Chapter 7 - Eight Languages, One Truth
Vienna was cold.
The meeting took place beneath an old opera house.
Armand Vance waited in the darkness.
Mave saw him and stopped breathing.
Her father looked older than she remembered.
But his eyes were the same.
"Mave."
She couldn't move.
Then she crossed the room.
He held her.
"I thought you abandoned us."
"I never did."
"Then why?"
"Because I thought distance would keep you alive."
Mave pulled away.
"It didn't."
Armand looked at Dominic.
"You're the Rossy heir."
Dominic nodded.
"You know what happened to my father."
"I know who betrayed him."
"Rafael?"
Armand shook his head.
"Rafael was only a soldier."
"Then who?"
Armand looked at Mave.
"The person who started everything was someone nobody suspects."
Mave's heart raced.
"Who?"
Armand handed Dominic a file.
Inside was a list.
Every interpreter hired by Dominic's family over the last decade.
Twelve names.
Every one connected to the Bellinis.
Charles was only number twelve.
The plan had existed for years.
They had intentionally mistranslated negotiations between crime families to provoke wars.
Every false translation created retaliation.
Every retaliation generated profit.
The people controlling the translations had quietly become richer while everyone else blamed one another.
Mave stared.
"The language was the weapon."
Armand nodded.
"Exactly."
Dominic looked at her.
"That's why you mattered."
She understood.
She had walked into the one room where the weapon could be exposed.
Armand continued.
"The final meeting is in Brooklyn."
"When?"
"Tomorrow."
"Where?"
"The Moretti family's old headquarters."
Dominic's expression changed.
"That's abandoned."
"No."
Armand shook his head.
"They reopened it."
"Who?"
Sabrina Bellini.
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
They returned to Brooklyn.
The old headquarters was filled with people.
Not criminals.
Employees.
Accountants.
Lawyers.
Interpreters.
Sabrina stood at the front.
"Dominic."
He walked inside.
"What is this?"
"The end of the war."
She turned to Mave.
"And she is the key."
Sabrina revealed the truth.
She had secretly been working against her own family.
The arranged marriage was a distraction.
She wanted to expose the people who had manipulated both sides.
"You expect me to trust you?"
"No."
Sabrina smiled.
"I expect you to trust the evidence."
She activated a screen.
Recordings filled the room.
Charles.
Rafael.
Several Bellini and Rossy officials.
All discussing the translation scheme.
But one voice silenced everyone.
Helena Rossy.
Dominic looked at his mother.
"You knew."
Helena nodded.
"I helped build the evidence."
The room went silent.
Then the doors locked.
Men entered.
Weapons raised.
Sabrina shouted.
"Down!"
Gunfire erupted.
Mave dropped behind a desk.
Dominic covered her.
Armand fired back.
The attackers were eventually subdued.
But one escaped.
A man with a familiar face.
Gregory.
Mave stared.
"He was helping us."
Armand shook his head.
"Not anymore."
Gregory looked at Mave.
"You learned too much."
He fled.
Dominic wanted to chase him.
Mave stopped him.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because he wants you to leave the building."
Dominic looked at her.
"What did you hear?"
"His footsteps."
"What?"
"He isn't running."
"He is leading someone."
Dominic understood.
"Sniper."
They moved.
A bullet shattered the window where Dominic's head had been.
Mave grabbed his arm.
"Down!"
He stared at her.
She had just saved his life.
Again.
May you like
And he realized something terrifying.
He couldn't imagine a future in which she wasn't beside him.
