Chapter 7
Saint Vincent Home for Boys had been abandoned for seventeen years.
The windows were boarded.
The brick exterior was covered in graffiti.
A rusted statue of Saint Vincent stood in the courtyard with one hand missing.
Dominic stared at the building from across the street.
He had not returned to this neighborhood in twenty years.
The Narrows had changed.
And it had not.
The pawnshop where his father once cashed checks was now a pharmacy.
The corner store was gone.
But the apartment building where Dominic had grown up still stood three blocks away.
He could almost see the hallway.
Blood on linoleum.
His father being dragged through the door.
Himself crawling after them.
“Dominic.”
Chloe touched his hand.
He looked at her.
“You don’t have to go inside alone.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
“This is family.”
“So am I.”
The words stopped him.
Chloe had not planned them.
But once spoken, she did not take them back.
Dominic looked at her for several seconds.
Then he nodded.
“Stay behind me.”
They entered.
Dust covered the floor.
Old dormitories lined the hallway.
Paulie searched the ground floor.
Nothing.
On the second floor, Chloe found fresh footprints.
They led toward a chapel.
Dominic pushed open the doors.
Candles burned near the altar.
Someone had been there recently.
Very recently.
A man sat in the front pew.
Gray hair.
Thin shoulders.
Walking cane beside him.
Dominic stopped.
The man turned.
Chloe saw Dominic’s face in his.
Older.
Broken.
But unmistakable.
Joseph Rossi stood.
“Nico.”
Dominic did not breathe.
His father took one step.
Dominic raised his gun.
“Don’t.”
Joseph stopped.
Paulie stared.
“Jesus Christ.”
Dominic’s hand shook.
“You’re dead.”
“I know.”
“You’re dead.”
Joseph’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry.”
Dominic crossed the distance and hit him.
Joseph fell against the pew.
Chloe gasped.
Dominic grabbed him and pulled him upright.
“Twenty-five years!”
He hit him again.
“You were alive!”
Joseph did not defend himself.
“I know.”
“You let me bury you!”
“I know.”
“You let me think I wasn’t worth coming back for!”
That stopped everything.
Joseph looked at his son.
“You were the only reason I stayed away.”
Dominic shoved him backward.
“Don’t.”
“It’s true.”
“Don’t you dare turn abandonment into sacrifice.”
Joseph wiped blood from his mouth.
“Silvio owned half the city. Every time I tried to get close to you, one of his men appeared.”
“So you watched?”
“Yes.”
Dominic froze.
Joseph reached into his coat.
Paulie raised his weapon.
Slowly, Joseph removed photographs.
Dominic at twelve.
Dominic at sixteen.
Dominic standing outside his first club.
Dominic at his mother’s grave.
Dominic at twenty-six after taking control of the Rossi family.
Dominic outside Laura.
Chloe understood.
Joseph had watched his son grow from a distance.
Dominic looked at the photographs.
His anger did not disappear.
It became grief.
“You should have come home.”
“I wanted to.”
“You should have tried.”
“I did.”
Joseph’s voice broke.
“Three times.”
He sat.
“The first time, Silvio sent me your school photograph with a bullet taped to it.”
Dominic said nothing.
“The second time, he sent your address.”
Joseph looked down.
“The third time, he sent me a recording of you speaking at your mother’s funeral.”
Silence.
“He always knew.”
Chloe moved closer.
“Why now?”
Joseph looked at her.
“Because Silvio is dying.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“So this is what dying looks like? Poisoning women and shooting old men?”
“He has pancreatic cancer. Maybe months.”
Joseph looked at Dominic.
“He wants the ledger before he dies.”
“Why?”
“Because the ledger doesn’t only contain old crimes.”
Joseph’s eyes hardened.
“It contains current ones.”
He explained.
For twenty-five years, Silvio had rebuilt quietly.
Not as a street boss.
As a broker.
Judges.
Police commissioners.
Developers.
Politicians.
Business executives.
He traded secrets instead of drugs.
Influence instead of territory.
The original Bellandi ledger had evolved into a living archive.
Enough evidence to destroy hundreds of careers.
Enough leverage to control a city without firing a bullet.
“The half Antonio had contains the historical network,” Joseph said.
“My half contains the current network.”
Dominic stared.
“Where is it?”
Joseph looked at Chloe.
“Not here.”
“Where?”
“I won’t tell you.”
Dominic stepped forward.
Joseph raised his chin.
“Silvio is watching you. If you know, he can force it out of you.”
“He can try.”
“He already found your weakness.”
Joseph looked directly at Chloe.
Dominic became dangerous.
“Careful.”
Joseph nodded.
“I’m not threatening her.”
He looked toward Chloe.
“I’m saying Silvio knows what she is to you.”
Chloe felt Dominic’s hand find hers.
Joseph noticed.
“He’ll take her.”
“He won’t.”
“He took me.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“He kept me in a basement for eighteen months.”
Joseph rolled up his sleeve.
Old scars crossed his forearm.
“He broke bones. Burned me. Starved me.”
Chloe looked away.
“I never told him where Antonio was.”
Joseph lowered the sleeve.
“When I escaped, I knew I could never go home.”
Dominic’s anger finally cracked.
He sat in the pew.
For several moments, father and son said nothing.
Then Joseph looked toward Chloe.
“You’re the girl from the alley.”
Chloe blinked.
“How do you know that?”
“I told you. I watched.”
“You watched Dominic save us?”
“Yes.”
Joseph smiled faintly.
“That was when I knew he hadn’t become Silvio.”
Dominic looked at him.
“You don’t know what I became.”
“I know exactly what you became.”
Joseph’s expression carried terrible sadness.
“A man who learned violence because nobody came when he cried for help.”
Dominic looked away.
Joseph continued.
“But when another child asked, you stopped.”
Sam.
Everything returned to Sam.
The boy tugging at Dominic’s coat.
The alley.
The debt.
The war.
Chloe.
One choice.
One moment.
Joseph reached across the space between them.
Dominic stared at his father’s hand.
He did not take it.
But he did not move away.
A telephone rang.
Joseph’s.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed.
“Don’t answer,” Dominic said.
Joseph did anyway.
Silvio’s voice came through the speaker.
“Joseph.”
Everyone froze.
“Twenty-five years,” Silvio continued. “And you still make the same mistake.”
Joseph said nothing.
“You think family makes you stronger.”
A pause.
“It doesn’t.”
Dominic grabbed the phone.
“Silvio.”
The old man laughed.
“Nico.”
Dominic’s face became murderous.
“I’m going to kill you.”
“No.”
Silvio sounded amused.
“You’re going to give me what belongs to me.”
“Come ask.”
“I don’t need to.”
Silvio paused.
“I already have leverage.”
Chloe’s blood turned cold.
Dominic looked at her.
Then both understood.
Sam.
Dominic was already moving.
He called the estate.
No answer.
Paulie called security.
Nothing.
They ran.
The drive took twenty-seven minutes.
It felt like twenty-seven years.
The front gates were open.
One guard lay unconscious beside the security booth.
Dominic ran inside.
“Sam!”
Chloe reached the east wing.
His bedroom was empty.
Blankets on the floor.
Window open.
“No.”
She searched the bathroom.
Closet.
Hallway.
“Sam!”
Nothing.
Then she saw something on his desk.
A silver wolf coin.
Beneath it was a folded piece of paper.
Dominic entered behind her.
Chloe opened it.
One sentence.
BRING BOTH HALVES OF THE LEDGER, OR THE BOY LEARNS WHAT YOU LEARNED AT EIGHT.
Chloe made a sound Dominic had never heard from her before.
Not a scream.
Something worse.
He caught her as her knees weakened.
“They took him.”
Dominic held her.
“They took Sam.”
His own face had gone completely empty.
Paulie stood in the doorway.
“What do we do?”
Dominic looked at the silver coin.
For years, men had feared that expression.
It meant somebody was about to die.
But Chloe pulled away from him.
“No.”
Dominic looked at her.
“No war.”
“Chloe—”
“They want you angry.”
Her voice shook violently.
“They want you thinking like a weapon.”
She wiped her tears.
“Think like me.”
Dominic stared.
Chloe picked up the note.
“They need the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Which means Sam stays alive until they have it.”
“Yes.”
“So we have time.”
“Not much.”
“Enough.”
She looked toward Joseph.
“You have the second half?”
Joseph nodded.
“Then we give Silvio exactly what he wants.”
Dominic understood her tone.
“Fake it?”
“No.”
Chloe’s eyes hardened.
“We give him the real thing.”
Paulie stared at her.
“Are you insane?”
“No.”
Chloe looked at Dominic.
“We give him every name. Every account. Every judge. Every cop. Every secret he has spent twenty-five years protecting.”
She took out her phone.
“And before we do, we make copies.”
Dominic slowly understood.
Chloe continued.
“We don’t use the ledger as leverage.”
Her voice became cold.
“We destroy its value.”
Joseph stared.
“How?”
“Secrets only have power while they’re secret.”
May you like
Chloe looked at the three men.
“We release everything.”
