Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Made a Monster ChooseDamian had spent years believing loyalty meant obedience.
His organization had been built on that principle.
You followed orders.
You protected the family.
You never questioned the boss.
You never exposed weakness.
You never loved anyone enough to make yourself vulnerable.
But Tessa had turned all of it upside down.
She hadn't been afraid of him.
Not really.
She was afraid of what his world might do to her.
There was a difference.
They moved Tara to a secure medical facility.
Beatrice came too.
For the first time, the three women sat together.
Tessa.
Tara.
Beatrice.
Three people connected by decades of lies.
Damian stood in the doorway.
Beatrice looked at him.
“You're going to destroy everything.”
“Yes.”
“You'll lose the organization.”
“Yes.”
“Your father will come after you.”
“I know.”
“And Tessa?”
Damian looked at her.
“She stays.”
Tessa shook her head.
“No.”
Damian turned.
“What?”
“I don't want to be the reason you lose everything.”
“You're not.”
“I am.”
She stepped closer.
“This all happened because of me.”
“No.”
“Your father wants me.”
“Then he'll have to get through me.”
Her eyes filled.
“You don't understand what that means.”
“I do.”
She lowered her voice.
“It means you might die.”
Damian smiled.
“That's not new.”
She reached for his hand.
“This is.”
He looked at their fingers.
The intimacy frightened him more than guns.
Then the door opened.
Paul entered.
“Boss.”
Damian turned.
“What?”
“Someone breached the north wing.”
“Who?”
Paul handed him a photograph.
Dominic.
Standing outside the building.
But there was another person with him.
Lillian Costa.
Damian's older sister.
Dead for fifteen years.
He stared.
“My sister.”
Paul nodded.
“She isn't dead.”
Damian closed his eyes.
Another ghost.
Another lie.
He had been living inside a graveyard.
That night, Lillian entered the facility.
She hugged Damian.
He didn't hug her back.
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“I had to.”
“Why?”
“Because Dad thought I knew where the archive was.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
She looked at Tessa.
“She does.”
Tessa swallowed.
Lillian told them the truth.
The archive wasn't a bank.
It was a record of everyone Dominic had manipulated.
Judges.
Doctors.
Politicians.
Police officers.
Mafia families.
Everyone.
The person who controlled the archive controlled the city.
Tessa's mother had hidden the final access code.
She had split it between her daughters.
Tara knew the first half.
Tessa knew the second.
“Then why did Dominic need me?”
Lillian answered:
“Because he never knew Tara survived.”
Tessa looked at her sister.
Tara smiled.
“I wanted him to think I was dead.”
“What did you do?”
“I hid.”
“For eight months?”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“I wasn't alone.”
Tara looked toward the door.
A man entered.
Older.
Scarred.
Dominic's former lieutenant.
Elias Grant.
Damian knew him.
“He's the one who helped my mother.”
Elias nodded.
“Your father hated me.”
“Why?”
“Because I chose Beatrice.”
Damian looked at his mother.
She nodded.
The plan formed.
They would expose the archive.
Destroy Dominic's network.
Then disappear.
But Dominic was waiting.
He kidnapped Beatrice.
The ransom was simple.
Tessa.
Damian refused.
Then a video arrived.
Beatrice was tied to a chair.
Dominic stood beside her.
“Bring me the girl.”
Damian stared.
Tessa stepped forward.
“I'll go.”
“No.”
“If I don't, he kills her.”
“We'll find another way.”
“You have ten minutes.”
Damian grabbed her hand.
“I'm not losing you.”
She looked at him.
“You already changed my life.”
Then she kissed him.
Not desperate.
Not reckless.
A goodbye.
She left.
Damian stood motionless.
Paul looked at him.
“Boss.”
May you like
Damian's voice was cold.
“Find my father.”
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