Chapter 9 - The Man Who Refused to Trade Me Again
We reached the harbor.
Containers towered around us.
Matteo stood on the roof of a warehouse.
Thomas was tied to a chair.
Elias stood beside him.
“Bring the girl.”
Anthony raised his weapon.
“No.”
Matteo laughed.
“Give me Emma, and your father lives.”
I looked at Thomas.
He shook his head.
“No.”
Matteo frowned.
Thomas shouted,
“Don't trade her!”
For the first time, my father made the right choice.
Matteo's face darkened.
“You've become sentimental.”
Thomas looked at me.
“I already sold her once.”
He began crying.
“I won't do it again.”
Elias raised his weapon.
A gunshot.
Thomas fell.
I screamed.
Anthony pulled me behind cover.
Security opened fire.
The warehouse exploded into chaos.
I crawled toward my father.
He was alive.
The bullet had struck his shoulder.
“Emma.”
“I'm here.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don't.”
“I should've protected you.”
“You should have.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Anthony found us.
“Get him out.”
“Not without you.”
He looked at me.
“I'll follow.”
Matteo escaped through the loading dock.
Elias was arrested.
The ledger and evidence were transferred to federal investigators.
But Matteo was still free.
Three days later, he called me.
“You think you've won.”
“No.”
“You haven't.”
“Where are you?”
“Where your story began.”
He disconnected.
I knew immediately.
My father's house.
The cracked walls.
The flickering lamp.
The room where I had been sold.
Anthony came with me.
When we entered, Matteo was sitting in the same chair he had sat in weeks earlier.
The lamp still flickered.
He smiled.
“Welcome home.”
I stared at him.
“This is not my home.”
“Not anymore.”
Anthony stood behind me.
Matteo raised a weapon.
“Leave us.”
“No.”
“You have no choice.”
Anthony smiled.
“Neither do you.”
Security surrounded the house.
Matteo looked outside.
Police.
Federal agents.
Even journalists.
He realized the entire confrontation was being recorded.
His expression changed.
I stepped forward.
“You wanted my expertise.”
He looked at me.
“Then listen.”
I opened the file.
Every forged painting.
Every account.
Every payment.
Every murder.
Every name.
“I know exactly what you did.”
Matteo laughed.
“You think people care?”
“They do now.”
The live feed showed thousands of viewers.
The entire truth was being broadcast.
Matteo's empire collapsed in real time.
He lowered his weapon.
Police moved in.
It was over.
Anthony looked at me.
“You did it.”
“We did.”
My father survived surgery.
Elias cooperated.
Matteo went to prison.
The counterfeit network collapsed.
And months later, Anthony began dismantling the criminal operations his family had built.
He sold properties.
Closed illegal businesses.
Paid restitution.
Created legitimate companies.
He became a different man.
May you like
But there was still one question left.
Us.
