Chapter 11 - The Truth in the Rain|
Isabella stood near the brick doorway, her clothes wet, her body shaking from adrenaline, watching him walk toward her.
Dante set his gun back into his holster. He stopped two feet away from her under the cold rain, his breathing heavy, his chest rising and falling beneath his dark shirt.
"Isabella," he whispered, reaching out a hand toward her cheek.
She took half a step backward, stepping out of his reach.
Dante’s hand froze in mid-air, a look of profound, agonizing pain flickering across his gray eyes before he slowly lowered his arm.
"You brought Franco to my front door, Dante," she said softly, her voice trembling. "Your family tried to murder me twice in twelve hours."
"I didn't know Sal sent Franco," Dante said, his voice raw with emotion. "The moment Marco told me what happened with the velvet case, I left the estate. I swear to you on my father’s grave, Isabella, I would have burned this city to the ground before letting anyone hurt you."
"You didn't protect me when it mattered, Dante," she said, looking him dead in the eye. "When your aunt accused me, when Carlo demanded my bag be searched... you stood there like a judge instead of my man."
Dante looked down at the wet pavement, his broad shoulders slumping under the weight of his own failure.
"I was trying to be the Don," Dante admitted softly, his voice barely audible over the roaring fire hydrant nearby. "I thought if I followed the rules, I could clear you cleanly without sparking a war among the captains. I was a fool."
Isabella pulled the silver flash drive from her tote bag, holding it out to him.
"This drive contains the Brooklyn real estate ledgers," she said coldly. "Carlo didn't just frame me, Dante. He sold the real sapphire necklace three months ago for a million dollars and replaced it with a synthetic fake. He planted the fake in my bag to cover his theft and stop me from auditing his accounts."
Dante stared at the small silver drive in her hand.
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"And," Isabella added, her voice dropping into a knife-sharp register, "he’s been funneling your family’s shipping funds directly to the Genovese syndicate."
Dante’s gray eyes went completely black.
