Chapter 5

The silence in my tiny apartment was heavier than a bomb blast.

Dante stared at me as if I had suddenly sprouted a second head.

Sal looked ready to strangle me on the spot.

And Sofia looked confused, her limited capacity for depth struggling to process that the mouse had just roared.

"Are you threatening the family?" Dante asked, his voice low and vibrating with danger.

"I am threatening the lie," I corrected, my chin held high. "You want your annulment? You want your peace with Chicago? Then give me the truth."

"You are delusional," Dante spat. "Your mother died of a heart attack. The report you think you have... it's a forgery. You made it up in your grief."

Pure, unadulterated gaslighting.

He was doing it right to my face, without a distinct shred of shame, in front of witnesses.

"I saw it, Dante," I said, my voice steady despite the trembling in my hands. "I saw the arsenic levels."

"You saw what you wanted to see because you hate Sofia," he countered smoothly. "You're sick, Elena. This proves it. You need help."

He shifted his gaze to Sal. "She's mentally incompetent. We won't even need her signature if we declare her insane."

My blood froze in my veins.

He would do it. He would lock me away in a padded room and drug me until I couldn't remember my own name, let alone the truth about my mother.

I glanced at the window.

It was a second-story drop. Doable.

But not with three armed bodyguards in the hall.

I had to play this differently. Survival was the only victory available today.

I let my shoulders slump. I let the fire die in my eyes, masking it with defeat.

I looked down at the scratched surface of the table.

"You win," I whispered.

Dante exhaled, the tension leaving his frame. He adjusted his tie.

"Finally," he said. "It's for the best, Elena."

"I can't fight you," I said, looking up with carefully summoned tear-filled eyes. "You're too powerful. Just... leave me alone. Please."

"Sign," Sal said, pushing the pen across the wood.

I picked up the pen. It felt heavy, like lead.

I signed my name. *Elena Vitiello.*

For the last time.

"Good girl," Sofia sneered, tossing her hair. "Now get out of my sight."

Dante picked up the papers, checking the signature. He looked at me one last time.

There was no regret in his eyes. Only relief that the nuisance was solved.

"We will deposit the allowance," he said stiffly.

"Keep it," I said. "I don't want your dirty money."

"Suit yourself."

They left.

The room felt hollowed out.

I locked the door. I pushed the table against it.

Immediately, I grabbed my burner phone.

I dialed a number I had memorized.

"It's done," I said. "They think I'm broken. They think I'm crazy."

"Good," Matteo Falcone's voice rasped on the other end, rough like sandpaper. "The boat leaves in 48 hours. Can you make it to the docks?"

"I'll crawl if I have to."

*

That night, Dante called my old number.

I stared at the screen, the glowing name mocking me.

I shouldn't answer.

But I needed to hear it.

I answered.

"Elena," he slurred, sounding drunk. "I just... I wanted you to know. It didn't have to be this way."

"Yes, it did," I said, my voice cold. "You chose this way when you let her kill my mother."

"Stop saying that!" he snapped, his guilt flaring into anger. "It was an accident! Or... or maybe your mother took something herself! She was depressed!"

"You are pathetic," I said. "You know the truth. You just don't have the balls to face it."

"I am the Underboss of New York!" he shouted, his bravado failing. "I do what is necessary!"

"You are a coward, Dante. And one day, when she turns on you-and she will-remember this conversation."

"Elena, wait-"

I hung up.

I took the SIM card out and snapped it in half.

I threw the phone in the trash.

*

The next day, I walked through the neighborhood like a ghost.

I saw a few low-level Vitiello soldiers lounging at a café.

They saw me.

They didn't nod. They didn't bow.

One of them pointed.

"Look at her," he laughed. "Selling drawings on the street. From the penthouse to the pavement."

"Sad," another said. "Dante really upgraded with Sofia. She's got class."

"Class?" I thought. *She has a body count.*

A cousin of Dante's, a boy I had once tutored in math, walked by.

He stopped. He looked at my worn sneakers with distinct disdain.

He pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and held it out.

"Here, Elena," he said, sneering. "Get yourself a sandwich. You look like a junkie."

I looked at the money.

I looked at the boy I had helped pass algebra, the boy I had once fed cookies at my kitchen island.

"No thanks, Marco," I said. "I'm not hungry."

"Suit yourself, crazy bitch."

He threw the bill at my feet and walked away.

I left it there, letting the wind take it.

I went back to the apartment.

I packed my bag. One change of clothes. My sketchbook. The encrypted notebook.

My mother's photo.

I left the keys on the table.

I walked out.

I didn't look back.

As I walked toward the harbor, passing an electronics store, I saw a wall of TVs flickering in unison.

They were broadcasting live from Times Square.

Dante was there.

He was on one knee.

In front of thousands of people. In front of rolling cameras.

He was holding a ring. Not my mother's sapphire. A massive, vulgar diamond.

He was proposing to Sofia.

"Sofia Moretti," he said, his voice amplified by towering speakers. "You are my life. My love. My destiny."

Sofia squealed and kissed him, playing the part perfectly.

The crowd cheered.

Fireworks went off on the screen, exploding in technicolor celebration.

I stood on the sidewalk, watching my husband propose to his mistress merely 48 hours after forcing me to sign annulment papers.

It was the ultimate insult.

It was the perfect fuel.

I smiled.

It was a cold, terrifying smile that didn't reach my eyes.

"Enjoy the fireworks, Dante," I whispered to the screen. "Because I'm about to burn your whole world down."

I turned my collar up against the biting wind and walked into the darkness.

I wasn't Elena anymore.

I was the match.