Chapter 5 - THE RULE I BROKE FIRST
Sofia watched the video without blinking.
I stood across from her inside the locked examination room.
Bruno sat beside the door.
She avoided looking at him.
“You killed Carlo.”
“Marco pulled the trigger.”
“You ordered it.”
“He was going to expose everything.”
“He was family.”
“He was sentimental.”
The word made my hand tighten.
Sofia saw it.
“There is the brother I remember.”
“Hit me.”
“Prove that your rules are only theater.”
I kept my hands at my sides.
“Why children?”
“Because powerful men pay more for what is forbidden.”
Tony stepped forward.
I stopped him.
Sofia smiled.
“You built an empire from fear, Nico.”
“I simply found a more profitable market.”
“I said no trafficking.”
“You said many things.”
“You still took money from gambling rooms that destroyed families.”
“You moved guns into neighborhoods.”
“You bribed police.”
“Do not pretend you gave Queens morality.”
Every accusation was true.
That was what made her words dangerous.
I had built the roads she used.
I had made secrecy honorable.
I had taught men that family business never reached police.
Sofia only moved the line.
Then she erased it.
“Where is the warehouse entrance?”
She laughed.
“You think Harlan left the children there after Elena recorded it?”
“The location signal is active.”
“It is a trap.”
“Then tell me where they are.”
“No.”
I leaned closer.
“Marco escaped because you allowed it.”
“He has the transport codes.”
“What transport?”
“A ferry.”
The children were scheduled to leave through a private freight terminal before dawn.
The warehouse location held only part of the operation.
The ferry manifest would identify them as members of a youth music program traveling to Canada.
Sofia looked at the timer.
“If you raid the warehouse, Harlan moves the ferry early.”
“If you go to the terminal, the warehouse burns.”
“You cannot save both.”
She had arranged the choice because she believed I would protect my territory before unknown children.
The old Nico Rossi might have.
The man who entered the funeral home had measured Elena’s death against a debt her father owed.
Forty-two thousand dollars.
I had heard myself think about money beside a child’s coffin.
Sofia knew me well.
Maybe too well.
I turned toward Tony.
“Call federal agent Evelyn Shaw.”
He stared at me.
“We have spent ten years avoiding her.”
“Call her.”
Sofia’s smile vanished.
“You cannot bring the government into this.”
“I can.”
“They will take everything.”
“Yes.”
The word surprised all of us.
My businesses.
My routes.
My accounts.
My freedom.
If exposing them was the price of opening every tunnel Sofia had used, then the bill had arrived.
Tony stepped into the hallway to make the call.
Sofia leaned forward.
“You will destroy Carlo’s legacy.”
“You killed Carlo.”
“You will destroy our father’s name.”
“Our father gave us rules because he knew what men become without them.”
“And you followed them?”
“Not enough.”
I looked through the window toward Elena’s room.
Rosa sat beside her daughter.
Tomas held the child’s hand.
Bruno lay beneath the bed.
A man like me had no right to describe himself as good.
But I still had the ability to choose what happened next.
Agent Evelyn Shaw answered Tony’s call.
She demanded evidence.
I gave her the memory card.
She demanded access to my docks.
I gave her the codes.
She demanded that I surrender after the children were safe.
I agreed.
Sofia stared at me.
“You would go to prison for strangers?”
“No.”
May you like
I looked toward Elena.
“I’m going because they stopped being strangers when you used my name to hurt them.”
