Chapter 8 - THE TRAITOR AT ALESSANDRO’S TABLE
The fake transfer worked.
Within hours, Carlo contacted them.
Exchange.
Sophia for the ledger.
Grand Central Terminal.
Midnight.
But Alessandro noticed something.
Carlo knew details about the planned federal transfer that only four people knew.
Alessandro.
Marco.
Daniel.
And Rosa.
There was another traitor.
Marco began investigating quietly.
At 10:40 p.m., he found the leak.
Daniel.
Alessandro stared at him.
Daniel didn’t deny it.
“I had no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
“Carlo has my son.”
Alessandro froze.
Daniel had kept his twelve-year-old son away from the Moretti world.
Nobody knew the boy had returned from boarding school.
Carlo did.
Daniel’s eyes filled with shame.
“He said if I didn’t report everything, Luca would disappear.”
Alessandro’s anger vanished.
Not forgiveness.
Understanding.
“Where is Luca?”
“I don’t know.”
Alessandro changed the plan.
They would rescue both.
At midnight, Grand Central was nearly empty.
Sophia appeared across the concourse.
A man held her arm.
Carlo stood behind her.
Alessandro carried a briefcase.
“Let her go.”
Carlo smiled.
“The ledger first.”
Alessandro placed the case on the floor.
Carlo sent a man forward.
The man opened it.
Empty.
Carlo’s smile disappeared.
Then every electronic billboard inside Grand Central changed.
Blue ledger pages filled the screens.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
Evidence.
Carlo stared upward.
Alessandro said,
“You spent twenty years protecting a secret.”
“Tonight I made it public.”
Carlo grabbed Sophia.
But before he could move, federal agents poured into the concourse.
Carlo escaped through a maintenance corridor.
Again.
But Sophia was free.
Alessandro caught her as she stumbled.
“You came.”
She looked at him.
“I told Emma I would.”
May you like
Sophia laughed weakly.
Then collapsed against him.
