Chapter 9 - The Purge Of Chicago
The grand front doors of the Duca estate burst open as federal tactical teams and Chicago police detectives swarmed the foyer.
Leading the charge was United States Assistant Attorney David Sterling—one of the guests who had been safely shielded in the art gallery an hour earlier. When Sterling walked into the dining hall and saw the dropped weapons, the bound mercenaries, and the audio recordings playing through the central sound system, his jaw set into grim determination.
“Vivien Vance and Julian Vance,” Sterling declared, displaying the federal arrest warrants. “You are both under arrest for federal conspiracy to commit murder, corporate espionage, extortion, and the unlawful contract killing of Marco Duca and former syndicate head Roberto Duca.”
Vivien shrieked as cold steel handcuffs snapped around her wrists. Her manicured hands were pinned behind her back, her hair falling wild and tangled across her tear-stained face. As the marshals dragged her across the marble floor, she looked back at me one last time, begging for a glance, a word, a shred of pity.
I didn't even look at her. I stood with one arm around Elena’s waist and our daughter nestled against my chest, watching the poison being removed from my home forever.
Within forty-eight hours, the Vance family empire completely collapsed. Federal agents raided their corporate headquarters on Michigan Avenue, seizing dozens of offshore accounts and liquidating their assets to satisfy the mountain of fraud and racketeering judgments. Julian Vance was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, while Vivien received thirty-five years at the Federal Correctional Institution in Pekin.
The Moretti syndicate, realizing that Lorenzo Duca had wiped out the Vances in a single evening without firing a single wild shot, immediately sent an envoy to sue for a permanent non-aggression pact. Chicago was unified under my name, but the violent streets no longer held any interest for me.
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My father’s debts were paid. My mother’s honor was restored.
And for the first time in my life, the darkness had no claim on my soul.
