Chapter 7 - THE CHOICE
“Mama?” the little boy whimpered, shrinking against Isabella’s leg.
“It’s okay, Leo,” Victoria sobbed, her hands flat on the floor, submitting entirely to the woman she hated. “Mama’s here. Just look at me.”
Elena stared in horror. Victoria had a child. Isabella had kept Victoria compliant all these years not just by threatening her life, but by holding her child hostage.
“You’re a monster,” Elena whispered.
“I am a survivor,” Isabella countered sharply. “I built this empire from the dirt, and I will not let a pair of Moretti half-breeds and my traitorous son take it from me.”
Marcus took a slow step to his left, trying to draw his mother’s attention away from the child. “Let the boy go, Mother. This is between us. He has nothing to do with it.”
Isabella laughed. “He has everything to do with it. He is Moretti blood, just like these two. I should have drowned him the day he was born.”
Isabella leveled her pistol at Marcus. “Slide the ledger across the desk, Marcus. And put your weapon on the floor. Or I shoot the child, then Victoria, and then your lovely wife.”
Marcus hesitated. The ledger was their only ticket to freedom. If they gave it up, they had no leverage. The Commission would never believe them without proof.
“Do it,” Elena said quietly.
Marcus looked at her, shocked. “Elena, if we give her the book—”
“I said do it!” Elena yelled, her voice echoing in the vault with the commanding authority of her bloodline.
For the first time since the night began, Isabella looked slightly unnerved by the sheer power in Elena’s voice.
Marcus slowly placed his handgun on the floor and kicked it away. He closed the heavy leather ledger and slid it across the polished mahogany desk.
Isabella’s eyes gleamed with triumph. She released Leo’s hand and stepped forward to claim the book.
“Run, Leo!” Victoria screamed.
The little boy bolted toward his mother, crying hysterically. Victoria caught him in her arms, burying his face in her shoulder, shielding his small body with her own.
Isabella picked up the ledger, tucking it under her arm.
“A foolish choice, Elena,” Isabella mocked, raising her gun toward Elena’s chest. “You gave up your only weapon to save a bastard child. You have your mother’s weak heart.”
Elena didn't flinch. She stood tall, staring down the barrel of the gun.
“You’re wrong, Isabella,” Elena said, her voice eerily calm. “I didn't give up my weapon. I just distracted you.”
Isabella frowned. “Distracted me from what?”
Elena reached into the pocket of her torn dress. She pulled out Marcus’s cell phone.
The screen was glowing brightly.
It was on an active phone call.
The call duration was at twelve minutes.
“I didn't just stand there while Marcus was taking pictures,” Elena said, her eyes locked on her mother-in-law. “I hit speed dial. The number Marcus had pre-programmed.”
Isabella’s face drained of color. “Who is on that phone?”
“Don Vincenzo,” Marcus said, a slow, predatory smile spreading across his face. “The head of the Commission. He’s heard everything, Mother. The murders. The extortion. The theft. You just confessed to all of it on a live line.”
Isabella’s hand began to shake. She looked at the phone, then at Marcus.
“He has the audio,” Elena said. “The Commission knows you’ve been stealing from them. They know you murdered my mother to hide it. You’re done.”
With a shriek of pure rage, Isabella raised her gun, aiming directly at Elena’s head.
“Then you die first!” Isabella screamed.
Before she could pull the trigger, a gunshot rang out.
Isabella gasped, her eyes going wide. The gun slipped from her fingers, clattering onto the marble floor. The ledger fell heavily beside it.
Isabella stumbled backward, clutching her chest.
Behind her, standing in the doorway of the service elevator, stood Thomas.
May you like
He was bleeding heavily from a wound on his head, his suit torn and covered in dust, but his hands were perfectly steady as he held a weapon aimed at Isabella’s heart.
“No,” Thomas rasped, his voice echoing in the silence. “You die first.”
