Chapter 9 - THE WRONG WOMAN TO THREATEN
Dante wanted Elena moved to a safe house.
Elena refused.
“I survived Sicily after the war. I survived your father. I survived American hospital food. I am not hiding because a blonde woman owns a red marker.”
“Mama.”
“No.”
Sophia stepped forward.
“Elena, please.”
Elena looked at her.
That changed everything.
“Three days,” Sophia said. “Not hiding. Visiting somewhere heavily armed.”
Elena sighed.
“You manipulate better than my son.”
Dante muttered, “I noticed.”
They moved Elena before sunrise.
Anthony remained missing.
Sophia called every hospital.
Every police precinct.
Every bar he used to visit.
Nothing.
By afternoon, guilt had turned into anger.
She stormed into Dante’s office.
“I’m going to Vanessa.”
“No.”
“She has my father.”
“No.”
“She called me.”
“Which means she wants you emotional.”
“I am emotional!”
“Exactly.”
Sophia slammed both hands on his desk.
“That is my father.”
“The same father who helped someone enter this house.”
“Yes!”
Dante stared at her.
Sophia’s voice cracked.
“He is weak. He lies. He gambles. He has destroyed almost everything good in his life.”
She swallowed.
“But he is still my father.”
Dante stood.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
His expression changed.
“My father died in my arms.”
Sophia went silent.
Dante rarely spoke about himself.
“He had enemies everywhere,” he said. “For years, I begged him to slow down. To get out. To stop believing fear was the same as loyalty.”
“What happened?”
“He didn’t.”
Dante looked at his hands.
“One night, a man he trusted opened a door.”
Sophia thought about the east gate.
“Your father was killed?”
“Yes.”
“And you took over.”
“I was twenty-six.”
Sophia’s anger softened.
“Dante…”
He looked at her.
“That is why I’m not letting you walk into Vanessa’s hands.”
Enzo entered without knocking.
“We found Anthony.”
Sophia spun around.
“Where?”
“Security camera near Red Hook. He got out of a Genovese vehicle forty minutes ago.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
They found Anthony inside an abandoned diner near the waterfront.
He looked exhausted.
Terrified.
But alive.
Sophia ran to him.
Anthony held her tightly.
“I’m sorry.”
“Where were you?”
“They took me.”
“Vanessa?”
He nodded.
Dante stepped closer.
“What did she want?”
Anthony looked at him.
“A file.”
“What file?”
“She said you have something her father needs.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“What exactly?”
“A ledger.”
Enzo cursed.
Sophia looked between them.
“What ledger?”
Dante didn’t answer immediately.
Anthony did.
“A list of every politician, judge, union official, and cop the Genoveses ever paid.”
The room fell silent.
Sophia looked at Dante.
“You have that?”
“Yes.”
“And Vanessa thinks my father can get it?”
Anthony shook his head.
“No.”
His eyes filled with shame.
“She thinks Sophia can.”
Sophia stepped back.
May you like
Then Anthony said the part that made Dante reach for his gun.
“She told me if Sophia doesn’t bring the ledger tomorrow night, Elena dies.”
