Chapter 6 - The Traitor at Dominic’s TableThe traitor was someone inside the Falcone organization.
There was no other explanation.
The kidnappers knew evacuation routes.
Security rotations.
The existence of the Geneva key.
Even the location of burner phones.
Dominic gathered his twelve senior lieutenants inside the underground conference room.
Clara watched from behind one-way glass.
Vincent stood beside her.
“Any suspicion?”
“Everyone.”
“That includes me.”
“Yes.”
Vincent almost smiled.
“That’s why Dominic trusts you.”
Inside the room, Dominic placed his hands on the table.
“Someone here sold information about my family.”
Nobody moved.
“That person has one opportunity to speak.”
Silence.
Dominic waited.
“Good.”
He turned toward the camera.
“Clara.”
She entered.
Several men looked surprised.
Clara carried twelve folders.
She placed one before each man.
“Yesterday morning,” she said, “each of you received different information regarding my Geneva travel schedule.”
The men exchanged glances.
Dominic smiled faintly.
Clara continued.
“Twelve schedules. Twelve different departure times.”
She looked at a man named Anthony Rizzo.
“Only one schedule said I would leave Teterboro at 7:40 tomorrow morning.”
Anthony’s face changed.
Clara placed a photograph before him.
“Thirty-seven minutes after you received that schedule, a private surveillance company connected to the Circle repositioned a team near Teterboro.”
Anthony stood.
Dominic’s gun appeared.
“Sit.”
Anthony sat.
Sweat appeared across his forehead.
“It wasn’t what you think.”
Dominic’s voice was almost gentle.
“That is usually what guilty men say immediately before explaining exactly what I think.”
“They had my daughter.”
Silence.
Clara’s expression changed.
“What?”
Anthony swallowed.
“My daughter disappeared two months ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“They sent pictures.”
His hands shook.
“They said if I told Dominic, she died.”
Dominic slowly lowered the gun.
“What did you give them?”
“Schedules. Financial movements. Security protocols.”
“Leo?”
Anthony looked down.
“I didn’t know they would take him.”
Dominic moved around the table.
Anthony flinched.
But Dominic did not strike him.
“Where is your daughter?”
“I don’t know.”
Clara sat opposite him.
“What is her name?”
“Isabella.”
“Age?”
“Nineteen.”
“University?”
“NYU.”
Clara opened her laptop.
“Give me everything.”
Anthony stared.
“You’re going to help?”
“You betrayed us because someone threatened your child.”
Clara’s voice softened.
“I understand that better than anyone.”
Dominic looked at her.
The anger remained in his face.
But he stepped back.
For the next six hours, Clara reconstructed Isabella Rizzo’s disappearance.
Credit cards.
Traffic cameras.
Cell towers.
Dormitory access.
One transaction stood out.
A subway card used three days after Isabella supposedly vanished.
Then another.
Then another.
“She isn’t being held,” Clara said.
Anthony stared.
“What?”
“She’s moving around Manhattan.”
“No.”
Clara turned the laptop.
Security footage showed Isabella entering a luxury apartment building.
Alone.
Healthy.
Laughing.
Anthony’s face collapsed.
“I don’t understand.”
Clara did.
“Your daughter wasn’t kidnapped.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“She was recruited.”
Isabella Rizzo was arrested leaving the apartment that evening.
She did not resist.
When Dominic entered the interrogation room, she smiled.
“You’re getting old, Mr. Falcone.”
Anthony stood behind him.
“Isabella.”
Her smile disappeared.
“Dad.”
Anthony looked devastated.
“Why?”
She looked away.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“The Falcones are dinosaurs.”
Dominic remained calm.
Isabella looked at Clara.
“The Circle offered me something you people never could.”
“What?” Clara asked.
“A future.”
Clara sat opposite her.
“You think they care about you?”
“They care about talent.”
“They used you to manipulate your father.”
“They chose me.”
“No.”
Clara leaned closer.
“They chose his weakness.”
Isabella’s confidence flickered.
Clara continued.
“They knew your father would betray Dominic to protect you. You weren’t recruited because you were special.”
A pause.
“You were bait.”
Isabella’s face changed.
Then the lights died.
Dominic moved instantly.
Gunfire erupted outside.
Emergency lights flashed red.
“Down!”
Glass shattered.
Masked attackers entered.
Vincent fired from the hallway.
Dominic dragged Clara behind the steel table.
Anthony ran toward Isabella.
A bullet struck him.
“Dad!”
Isabella screamed.
Anthony fell.
Clara crawled toward him.
Blood spread beneath his chest.
Anthony grabbed her wrist.
“Save her.”
Then his hand went limp.
Isabella screamed again.
The attackers retreated as quickly as they had arrived.
Three minutes later, the room was secure.
Isabella knelt beside her father.
Her face had changed completely.
The fantasy was gone.
The Circle had just murdered the man they used her to betray.
She looked at Clara.
“I know who gave the order.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Name.”
Isabella wiped tears from her face.
“Senator Robert Kincaid.”
Clara remembered the photograph.
Her father.
Arthur Penhaligon.
Giancarlo Moretti.
Kincaid.
“Where is he?”
“Washington.”
“What does he want with Meridian?”
Isabella laughed bitterly.
“He doesn’t want it.”
Clara frowned.
“Then who does?”
Isabella looked directly at her.
“The person who created the Circle.”
“That organization is decades old.”
“Yes.”
“So its founder would be dead.”
Isabella shook her head.
“Not the original Circle.”
Silence.
“The new one.”
Clara’s pulse changed.
“Who?”
May you like
Isabella whispered the name.
“Victoria Kensington.”
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