Chapter 6 - The Uncle Who Thought He Owned the Family
The gunshot had not been aimed at them.
It struck the ceiling.
A warning.
Salvatore stepped into the room.
Two men behind him.
He looked calm.
Almost disappointed.
“Elias.”
Elias stared.
“Why?”
Salvatore sighed.
“I hoped you would never ask that.”
“Fairbank.”
“Yes.”
“The fire.”
“Yes.”
“The list.”
“Yes.”
“Peg.”
Salvatore looked away.
“She was useful.”
Josie stepped closer.
“You used her.”
“No.”
“Her grandson?”
“Her grandson is fine.”
“You told her to betray people.”
“She betrayed people to survive.”
Josie's face hardened.
“You made her.”
Salvatore smiled.
“You think the world is divided into good people and bad people.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“I think some people make choices.”
Salvatore turned to Elias.
“Your wife has learned quickly.”
Elias's voice became cold.
“Don't talk about her.”
Salvatore laughed softly.
“You changed.”
“Yes.”
“Your father would hate you.”
“My father is dead.”
“He would still hate what you've done to the family.”
Elias stepped forward.
“No.”
“You've destroyed our reputation.”
“I've destroyed the parts that deserved to be destroyed.”
“You think legitimate businesses protect you?”
“Yes.”
“They don't.”
“They protect people.”
Salvatore looked at Josie.
“That's what you believe?”
She answered:
“Yes.”
He smiled.
“Then you're exactly why this will fail.”
A phone rang.
Salvatore answered.
“What?”
Pause.
His expression changed.
“Bring him.”
He hung up.
Elias stared.
“Who?”
“Your brother.”
Elias froze.
“I don't have a brother.”
Salvatore smiled.
“You do.”
The room went silent.
His father had told him he was an only child.
Apparently, that was another lie.
Salvatore revealed the truth.
Elias had a younger half-brother named Matteo.
He had been sent away after their father died.
Raised under another name.
Kept hidden.
Prepared as a replacement.
A child the family could use if Elias refused to cooperate.
“Where is he?” Elias asked.
Salvatore pointed toward the hallway.
A young man stepped inside.
Twenty-eight.
Dark-haired.
Angry.
He looked enough like Elias to make Josie's stomach drop.
“This is Matteo.”
Matteo looked at Elias.
“You're the brother who abandoned me.”
Elias said nothing.
“I was told you didn't care.”
“I didn't know you existed.”
Matteo looked at Salvatore.
“He says that.”
Josie stepped forward.
“You don't have to believe either of them.”
Matteo looked at her.
“Who are you?”
“His wife.”
Matteo laughed.
“So you're the problem.”
“No.”
Josie held his gaze.
“I'm the reason he changed.”
Salvatore's face hardened.
Matteo's expression flickered.
“You changed because of her?”
Elias nodded.
“Yes.”
Matteo looked confused.
Salvatore moved toward him.
“Take them.”
Matteo hesitated.
“No.”
Salvatore stared.
“What?”
“I won't.”
The room went silent.
Matteo lowered his weapon.
“You lied to me too.”
Salvatore swore.
Rocco moved instantly.
The confrontation lasted less than a minute.
By the end, Salvatore's men were disarmed.
Salvatore escaped through the rear exit.
Matteo stood frozen.
Elias approached him.
“You can leave.”
Matteo looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because I won't control you.”
Matteo swallowed.
“No one has ever said that to me.”
Josie looked away.
She knew exactly how that felt.
Freedom.
The same thing she had wanted when she left Elias's world.
The same thing she now wanted for everyone.
The police arrived.
Sloane handed over the evidence.
Salvatore disappeared.
But the list was still missing.
So was the final drive.
Josie looked at her notebook.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“The list.”
She flipped through the pages.
“I know where it is.”
Elias frowned.
“How?”
“The sixteen quarters.”
He stared.
“What?”
“The customer who threw them.”
Mason Mercer.
“He wasn't humiliating me.”
“He was testing whether I understood.”
Josie remembered.
Mason had raised each quarter to eye level.
Not random.
Sixteen coins.
Sixteen numbers.
The old warehouse address.
She remembered a number printed on a receipt.
Mercer Development's abandoned building.
Elias understood.
“Room sixteen.”
“Yes.”
They drove there.
Inside the warehouse, they found the missing list.
But not just the list.
A wall of photographs.
Fairbank employees.
Elias's men.
City officials.
Judges.
And Josie.
Hundreds of photographs.
Some taken before she met Elias.
Others after.
One showed her at the diner.
The night Elias first saw her.
Another showed her wedding.
Another showed her working at Fairbank.
She stared.
“How long have they been watching me?”
Elias didn't answer.
Rocco did.
“Years.”
Josie felt cold.
“Why?”
Because the network had known Elias would eventually marry her.
They had been preparing.
Waiting.
And the Fairbank job had never been random.
It had been selected because the store offered easy access.
A place where they could watch her without triggering suspicion.
Elias looked at Josie.
“They used you to get to me.”
She nodded.
“But they made one mistake.”
“What?”
“They thought I would stay quiet.”
She picked up the list.
“I'm done.”
She carried it outside.
Police surrounded the warehouse.
Reporters began arriving.
Josie looked at Elias.
“What now?”
He took her hand.
“Now we end it.”
The investigation lasted months.
Salvatore was arrested.
Mason fled.
Warren cooperated.
Priscilla confessed.
Peg admitted what she had done.
Josie visited her.
Peg cried.
“I was scared.”
“I know.”
“I thought they'd hurt Owen.”
“I know.”
Josie hugged her.
“You should have told me.”
Peg whispered:
“I thought nobody like you would care about somebody like me.”
Josie pulled back.
“I'm somebody like you.”
Peg smiled through tears.
“No.”
Josie shook her head.
“I just happen to be married to someone everyone knows.”
That evening, Josie returned to the place where everything had started.
Fairbank had reopened.
New floors.
New cameras.
New management.
A memorial plaque stood near the register.
Dedicated to employees who had protected one another during the fire.
Peg returned to work.
Owen had earned a scholarship.
And Josie still worked nights.
She stood behind the register when a customer complained about a coupon.
She smiled.
“Let me fix that.”
Elias watched from the entrance.
He had not entered unnoticed.
Everyone knew.
But this time nobody cared.
Because the story had changed.
Josie was no longer hiding his name.
She was not ashamed of it.
But she had not surrendered hers either.
That night, the store manager approached her.
“Josie.”
“Yes?”
“We'd like to offer you a promotion.”
She blinked.
“To what?”
“Night Operations Supervisor.”
She stared.
“You're serious?”
“Yes.”
Elias smiled from across the store.
Josie looked at him.
He nodded.
She smiled.
“I accept.”
Then she returned to work.
At midnight, someone left sixteen quarters on her register.
She looked down.
Then laughed.
Elias frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
She picked up the coins.
One by one.
Not because she had to.
Because she chose to.
She placed them in a small glass jar.
A reminder.
Of the woman she had been.
And the woman she had become.
But the final battle was not over.
The Mercer family had lost the warehouse.
They had lost the list.
But Mason Mercer had escaped with one thing.
May you like
The original document containing Elias's father's final confession.
And he had one last plan.
