Chapter 10 - THE EXCHANGE
Emma wanted to tell Luca immediately.
They were already in the car.
Three minutes from the freight terminal.
She turned toward him.
“Gianni planned it.”
Luca looked over.
“What?”
She played the recording.
His face changed with every word.
By the end, he looked empty.
Not angry.
Empty.
“Turn around,” Emma told the driver.
“No.”
“Luca.”
“Elena is there.”
“This is a trap.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t walk into it.”
“You would?”
She stopped.
Yes.
For someone tied to a chair because of her?
Yes.
Luca looked out the window.
“Sofia used to hate that about me.”
“What?”
“I always believe knowing it’s a trap somehow makes walking into it intelligent.”
Emma almost laughed.
“Your wife was smart.”
“She was.”
The exchange went forward.
Luca carried a duplicate drive.
Emma stayed hidden in a surveillance van with Marco, his arm still in a sling.
She hated every second.
Stefano arrived with Elena.
Gianni stood beside him.
Luca walked alone.
Rain fell.
Of course.
Families like these apparently scheduled betrayal around weather.
“Drive,” Stefano said.
Luca held it up.
“Elena first.”
Gianni looked at his oldest friend.
“You always were stubborn.”
“You killed my wife.”
“I didn’t.”
“You gave your brother access.”
“Yes.”
“You changed security.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Vittorio would be blamed.”
“Yes.”
Luca’s face tightened.
“Why?”
Gianni finally lost his calm.
“Because I watched your family sacrifice mine for thirty years.”
“Your father died for mine.”
“My father died because your father started a war.”
“You were treated like my brother.”
“I was treated like a useful brother.”
The distinction mattered to Gianni.
Maybe for decades.
He believed Luca inherited power while Russos inherited graves.
Stefano fed that resentment.
Vittorio fed it too when convenient.
Then Sofia discovered everything.
She had to disappear.
Gianni claimed he never ordered her death.
Only intimidation.
Stefano cut the brakes anyway.
“Then why protect him?”
Luca asked.
Gianni looked toward his brother.
“Because he’s all I have.”
Luca’s voice broke.
“I was your brother.”
For the first time, Gianni looked ashamed.
That hesitation saved Elena.
She kicked backward.
Stefano lost his grip.
Luca moved.
Chaos followed.
Emma could not see everything from the van.
Men shouting.
Marco issuing commands.
A gunshot into the air.
Then another.
Emma hated guns.
Hated how instantly they stole reason from rooms.
Police sirens approached.
Luca had called federal authorities after all.
He had not told Emma.
Good.
Stefano ran.
Gianni froze.
Elena reached Luca.
Marco’s men secured her.
Stefano disappeared into the freight yard.
Gianni surrendered.
Not to Luca.
To federal agents.
Before being taken, he looked at Emma.
“Sofia was right about you.”
Emma stared.
“What?”
“She said you would make Luca choose the child before the empire.”
Then he was gone.
Later, at the hospital, Elena revealed the final thing Sofia told her before death.
Sofia wanted Luca out.
Not from her life.
From the organization.
She had been building a legal exit.
Selling criminal-linked holdings.
Moving legitimate businesses into transparent trusts.
She wanted Matteo born into a different family.
Not richer.
Safer.
Luca listened without speaking.
Emma watched him.
“What are you thinking?”
“That Sofia died trying to get me out of a life I kept calling protection.”
Emma said nothing.
Then Matteo began crying.
Luca picked him up.
No panic.
No bodyguards.
No orders.
Just his father.
Matteo settled.
Emma smiled.
Luca looked at her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s never true.”
“You learned.”
His face softened.
Then a federal agent entered.
“Mr. Romano.”
Luca turned.
“We have a problem.”
“Stefano Russo reached Vittorio before we did.”
Emma’s stomach dropped.
“What happened?”
The agent looked grim.
“Vittorio is missing.”
May you like
“And his wife is dead.”
The war Gianni wanted had begun anyway.
