CHAP 14 — THE LOWEST FLOOR
The missing pages showed Carlo Marchetti had retained secret ownership in several Ashford entities.
If true, Enzo could inherit criminal liabilities reaching back decades.
Federal prosecutors could seize companies he believed were legitimate.
Thousands of employees could lose jobs.
Pension funds could collapse.
Alden was threatening to destroy both families if Enzo refused.
Marco wanted to meet him.
Cole refused.
Adeline wanted to go.
Enzo refused.
“You are not walking into an abandoned hospital with Alden Ashford.”
“He asked for my key.”
“He wants more than the key.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because my mother left it to me.”
“That is not a reason to die for it.”
Her eyes hardened.
“Stop deciding which risks I’m allowed to take.”
“And stop pretending courage means volunteering to be bait.”
The argument ended with Adeline leaving the room.
Ten minutes later, Sofia found Enzo alone.
“You love her.”
He looked up.
“That isn’t relevant.”
“That’s a yes.”
“Sofia.”
“Your father spent his life confusing control with protection.”
Enzo stared at her.
“Don’t become him.”
Those words followed him.
At seven that evening, Enzo knocked on Adeline’s door.
“You can go.”
She looked surprised.
“With conditions.”
“Of course.”
“You wear a wire. Cole controls the perimeter. You leave if anything changes.”
“And you?”
“I’ll be there.”
She nodded.
“Fine.”
The abandoned hospital smelled of dust and cold concrete.
Alden waited inside the old surgical wing.
No guards were visible.
That meant nothing.
“Miss Croft,” he said.
Adeline stood ten feet away.
“Alden.”
“You look more like Lucia every time I see you.”
“Stop saying her name.”
He smiled.
“The key.”
She held it up.
“Pages first.”
Alden laughed.
“You learned negotiation from Enzo?”
“No. From being poor.”
His smile vanished.
He held up an envelope.
“Why does the key matter?” she asked.
“It opens a private archive.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere your mother should never have entered.”
“What’s inside?”
“The original partnership agreement.”
“Between Carlo and you?”
“And Richard.”
Camilla’s grandfather.
The document could establish who truly owned the network.
Adeline stepped closer.
“Why didn’t you destroy it?”
“Because powerful men destroy evidence only when they are certain they will never need to blackmail each other.”
She almost smiled.
“At least you’re consistent.”
Alden’s eyes chilled.
“Your mother said things like that.”
“What did she say before your brother killed her?”
For the first time, Alden lost control.
“My brother panicked.”
“So you admit it.”
“I admit nothing.”
“You were there.”
He stared at her.
“Yes.”
The word was quiet.
The wire transmitted everything.
Outside, Cole signaled agents forward.
Then the lights died.
Gunshots cracked somewhere in the building.
Not at Adeline.
At federal vehicles outside.
Confusion erupted.
Enzo rushed toward her.
Alden disappeared through a stairwell.
The entire meeting had been a trap.
Not to kill Adeline.
To draw law enforcement away from another target.
Sofia’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her face emptied.
“What happened?”
Cole looked at her.
Sofia whispered:
“The federal evidence warehouse.”
The master ledger.
Thomas Ross’s confession.
Lucia’s affidavit.
Everything had been stored there temporarily.
Someone had set the facility on fire.
By the time crews contained it, half the physical evidence was destroyed.
Digital backups had also been corrupted.
Alden had sacrificed the meeting to erase the case.
For the first time since the engagement party, he had won.
Worse, the next morning federal agents arrived at Enzo’s house.
Not to protect him.
To arrest him.
Charges included racketeering, tax fraud, bribery, and obstruction.
Evidence from Carlo’s accounts now pointed directly toward Enzo’s companies.
Alden had not merely destroyed the evidence against himself.
He had replaced it with evidence against Enzo.
Adeline watched as agents handcuffed him.
Enzo looked at her.
No fear.
No command.
Only one sentence.
“Don’t protect me from what I actually did.”
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Then Chicago’s most feared mafia boss was led out of his own house in handcuffs.
And Alden Ashford appeared on television that afternoon calling it “a victory for justice.”
