Chapter 11 - THE MEMORY THAT CAME BACK
Victor recovered quickly.
“Evelyn is confused.”
His voice sounded gentle.
Concerned.
Almost loving.
“She couldn't remember her own name yesterday.”
Evelyn stepped toward him.
“But I remember yours.”
The entire ballroom seemed to stop.
Dominic's attorneys arrived.
So did federal agents.
That surprised Victor.
It surprised me too.
Dominic didn't explain.
Not yet.
The vial was taken as evidence.
Security footage showed the woman planting it in my coat.
She was arrested before leaving the hotel.
Victor remained calm.
Too calm.
“You have nothing connecting me to any crime,” he told Dominic.
Michael stepped from the crowd.
Victor's face finally changed.
Just slightly.
But enough.
“You should be dead.”
Michael smiled without humor.
“That makes two of us.”
The journal came out.
The bank records came out.
Daniel's recordings came out.
Victor looked around the ballroom.
His empire was collapsing in public.
Then every light went out.
Screams.
Breaking glass.
A gunshot into the ceiling.
Dominic grabbed me and pushed me behind a table.
Emergency lights flickered on thirty seconds later.
Victor was gone.
So was Evelyn.
Dominic became someone else.
Cold.
Focused.
Terrifying.
“Lock down every exit.”
A guard approached.
“We found Mrs. Vescari's phone.”
It lay beside the service elevator.
Dominic stared at it.
Then his own phone rang.
Victor.
He answered on speaker.
“Give me the journal, the drive, and control of the harbor companies.”
Victor's voice was calm.
“Then you get your mother back.”
Dominic's hand tightened.
“You hurt her—”
“You'll do what? Kill me?”
Victor laughed.
“That's exactly why you can never leave this life, Dominic. Because when something you love is threatened, you become your father.”
The line disconnected.
Dominic looked ready to destroy the city.
I caught his hand.
“No.”
His eyes snapped toward me.
“Don't become what he expects.”
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he nodded.
And made a call.
“It's time.”
“To who?” I asked.
He finally told me the secret he'd kept even from Evelyn.
For eleven months, Dominic had been secretly cooperating with a federal task force.
May you like
Tonight's gala had never been Victor's trap.
It had been Dominic's.
