Chapter 26 - Dominic’s Final Bargain
I met Dominic through reinforced glass.
Massimo sat outside the interview room.
He hated every second.
That was partly why I agreed.
Dominic looked smaller in prison clothing.
No tailored coat.
No cane.
No employees.
No illusion.
Just an old man sitting beneath fluorescent lights.
He picked up the telephone.
I did the same.
“You won,” he said.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“You lost.”
He smiled faintly.
“Thomas used to talk like that.”
“Why did you want to see me?”
“Curiosity.”
“Try again.”
He leaned back.
“I know where Elena is.”
My grip tightened.
Elena had vanished after the church.
Federal authorities wanted her for conspiracy, arson involvement, and multiple financial crimes.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing.”
“You have never done anything for nothing.”
“Prison creates new hobbies.”
I waited.
Finally, Dominic sighed.
“Elena believed she would inherit what remained of my network.”
“And?”
“She discovered there is no network.”
He sounded almost amused.
“Only frightened people pretending someone else still has power.”
That sentence stayed with me.
Maybe every empire built on fear eventually became that.
Frightened people pretending.
“Where is she?”
“Canada.”
“Where?”
He gave me the city.
Then an address.
I wrote it down.
“Why help?”
Dominic looked toward the security camera.
“Because she stole from me.”
There it was.
Ego survived prison.
“What did she steal?”
“A drive.”
“What’s on it?”
“Names.”
My stomach tightened.
“Whose names?”
“People who helped me.”
Judges.
Officials.
Police.
Executives.
If Elena had the drive, she could blackmail half the city.
“Federal investigators know?”
“They will.”
“You’re confessing?”
“I am negotiating.”
I almost laughed.
“You’re facing the rest of your life in prison.”
“Then I have a great deal of time to negotiate.”
I stood.
“Goodbye, Dominic.”
“Sophie.”
I stopped.
His expression changed.
Something quieter entered his eyes.
“Your father asked me once whether I ever worried about what my son would think of me.”
I said nothing.
“I told him sons respect power.”
“And now?”
He looked toward the door where Gabriel waited with federal investigators.
“Now I know Thomas was right.”
For one second, I saw a man understanding his failure.
Then it disappeared.
I left.
Federal authorities located Elena forty-eight hours later.
She was arrested without violence.
The encrypted drive was recovered.
Its files exposed twelve public officials and several executives who had protected Dominic for years.
The scandal dominated Chicago for months.
Judges resigned.
Contracts were canceled.
Investigations expanded.
People who once attended charity dinners beside Dominic suddenly claimed they barely knew him.
Gabriel testified against his father.
Francesca testified about the threats that forced her signature.
Donna Caterina refused every television interview offered.
Claire became obsessed with reading court transcripts.
Massimo returned to work.
And I returned to flowers.
For a while, that was enough.
Then one morning, I walked into our kitchen and found Massimo staring at two coffee cups.
“Why are you looking at those like they insulted your mother?”
He turned.
“I made coffee.”
I looked at the cups.
Massimo Romano could negotiate billion-dollar shipping contracts.
He could not make coffee.
“You’re frightening me.”
He smiled.
“Sit.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“That sounds guilty.”
“Sophie.”
I sat.
He pushed a folder toward me.
Not another contract.
Not another lawsuit.
Architectural drawings.
A huge glass building surrounded by gardens.
“What is this?”
“The Miller-Romano Horticultural Institute.”
I stared at him.
“Massimo.”
“Job training. Small-business grants. Greenhouse research. Scholarships.”
My throat tightened.
“You planned this?”
“For months.”
“Why?”
“Because I spent most of my life building walls.”
He reached across the table.
“You build things that grow.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“I hate when you become romantic before breakfast.”
His thumb brushed my hand.
Then he looked suspiciously nervous.
That was new.
“What?”
Massimo glanced toward the hallway.
Claire appeared.
Then Francesca.
Then Donna Caterina.
All smiling.
“What is happening?”
Claire held up her phone.
“I knew first.”
“Knew what?”
Massimo looked at me.
His eyes softened.
“You should probably check the bathroom counter.”
I stood slowly.
Then I understood.
My period was six days late.
The nausea.
The exhaustion.
The coffee suddenly smelling horrible.
I ran upstairs.
Two minutes later, I stared at the test.
Positive.
Massimo stood silently in the doorway.
I turned.
His face had gone completely still.
May you like
“We’re having a baby,” I whispered.
The most feared man I had ever met began to cry.
