Chapter 5 - VANESSA'S REVENGE
Back in Manhattan, Vanessa Sinclair was furious. She sat in her penthouse overlooking Central Park, swirling a glass of expensive bourbon. She had been humiliated. She had stood in front of New York's elite, waiting for a proposal that never came, discarded for a exhausted woman in a catering uniform.
The door to her study opened, and Don Alberto walked in, accompanied by Silvio. Alberto was an older man with silver hair and cold, reptilian eyes. He carried a silver-tipped cane, leaning on it as he assessed Vanessa.
"You look distressed, my dear," Alberto purred, taking a seat opposite her.
"I am not distressed, Alberto. I am vengeful," Vanessa snapped, setting her glass down. "Luca embarrassed my family. My father is threatening to pull our political support from the Moretti syndicate. Without our judges and senators, your operations will face massive federal indictments within a month."
"Which is exactly why we must act quickly to remove my errant nephew from power," Alberto replied smoothly. "Luca has grown soft. He is obsessed with this woman and his bastard child. It clouds his judgment."
"The child is not a bastard," Vanessa said sharply. "I saw the boy's eyes. I saw the way Luca looked at him. That is his heir. And as long as that boy breathes, Luca will fight like a demon to protect him."
Silvio crossed his arms, his scarred eyebrow twitching. "The boss is right. We need to hit them hard and fast. We have intel that Luca has retreated to the Catskills compound. It's heavily fortified."
"No fortress is impregnable," Vanessa countered, her pride overriding her morality. She walked over to her desk and unlocked a drawer, pulling out a set of architectural blueprints. "My father's construction firm did the renovations on that compound three years ago when Luca updated the security. They installed a secondary subterranean exhaust tunnel for the underground generator. It bypasses the main perimeter sensors."
Alberto smiled, a chilling, predatory grin. "You are as brilliant as you are beautiful, Vanessa."
"I don't want compliments. I want Luca ruined," she hissed. "I want him to watch everything he loves turn to ash before you put a bullet in him. Then, my family gets exclusive rights to the downtown shipping ports."
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"Agreed," Alberto said. He looked at Silvio. "Gather the men. Thirty of our best heavy hitters. We move on the Catskills tonight. We burn the house down with the rat and his new family inside."
As Silvio left to prepare the strike team, Vanessa looked out at the city lights. She had just signed a death warrant for a five-year-old child, but the venom in her heart left no room for guilt. In the world of power, if you were not the victor, you were the victim. And Vanessa Sinclair refused to be a victim.
