Chapter 7 - The Midnight Confrontation
The private aviation hangar at Logan International Airport was vast, cold, and echoing with the hum of idling jet turbines.
Victoria Russo stood by the metal staircase of a chartered Gulfstream jet, wearing a heavy white fur coat, her silver hair catching the fluorescent hangar lights. Two of her personal bodyguards stood protectively behind her as a black sedan screeched to a halt near the tarmac.
Dante stepped out of the vehicle, his long coat billowing behind him in the jet stream. Nico flanked him on his left, his hand resting casually inside his jacket holster.
Victoria turned around, her expression hardening into pure ice as she watched her son approach.
"Julian," she called out over the roar of the engines. "Have you completely lost your mind? Chasing me down like a common criminal?"
"The game is over, Mother," Dante said, stopping ten feet away from her. He pulled the leather briefcase of evidence from Nico’s hand and tossed it across the concrete. It slid right to the base of the jet’s metal stairs.
Victoria glanced down at the open case, seeing the signed documents, the bank transfers, and the Moretti syndicate crests. For the first time, her legendary poise completely fractured. Her hands began to tremble.
"You... you searched my private safe," she whispered, her voice laced with venom.
"You traded our family’s security for a seat at a table that never wanted you," Dante said, his voice devoid of any remaining warmth or filial affection. "You tried to destroy the woman I love, and you condemned my daughters to grow up in a basement. And for that, you don't get a trial."
Victoria’s eyes widened in sudden, genuine fear. "Julian! I am your mother! Everything I built, I built for you!"
"You built a prison," Dante corrected her coldly. He gestured to Marcus, who stepped out of the shadows with two federal marshals in tow. "The federal authorities have been waiting for this dossier for forty-eight hours. You’re going to a federal penitentiary in upstate New York, Mother. And you will spend the rest of your life looking at concrete walls."
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"You wouldn't dare!" Victoria screamed as the marshals stepped forward, clicking heavy steel handcuffs around her wrists. "I gave you an empire!"
"I don't need your empire," Dante turned his back on her as she was dragged toward the unmarked police cruisers waiting outside the hangar. "I already have my world back."
