begun to reveal themselves.
