Chapter 7 - THE WATER AND THE TRUTH
The basement erupted into chaos.
Blaring sirens pierced the air, and instantly, the industrial sprinkler system activated.
Freezing, high-pressure water blasted down from the ceiling, instantly soaking the room.
Dante flinched, instinctively raising an arm to shield his eyes from the downpour.
That half-second was all Rosie needed.
She didn’t run away. She stepped forward and shoved a heavy, wheeled laundry cart directly into Dante’s chest.
The cart hit him hard, knocking him backward onto the slick, wet tile. His gun clattered out of his hand, spinning under an industrial washing machine.
“Run, Leo!” Rosie yelled over the sirens.
She grabbed her nephew’s hand, and they sprinted out the door into the loading dock alley.
The cold rain outside mixed with the water dripping from their clothes.
Lorenzo’s black SUV was idling violently by the dumpsters. Mateo threw the back door open.
Rosie practically threw Leo into the backseat before diving in after him.
Mateo hit the gas before the doors even closed, the tires tearing through the alleyway and out onto the street.
In the back seat, Lorenzo was pale, his silk tie bandage completely soaked in blood. But his eyes were sharp.
“Dante?” Lorenzo asked, his voice strained.
“He bought Dante,” Rosie gasped, pulling a shivering Leo into her chest. “Vance bought Dante. It was an inside job from the start.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes, a muscle ticking in his jaw.
“Then the two million was never missing,” Lorenzo said quietly. “Dante moved it straight into Vance’s offshore accounts through the hotel’s system.”
The car sped through the slick streets of Chicago, the neon lights bleeding across the wet windows.
Rosie took a deep breath, the adrenaline slowly fading, leaving behind a deep, aching exhaustion.
She reached into her wet pocket to make sure the silver key was still safe.
Her fingers brushed against the metal.
But they also touched something else.
When she had tackled Vance in the penthouse, she had instinctively grabbed a piece of paper that had fallen from his coat pocket during the scuffle. She hadn’t even looked at it.
She pulled the folded, water-damaged paper out into the dim light of the car.
It was an old, yellowed document, stamped with official red ink from 1974.
It was an immigration deportation order.
For Elara Viti.
Rosie stared at the paper, her breath catching.
The order was signed by a federal judge. But stamped over it, in bold black ink, was the word: REVOKED.
Beneath the stamp was a signature.
Carmine Bianca. Lorenzo’s father.
“He saved her,” Rosie whispered, looking up at Lorenzo.
Lorenzo opened his eyes. He looked at the document in her hand.
“My father didn’t just employ your grandmother, Rosie,” Lorenzo said softly. “He protected her. She was facing deportation. She would have been sent back to Sicily, straight into the hands of a rival family who wanted her dead.”
He coughed, wincing at the pain in his shoulder.
“My father bribed the judge. He kept her safe. In return, she hid the master ledger so it could never be used against our family.”
The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
Her grandmother hadn’t been a victim. She hadn’t been trapped.
She had been loyal.
“Vance was going to use this,” Rosie realized, anger boiling in her veins again. “He was going to release this to the feds to ruin my family’s name, to prove the bakery was built on dirty money.”
“Yes,” Lorenzo said.
Rosie looked down at Leo. The boy had fallen asleep against her side, exhausted and finally safe.
She looked at the antique silver key in her hand.
She didn’t just want to hide anymore.
She wanted to finish this.
“Mateo,” Rosie said, her voice ringing with the same hard authority her grandmother used to use.
The underboss glanced in the mirror.
“Where are we going, Miss Hastings?”
“The First National Bank opens at 8:00 AM,” Rosie said. “But we aren’t going there to hide.”
May you like
She looked at Lorenzo.
“Tomorrow is the biggest wedding of the year at the Drake. Vance will be there to maintain appearances. We are going to walk into his lobby, and we are going to burn his life to the ground.”
