Chapter 5 - The Midpoint Shift
Enzo’s eyes darted between me and Bianca, the pieces of a puzzle he was too proud to solve finally colliding in front of him.
"You knew?" Enzo asked, his voice raw. He looked at Bianca, then back to Dante, his chest heaving with slow, heavy breaths. "You've been working with the Tatalias since day one."
Bianca took a slow sip of her scotch, her smile thin and venomous. "Matteo needed a wedge to split the Romano cash from the Moretti muscle, Enzo. You made it remarkably easy. All we had to do was give you a boy to dote on, a tragic backstory, and a woman who looked like the fragile past you always wished you’d married instead of the ice queen your father picked for you."
She gestured toward me with her glass.
"Unfortunately, your wife turned out to be much harder to break than we anticipated," Bianca continued, her eyes hardening as she looked at me. "Sending the SUV to scare her on Route 41 was supposed to keep her in the hospital long enough for us to force your signature on the asset transfer. But Carmela just had to go and freeze the accounts anyway."
Enzo took a slow step toward Bianca, his face darkening into something terrifying—the legendary temper that had made the Moretti name feared across three states.
"You used Luca," Enzo whispered, the words trembling with a rage so deep it barely made a sound. "The boy... you used him?"
"Luca is my son, Enzo," Bianca said smoothly, though a flicker of genuine coldness crossed her eyes. "He played his part. Just like you played yours."
Dante’s hand twitched inside his jacket, his fingers wrapping around the grip of his Sig Sauer. "Don't do it, Boss. The building is surrounded by Tatalia’s crew. You don't have the cash to pay your own guards, let alone fight your way out of Michigan Avenue."
Enzo didn't look at Dante. His dark eyes remained fixed on me, standing near the doorway. In that single, heavy moment, I saw the exact second the illusion shattered. He saw what he had thrown away—the woman who had carried his child, the woman who had protected his back while he chased the ghost of an old romance that never existed.
"Carmela," Enzo said softly, his voice stripped of every ounce of arrogance, pride, and authority. "I'm so sorry."
"Save it, Enzo," I said, pulling my phone from my coat pocket and tapping the screen. A live audio-visual feed lit up, broadcasting directly to Aaron Feld and the federal strike force parked three blocks away. "You wanted a partner who would play your game. But you forgot something important."
Bianca’s smile faltered for the first time. "What is she talking about?"
"My father didn't just leave me a shipping empire," I said, stepping back into the hallway and resting my hand on the heavy electronic deadbolt switch on the outside frame. "He left me the master override codes to every federal asset-seizure warrant in the district."
With a sharp click, the reinforced steel security shutters dropped over every window and door in the penthouse suite, sealing Enzo, Bianca, and Dante inside with their betrayal.
Through the thick glass pane of the office door, I watched Enzo turn toward Dante, his expression turning cold as ice.
"Dante," Enzo said, his voice dropping into the darkness. "Let's see how much the Tatalias are paying you."
Before Dante could draw his weapon, Enzo lunged across the desk.
May you like
My phone buzzed in my hand as Aaron texted from downstairs: The federal marshals are entering the garage now. Hold the line, Carmela.
I stared at the reinforced glass door, listening to the muffled sounds of shattering wood and shouts echoing from inside the penthouse, and wondered how long Enzo thought he could survive once the cage finally locked.
