Chapter 6 - The Ledger of Betrayal
The basement holding cells beneath the Moretti estate did not resemble a wine cellar. They were concrete, soundproofed, and freezing cold.
Isabella was strapped to a steel chair under the glare of a single overhead bulb. Her emerald dress was torn, her hair a ruined mess, the diamonds around her neck looking like mocking remnants of a stolen life.
Luca sat across from her on a wooden crate, smoking a cigarette. The smoke curled lazily through the harsh white light.
I stood in the doorway, my hand freshly re-bandaged by Marco, wrapped in Luca’s heavy cashmere coat to stop my violent shivering. Luca had insisted I stay. *“She tried to kill us both,”* he had told me upstairs. *“You have the right to see the reckoning.”*
“It wasn't me, Luca! I swear to God, it wasn't me!” Isabella screamed, her mascara running in black rivers down her cheeks. “Vincent Russo forced me! He said if I didn't give his men access through the catering entrance, he would release the photos! He would destroy my father’s campaign!”
Luca exhaled a long plume of smoke. His face was completely devoid of emotion.
“Vincent Russo,” Luca said calmly. “The man who runs the North Side docks. The man who has been trying to hijack my shipping lines for three years.”
“Yes! Yes!” Isabella pleaded. “He approached me a month ago! He said you were getting soft! He said you were distracted by this... this peasant nanny!” She glared at me with pure venom. “He told me if I helped eliminate you, Russo would take over the territory and marry me instead! He promised me everything!”
“And Mateo?” Luca asked. The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. “What was Russo going to do with my four-year-old son, Isabella?”
Isabella went dead silent.
Her lips trembled. She looked down at the concrete floor.
Luca dropped the cigarette and crushed it beneath the heel of his Italian leather shoe.
He stood up slowly, towering over her.
“You allowed hitmen into my home,” Luca said, each word distinct, sharp as a guillotine blade. “You risked my boy. You tried to frame the woman who protected him. And you thought you would walk out of this with a crown.”
“Luca, please!” she wept, thrashing against the leather straps. “My father is a United States Senator! You cannot touch me! If I disappear, the federal government will tear your empire apart brick by brick!”
Luca leaned down until his mouth was inches from her ear.
“Your father is already ruined, Isabella,” Luca murmured. “Ten minutes ago, Marco delivered an encrypted flash drive to the United States Attorney’s Office. It contains five years of your father’s offshore accounts, his bribe ledgers with Russo, and the surveillance footage from the terrace yesterday.”
Isabella gasped, her eyes bulging. “No... no, you wouldn't...”
“By dawn, Senator Vance will be under arrest for treason, bribery, and conspiracy to commit murder,” Luca continued coldly. “His assets are frozen. His name is garbage. You have no money. You have no family. And you have no protection.”
He straightened his back, turning his gaze away from her as if she were nothing more than dirt on the floor.
“Marco,” Luca said.
Marco stepped out from the shadows. “Yes, boss?”
“Put her on a cargo freighter bound for South America,” Luca ordered. “No passport. No money. Just the clothes on her back. If she ever sets foot in North America again, shoot her on sight.”
“No! Luca! Please! Don't do this! Emma! Tell him! You’re a woman, tell him!” Isabella shrieked as Marco signaled two guards to unstrap the chair.
As they dragged her toward the exit, Isabella lunged toward me, spitting blood and saliva, her face contorted in demonic rage.
“You think he loves you, you stupid little whore?” she screamed. “Look at him! He’s a monster! He kills men for breakfast! And you... I know who you really are, Emma! I know whose daughter you are! When he finds out what your family did to his brother, he will butcher you with his own bare hands!”
The heavy steel door slammed shut, cutting off her screams.
Silence returned to the concrete room.
I stood paralyzed in the doorway.
The blood drained from my face so fast my vision tunneled into black dots.
Luca stood in the center of the room. He didn't move. But slowly, terrifyingly, he turned his head toward me.
His eyes were no longer warm.
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“What did she mean, Emma?” Luca asked softly. “What did she mean about my brother?”
***
