Chapter 4 - The Debt is Settled
By 4:00 AM, the rain had stopped, leaving the streets of Chicago glistening like black obsidian under the streetlights.
Silas was brought to the warehouse in the bed of a pickup truck, bound in heavy chains. He was a pathetic sight—balding, sweaty, wearing a cheap suit that was now covered in road grime and his own blood. His face was swollen from the "persuasion" my men had used to bring him here.
When they threw him onto the concrete floor, he scrambled to his knees, his eyes wide with terror as he looked up at me.
"Mr. Moretti! Please!" he shrieked, his voice cracking. "It was a mistake! I didn't know! I was just trying to make a living! Marcone... Marcone told me to do it!"
"You took a baby's crib, Silas," I said, stepping up to him. I was holding a small, silver object in my hand.
It was Emma’s silver robot—a duplicate I had instructed Silvio to buy from a high-end toy store on our way here.
"You took a toaster," I continued, my voice steady, cold, and final. "You took blankets from a starving woman. And you put your hands on a seven-year-old girl."
"I'll give it back! All of it! Double!" Silas sobbed, pressing his forehead against my boots. "I have fifty thousand dollars in a safe! It's yours! Just let me live!"
"The Moretti name is worth more than fifty thousand dollars, Silas," I said, looking down at him with utter disgust. "And my protection of the innocent is absolute."
I turned to Silvio. "Take him to the docks. Make sure he never sees the sun rise over Lake Michigan again."
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"No! No! Please—"
Silas's screams were cut short as my men dragged him out of the warehouse, his chains rattling against the concrete.
