Chapter 10 - MRS. RUTH REMEMBERED EVERYTHING
Dileia stopped breathing.
“Ruth?”
The older woman’s hand shook.
But her eyes were clear.
More lucid than Dileia had seen in years.
Vincent smiled.
“She remembers more than you think.”
Ruth looked at Dileia.
“I’m sorry.”
Then lowered the gun.
It wasn’t loaded.
Vincent’s smile vanished.
Ruth had played confused after the kidnapping.
Waited.
Listened.
Marianne helped.
Together, they learned where Vincent stored his current transaction archive.
The entire confrontation was partly a trap.
Not for Julian.
For Vincent.
Federal agents moved in from the surrounding warehouses.
Mara? Different story—no. Here, special agents under Salenzo’s coordination.
Vincent reached for a weapon.
Julian did not shoot him.
Holloway tackled him first.
Gun slid across concrete.
Arrest.
Alive.
No mafia execution.
Dileia was glad.
Then Vincent began laughing.
“You think this ends because you caught me?”
Julian stared.
“It improves my morning.”
Vincent looked at Dileia.
“Ask Ruth why Tommy joined Marianne.”
Ruth closed her eyes.
Dileia felt dread.
“What?”
Tommy had not only wanted justice.
He wanted revenge.
After learning Vincent’s network had drugged Ruth and destroyed part of her memory, Tommy planned to bankrupt every Thorne entity connected to Harbor 17.
Not only criminal assets.
Legitimate ones too.
Thousands of employees.
Pension funds.
Families.
Marianne stopped him.
That caused their argument.
Tommy had become willing to burn everything if it hurt Vincent.
“He wasn’t perfect,” Ruth whispered.
Dileia cried.
“Why didn’t he tell me any of this?”
“Because he wanted you to remember him as good.”
That hurt more than if he'd been corrupt.
Tommy had been human.
Angry.
Grieving.
Dangerous for a while.
Then he changed his mind.
His final video proved it.
The one Marianne had protected.
Tommy looked into the camera:
“Dee, if I don’t come home, don’t finish what I started. Finish what I should have started.”
Dileia wiped her face.
“What does that mean?”
The next sentence answered.
“Give the evidence to people who can use it without becoming us.”
Law.
Not revenge.
Then Vincent, handcuffed, smiled again.
“One problem.”
He nodded toward Julian.
“Your father’s restitution accounts were funded with criminal money. Every legitimate Thorne company is contaminated.”
Julian went still.
If true, federal forfeiture could dismantle the entire empire.
Thousands of innocent employees could lose everything.
And the person who knew exactly which assets were clean and which were not...
May you like
Mrs. Ruth.
The woman everyone had spent years trying to make forget.
