CHAPTER 4 – THE TRAITOR'S CONFESSION
CHAPTER 4 – THE TRAITOR'S CONFESSION
The battle lasted forty-three minutes.
When silence finally returned...
Twenty-eight Castano soldiers were dead.
Nine Romano men had fallen.
The once-beautiful mansion now looked like a battlefield.
Firefighters could be seen in the distance.
Police sirens approached but wisely stopped several streets away.
No officer wanted to step into a mafia war.
Inside the ruined ballroom...
Vincent dragged a wounded man across the blood-covered marble floor.
Captain Luca Ferraro.
His own security commander.
The traitor.
Luca coughed blood.
"I..."
"I can explain."
Vincent threw him against a broken piano.
"You already have."
"You opened my gates."
Tony arrived with Isabella behind him.
The little girl looked horrified.
"He's one of your men..."
"He was."
Vincent never took his eyes off Luca.
"Why?"
The captain laughed weakly.
"You really don't know?"
Vincent remained silent.
Luca smiled through bloody teeth.
"Matteo never cared about killing Elena."
Those words froze everyone.
"What did you say?"
Luca coughed again.
"He needed her alive."
Vincent grabbed him by the collar.
"Where is she?"
Instead of answering...
Luca began laughing.
"You still don't understand."
"She wasn't kidnapped."
"She surrendered."
Silence filled the room.
Isabella shook her head.
"No."
"My mama would never leave me."
Luca looked at the child with pity.
"She didn't leave you."
"She traded herself for you."
Vincent's breathing stopped.
"What?"
Luca continued.
"Matteo promised to spare Isabella..."
"...if Elena disappeared forever."
Tony stared in disbelief.
"That's impossible."
"No."
Luca whispered.
"I delivered the message."
Vincent punched him so hard the chair shattered beneath him.
"You lied to her."
"I told her you had forgotten her."
"I told her you'd built another family."
"I told her Isabella meant nothing to you."
Vincent staggered backward.
Every word felt like another knife.
Elena had believed he abandoned them.
She sacrificed herself because she thought there was no one left to protect their daughter.
Tears formed in Isabella's eyes.
"Mama..."
Vincent knelt beside her.
"No."
"Listen to me."
"Your mother never stopped loving you."
"She never stopped loving us."
The little girl hugged him tightly.
"I know."
"I always knew."
Across the room...
Luca began laughing again.
"You'll never find her."
Vincent slowly stood.
"Why?"
"Because she's already inside Black Harbor."
Tony's face turned white.
"No..."
Vincent's expression darkened.
Black Harbor.
The abandoned island prison once controlled by international crime syndicates.
No one escaped alive.
Luca smiled.
"Matteo turned it into a private fortress."
"Elena has been there for twenty-one days."
Vincent grabbed him again.
"How do I get inside?"
Luca smiled one final time.
"You don't."
Before anyone could react...
He bit down on something hidden inside his mouth.
Crunch.
Tony shouted,
"Poison!"
Within seconds...
Foam appeared around Luca's lips.
His body convulsed violently.
Thirty seconds later...
He was dead.
The only man who knew the full truth had silenced himself forever.
The room fell into silence.
Tony finally spoke.
"What now?"
Vincent looked toward Elena's portrait hanging above the destroyed fireplace.
Then he looked at Isabella.
His daughter.
His reason to fight.
His family.
He holstered his pistols.
His voice became calm.
Deadly calm.
"We don't wait."
"We don't hide."
"We don't negotiate."
Tony nodded.
"You mean..."
Vincent looked toward the dark ocean visible beyond the mansion.
"Tomorrow night..."
"We invade Black Harbor."
Far away...
On a cold island prison surrounded by crashing waves...
A woman chained inside a concrete cell slowly lifted her head.
Despite bruises covering her face...
She smiled.
Because for the first time in weeks...
She heard explosions echoing faintly across the sea.
And somehow...
She whispered with unwavering faith,
"Vincent..."
"I know you've finally found Isabella."
May you like
"And I know..."
"You're coming for me."
