Chapter 6 - Lorenzo’s Closest Friend Sold Him Out for One Reason
Marco had been Lorenzo's closest lieutenant for fifteen years.
He knew every safe house.
Every account.
Every route.
Every weakness.
He walked into the farmhouse carrying a gun.
“You always were too trusting, Lorenzo.”
Lorenzo stared at him.
“I trusted you.”
Marco laughed.
“That was your mistake.”
“Why?”
“Because your father promised me your empire.”
I looked at him.
“Why would he?”
“He didn't.”
Marco turned toward me.
“I made Victor promise.”
Lorenzo took a step.
“You poisoned my grandmother?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Victor.”
“Where is he?”
Marco smiled.
“Waiting.”
The Black Rose documents had been leaked.
Federal authorities were closing in.
Victor wanted one final move.
He planned to make Lorenzo take responsibility for everything.
Marco had arranged evidence.
Forged signatures.
False bank records.
Fake recordings.
Everything would point to Lorenzo.
The mastermind would escape.
Lorenzo would become the public face of a collapsing empire.
We needed proof.
The only evidence was in Victor's final vault.
Lorenzo and I broke into it at night.
The vault was beneath an abandoned bank.
We found boxes.
Hard drives.
Paper files.
Photographs.
And a confession.
Victor's own voice.
He admitted everything.
But he also revealed something else.
Marco wasn't working alone.
My mother was right.
There was another traitor.
Someone inside my own family.
I looked at the screen.
A name appeared.
Lisa Carter.
Aunt Lisa.
I stopped breathing.
The woman I'd tried to text twelve years ago.
The woman whose number I'd typed by mistake.
My aunt.
The account linked to her name had received millions from Victor.
“No.”
Lorenzo looked at me.
“Emily.”
“I don't understand.”
We found records.
Lisa had been feeding Victor information about my family.
She had known about the Black Rose account.
She had known where my mother lived.
She had known about Noah.
I remembered the wrong-number message.
Suddenly, the mistake didn't feel accidental.
Maybe someone had changed the number in Mom's old phone.
Maybe the person I thought was Aunt Lisa had deliberately made herself hard to reach.
Lorenzo looked at me.
“I'm sorry.”
I shook my head.
“She was family.”
“I know.”
We found Lisa at a restaurant the next evening.
She was meeting Victor.
I confronted her.
“Why?”
She cried.
“Because I was tired of being poor.”
“You sold us for money?”
“I didn't know Victor would hurt your mother.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
I couldn't forgive her.
But I couldn't hate her either.
She was simply someone who had made choices.
Victor tried to run.
The police were waiting.
The Black Rose documents were enough to expose his crimes.
Marco was arrested.
Lisa was arrested.
The organization collapsed.
But Lorenzo still faced one final decision.
Keep control.
Or destroy the empire his family had spent generations building.
May you like
He chose something nobody expected.
He dismantled it.
