Chapter 5 - The Choice Between Revenge and Love
For two weeks, I didn't see Dominic.
He gave me space.
He paid for my mother's treatment.
Protected my house.
But he stayed away.
I thought that meant our story was over.
Then my father came back.
Not physically.
Through another recording.
“I knew Dominic would one day learn what happened.”
He looked older.
Tired.
“I asked his father for protection.”
He explained.
Dominic's father had been ordered to kill him.
Dominic was sent to retrieve him.
But Daniel escaped.
He survived.
He then spent years hiding.
He never blamed Dominic.
“He was a boy.”
My father continued.
“Don't punish him for a world he inherited.”
I cried.
Then he revealed the final truth.
He had hidden the original ledger inside Dominic's mother's foundation.
The foundation was located in Boston.
Dominic had no idea.
We went together.
He looked surprised when I arrived.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
He didn't ask me to leave.
Inside the foundation, we found a locked room.
The ledger was there.
Thousands of pages.
Every payment.
Every crime.
Every name.
Including Dominic's father.
Including Matteo.
But one name appeared at the top.
Judge Vincent Morelli.
He had been protecting both families.
He was still alive.
Still in power.
Still dangerous.
Dominic looked at me.
“This isn't over.”
“No.”
“We have to expose him.”
“Yes.”
“You'll be in danger.”
“So will you.”
He smiled faintly.
“I missed you.”
I looked away.
“I missed you too.”
That night, he kissed me again.
This time slowly.
No fear.
No anger.
Just honesty.
We planned everything.
The ledger would be copied.
Evidence would go to federal investigators.
The original would remain hidden.
We would expose Morelli first.
Then dismantle the remaining network.
The plan worked.
Until someone betrayed us.
Samantha.
She stole the copy.
Then disappeared.
She left one message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE CHOSEN MATTEO.
Dominic looked at me.
“She doesn't know Matteo.”
“What?”
“She thinks he will win.”
“Will he?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he underestimates you.”
Samantha returned three days later.
She wanted protection.
She revealed Matteo had been working with Judge Morelli for years.
The poison attempt wasn't meant to kill Dominic.
It was meant to frame another family.
Then Morelli would use the chaos to seize control.
The bartender's warning ruined the plan.
I saved Dominic's life.
That made me a target.
But it also made me the witness who could prove everything.
We went to the federal authorities.
We gave them the ledger.
But before they could arrest Morelli, he attacked.
Dominic was shot.
He fell.
I screamed.
He was alive.
Barely.
I held his hand.
“Don't you dare.”
His eyes opened.
“Bossy.”
I cried.
“You're not allowed to die.”
He smiled.
“That's an order?”
“Yes.”
He survived.
Morelli was arrested.
Matteo fled.
And I thought the nightmare was finally ending.
It wasn't.
May you like
Because Matteo had one final card.
My father.
