Chapter 10 - THE LAST ROMANO SECRETGiovanni did not kidnap Leo.
Not exactly.
That was what we discovered three hours later.
He had taken him willingly.
Leo left a drawing behind.
A stick figure with gray hair holding one hand.
A smaller figure holding the other.
Above them, in crooked letters:
GRANDPA SAID WE’RE GOING TO SAVE DAD.
Victor stared at it for a long time.
“He took a six-year-old into danger.”
“Yes.”
“I am going to kill him.”
“After we find Leo.”
“Then I will kill him.”
“Fine.”
Daniel leaned against the table.
“You two have very weird marriage conversations.”
Thomas studied Giovanni’s message.
This is the only way to end it.
“What does he know?”
Victor looked at him.
“Apparently everyone in our fathers’ generation knew everything except their children.”
Thomas accepted the insult.
“Fair.”
Maya’s team traced Giovanni’s vehicle through traffic cameras.
He drove south.
Then west.
Toward an industrial district near the river.
Samuel, from federal custody, requested a call.
Victor nearly refused.
I answered.
“What?”
Samuel laughed faintly.
“Married life improving your manners?”
“Where did Giovanni take Leo?”
Silence.
Then Samuel became serious.
“There is one site left.”
“What site?”
“Old St. Vincent Terminal.”
Thomas went pale.
“That was Elias’s.”
Samuel continued.
“The archive beneath the Romano estate was only half the system.”
Victor grabbed the phone.
“What is at the terminal?”
“The master vault.”
“What’s inside?”
“Original recordings.”
“Of who?”
“Everyone.”
My stomach tightened.
Samuel continued.
“Elias recorded meetings. Judges. Officials. Syndicate leaders. Giovanni.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“My father too?”
“Yes.”
“Why would he go there?”
“To destroy his own confession.”
“What confession?”
Samuel was silent too long.
Victor’s grip tightened.
“What did he do?”
Samuel sighed.
“Giovanni authorized the cleanup after the warehouse fire.”
Thomas froze.
“What cleanup?”
“The people who knew.”
My father’s face drained.
“My wife?”
Samuel did not answer.
Thomas grabbed the phone.
“Did Giovanni kill my wife?”
Victor stared at him.
Samuel finally said, “Not directly.”
“Then how?”
“He gave Adrian permission to eliminate threats.”
The room went silent.
Victor looked sick.
“My father knew Adrian was dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“And let him operate.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because power makes cowards of men who think they are kings.”
Victor closed his eyes.
The answer hurt because he understood it.
Giovanni had spent years claiming everything was done to protect family.
But behind that excuse was something uglier.
He had protected his empire.
Thomas whispered, “He killed Anna.”
My mother.
“He allowed Adrian to do it.”
Samuel’s voice was quiet.
“Yes.”
Thomas sat down.
I felt nothing at first.
Then everything.
My mother had not died protecting my father because of some distant conspiracy.
Giovanni Romano had allowed her death to keep secrets buried.
The father of the man I had just married.
The grandfather of the child I loved.
Life had become so tangled with betrayal that anger no longer knew where to land.
Victor looked at me.
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
“I swear.”
“I know.”
His eyes remained tortured.
“My family—”
“Is not you.”
He stared.
I repeated it.
“You are not your father.”
Something inside him cracked.
Then we went to find Leo.
St. Vincent Terminal had been abandoned for nearly twenty-five years.
Rusting cranes stood against the river.
Warehouses stretched beneath gray clouds.
Federal teams surrounded the area but remained back.
Victor insisted on entering first.
This time, I did not argue.
Much.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
I raised my eyebrows.
He sighed.
“You truly enjoy this.”
“Yes.”
“Fine. Behind me.”
“Fine.”
Thomas came too.
Inside the terminal, we found no guards.
No gunfire.
Only open doors leading underground.
We descended.
The master vault stood behind a steel gate.
Giovanni sat inside.
Leo beside him.
Alive.
Unharmed.
Relief nearly dropped me.
Victor rushed forward.
“Leo!”
Leo jumped up.
“Dad!”
Victor held him so tightly the boy squeaked.
I crouched beside them.
Leo hugged me too.
“You came.”
“I promised.”
Giovanni remained seated.
A pistol rested on the table.
Beside it stood several cans of gasoline.
Victor noticed.
“What are you doing?”
“Ending it.”
“You brought Leo.”
“He was safer with me than at the safe house.”
“That is not your decision.”
“No.”
Giovanni looked at me.
“I have made too many decisions for everyone.”
At least he knew.
Thomas stepped forward.
“Did you order Anna killed?”
Giovanni’s face collapsed.
There it was.
Guilt.
“Yes.”
Thomas hit him.
Hard.
Victor did not intervene.
Neither did I.
Giovanni fell from the chair.
Thomas stood over him shaking.
“She trusted you.”
“I know.”
“She saved your life.”
“I know.”
“She had children!”
“I know!”
Giovanni shouted it.
The sound echoed through the vault.
“I know.”
His voice broke.
“That is why I disappeared.”
Thomas stared.
“You disappeared because you felt guilty?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because Adrian found the recordings.”
Victor frowned.
“What recordings?”
Giovanni pointed toward shelves.
“I confessed everything to Elias before he died.”
My grandfather.
Biological grandfather.
The man whose strange trust had made me the legal owner of the evidence.
Giovanni continued.
“I planned to dismantle the network.”
“Then why didn’t you?” Victor demanded.
“Because Sofia died.”
Victor froze.
“Adrian used her death to threaten Leo.”
His face twisted.
“I became afraid.”
The confession was pathetic.
Human.
Terrible.
Victor looked at his father with disgust.
“So you hid.”
“Yes.”
“You left me to inherit everything.”
“Yes.”
“You left me surrounded by enemies you created.”
“Yes.”
“Why come back now?”
Giovanni looked at me.
“Because Claire survived the sunroom.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“I watched the footage.”
Of course there was footage.
“You ran toward Leo.”
He looked at Victor.
“Your wife did what I spent thirty years pretending I did.”
Nobody spoke.
“She protected family without calculating what it cost.”
His eyes filled.
“I realized I had never protected anyone.”
Victor looked away.
Giovanni stood slowly.
“The recordings in this vault can destroy the remaining network.”
“Then release them,” I said.
“I will.”
He looked toward the gasoline.
“After copying them.”
Victor frowned.
“You planned to burn the originals.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because some contain names of innocent people.”
Thomas nodded reluctantly.
“That makes sense.”
Giovanni handed me a hard drive.
“Everything relevant is here.”
I took it.
“Why give it to me?”
“Because it belongs to you.”
Victor stared.
“And then?”
Giovanni looked at the pistol.
“I stay.”
Victor understood.
“No.”
“I killed people.”
“You can testify.”
“I deserve prison.”
“Then go to prison.”
Giovanni smiled sadly.
“I deserve worse.”
Victor grabbed his coat.
“You do not get to make Leo watch another death.”
Giovanni looked toward his grandson.
The words hit.
Leo whispered, “Grandpa?”
Giovanni’s face broke.
He knelt.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Many things.”
“Are you coming home?”
Giovanni closed his eyes.
Victor said, “Yes.”
Giovanni looked at him.
Victor’s expression was merciless.
“You’re coming out.”
“Victor—”
“You do not get forgiveness.”
“I know.”
“You do not get your old life.”
“I know.”
“You will testify. You will answer every question. And if a court sends you to prison for the rest of your life, you will sit there.”
Giovanni stared.
“That is mercy?”
“No.”
Victor looked at Leo.
“That is consequence.”
Giovanni bowed his head.
Then the first shot came from the tunnel.
Federal agents shouted.
Victor grabbed Leo.
Thomas shoved me behind shelving.
A man entered firing.
Not Samuel.
Not Adrian.
One of the last officials exposed by the archive.
Former Deputy Director Malcolm Hayes.
His name appeared on dozens of payment records.
He had clearly decided prison was worse than murder.
“You destroyed everything!” he shouted.
Victor fired back.
Hayes ducked behind the gate.
More men entered.
Giovanni reached for his weapon.
Victor shouted, “Stay!”
For once, Giovanni obeyed.
We retreated deeper into the vault.
Hayes threw a device inside.
Thomas shouted, “Grenade!”
Victor covered Leo.
I kicked the device behind a steel cabinet.
The explosion shook the room.
Smoke filled the air.
I lost sight of everyone.
Then a hand grabbed me.
Hayes.
He pressed a gun beneath my jaw.
“Drop it!”
Victor froze across the room.
Leo cried.
Hayes dragged me backward.
“You released the files.”
“Yes.”
“You ruined my family.”
“You did that.”
He struck me.
Victor moved.
Hayes aimed at Leo.
“Stop!”
Victor froze.
My heart stopped.
Hayes smiled.
“Now you understand leverage.”
I did.
Very well.
I looked at Victor.
His eyes found mine.
Something passed between us.
Trust.
I dropped suddenly.
Victor fired.
The bullet struck Hayes in the shoulder.
Thomas tackled him.
Federal agents rushed inside.
Within seconds it was over.
Hayes was arrested.
Giovanni surrendered.
The vault was secured.
And Leo was alive.
Outside, dawn broke over Chicago.
Victor carried his sleeping son toward the ambulance.
I walked beside him.
Thomas followed.
Giovanni was placed in a federal vehicle.
Before entering, he looked at Victor.
“I am sorry.”
Victor did not say he forgave him.
He only said, “Tell the truth.”
Giovanni nodded.
Then looked at me.
“Your mother deserved better.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“No.”
I stared at him.
“You don’t get to say that anymore.”
He lowered his head.
The vehicle drove away.
Victor looked toward me.
“What now?”
I stared at the hard drive in my hand.
The evidence.
The secrets.
The power generations of men had killed to control.
“We finish it.”
“How?”
“We burn the empire.”
Victor looked toward the city.
Then at Leo.
May you like
Then at me.
And for the first time, the mafia boss smiled at the idea of destroying his own throne.
