CHAP 10 — PIER SEVENTEEN
Carmine took Mave to Pier Seventeen.
Of course he did.
Men like Carmine loved symbolism.
The warehouse where Marcus Vale died had been rebuilt twice, but the river smelled the same.
Mave entered alone.
Carmine stood near the windows.
Elena Vale sat in a chair beside him.
Mave stopped.
Her mother looked older than memory.
But those eyes—
Mave knew them.
“Mavie.”
One word.
Mave almost broke.
She crossed the room.
Carmine raised a hand.
“Not yet.”
Mave looked at him.
“If you touch her—”
“You’re not in a position to threaten me.”
Mave smiled faintly.
“That depends on your accounting.”
Carmine’s eyes narrowed.
He liked intelligence only when it belonged to him.
“Give me the ledger.”
“Release my mother.”
“Ledger first.”
“No.”
Elena spoke.
“Mave, don’t.”
Carmine sighed.
“Families make negotiations exhausting.”
Mave looked toward her mother.
“Is he telling the truth about Dad?”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“Some of it.”
Carmine smiled.
“Here we go.”
Elena ignored him.
“Your father discovered Carmine’s private network.”
“And Alessandro?”
“Helped us.”
Mave froze.
“Vincent’s father?”
“Yes.”
Carmine’s jaw tightened.
Elena continued.
“Alessandro arranged for you to disappear. He created the Bennett identity.”
Mave understood.
The Costa patriarch had protected her.
“But Marcus?”
Elena closed her eyes.
“He would not leave without the ledger.”
Carmine laughed softly.
“He always loved evidence more than survival.”
Elena looked at him with pure hatred.
“You locked the doors.”
Mave stared.
“What?”
Carmine’s smile vanished.
Elena continued.
“The fire wasn’t meant to frighten them.”
Gabriel had been wrong.
“Carmine locked Marcus inside.”
Mave’s hands curled.
“Gabriel escaped through the river access.”
Carmine looked bored.
“Ancient history.”
“No,” Mave said.
“It’s accounting.”
He frowned.
“My father’s life became part of your balance sheet.”
She stepped closer.
“And now I’m closing the account.”
Carmine laughed.
Then the warehouse doors opened.
Vincent entered.
Alone.
Carmine looked pleased.
“I knew you’d come.”
Vincent looked at Mave.
She was unharmed.
His shoulders relaxed by half an inch.
Mave noticed.
Carmine did too.
“There it is,” Carmine said.
“The famous tether.”
Vincent ignored him.
“Let Elena go.”
“Give me the Vale shares.”
“They’re not mine.”
“Make her sign.”
Vincent looked at Mave.
“No.”
Carmine smiled.
“You would surrender seventy percent of your legitimate empire for her?”
Vincent answered:
“If it was mine to surrender.”
That silenced Mave.
Vincent continued.
“Marcus Vale built it. Alessandro preserved it. Mave owns what belongs to Mave.”
Carmine stared at his nephew as if he had spoken a foreign language.
“You’re giving away the Costa empire.”
“No.”
Vincent looked at Mave.
“I’m separating it from men like you.”
Carmine’s face changed.
He pulled out a phone.
“Then your mother dies.”
Mave’s breath stopped.
But Elena smiled.
Carmine frowned.
“What?”
Elena looked toward her daughter.
“Patterns.”
Mave understood.
She had seen the same detail in the photograph.
The medication bottle.
The newspaper.
The window reflection.
Her mother hadn’t been held at Pier Seventeen until today.
Carmine had moved her here hastily.
That meant his real secure location had been exposed.
Mave had sent the coordinates before arriving.
Sirens sounded outside.
Carmine’s face drained.
Vincent smiled coldly.
“You always thought secretaries took notes.”
He looked at Mave.
“This one reads them.”
Chaos erupted.
But Mave only looked at her mother.
For seventeen years, everyone had told her Marcus Vale died because he knew too much.
Now she knew the deeper truth.
May you like
He died because Carmine Costa believed truth belonged to whoever had enough power to bury it.
Mave intended to prove him wrong.
