Chapter 6 - The Bride Who Chose the Wolf
Dominic watched the video twice.
His expression revealed nothing.
That frightened Lydia more than rage would have.
“We give them the ledger,” she said.
“No.”
“They have Sofia.”
“They want more than the ledger.”
“What?”
“My death. Control of the family. Access to the foundation’s legitimate accounts.”
“Then we give them what they think they want.”
Dominic looked at her.
Lydia opened the ledger and removed several pages.
“We copy the relevant account records, alter the transfer instructions, and let Augustus believe he has access to the full network.”
“He will verify them.”
“He’ll try. But the foundation uses delayed authorization for international transfers, doesn’t it?”
Dominic nodded slowly.
“We can build a confirmation screen that looks real while the money remains frozen.”
“You would need access to the foundation server.”
“I have the files you gave me. Matteo can create a remote connection.”
“Matteo is outside with armed police and Valenti gunmen.”
“Then call Sofia.”
“She is tied to a chair.”
“Not your sister. Your other Sofia.”
Dominic frowned.
“The foundation’s finance director. Sofia Brennan. Her name was on the quarterly reports.”
His eyes narrowed with something close to approval.
“You memorized the reports.”
“I was trapped in your mansion with nothing to read.”
The gunfire outside intensified.
Dominic guided Lydia through the emergency exit, a narrow corridor leading to an underground parking structure in the adjacent building. They emerged behind a concrete pillar as police rushed toward the bank entrance.
A plain delivery van waited near the exit.
Matteo sat behind the wheel.
“You took your time,” he said.
“You were supposed to be outside,” Lydia replied.
“I objected.”
Dominic opened the side door. “Drive.”
As the van moved into traffic, Lydia contacted the foundation’s finance director using a secure number from the records. The woman answered on the third ring.
“Ms. Brennan, my name is Lydia Hayes. Dominic Rossi is with me.”
Silence.
Then, “Put him on.”
Dominic took the phone.
“Activate emergency isolation. Freeze every account except the community clinic payroll. Give Ms. Hayes temporary access.”
“Dominic, what happened?”
“Augustus happened.”
The woman swore.
Within minutes, Lydia had a laptop connected to a protected copy of the foundation’s system. She built a false transfer interface while Matteo drove toward the Marconi shipyard.
Dominic sat across from her, loading ammunition.
“Do you always do that in moving vehicles?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s distracting.”
“You kissed me while people were trying to break into a vault.”
“That was also distracting.”
Matteo glanced at them through the mirror. “Should I leave the van?”
“Drive,” Dominic said.
The Marconi shipyard had been abandoned for fifteen years. Rusted cranes towered above empty docks. Warehouses leaned toward black water.
Augustus sent new instructions.
Dominic was to enter alone through the main warehouse.
Lydia was to bring the ledger through a side entrance.
“No,” Dominic said.
“You cannot enter without me.”
“I can.”
“They want the access codes. I’m the accountant.”
“They want you as leverage.”
“And they already have Sofia as leverage.”
His jaw tightened.
Lydia closed the laptop.
“You promised my mother you would protect me.”
“Yes.”
“She also said you helped her gather evidence. That means the man you were before all this did not protect people by locking them in rooms.”
“I do not remember that man.”
“I think you do.”
Dominic looked toward the warehouse.
Lydia touched his hand.
“Trust me.”
The words seemed to cost him something.
At last, he nodded.
They entered through separate doors.
Lydia carried the ledger and laptop into a warehouse lit by hanging industrial lamps. Water dripped through holes in the roof.
Sofia sat in the center of the room, tied to a chair.
A bruise darkened her cheek, but she was alert.
Frank stood nearby.
He would not meet Lydia’s eyes.
Augustus emerged from behind a shipping container.
He was younger than Dominic, perhaps thirty-five, with carefully styled hair and a handsome face weakened by vanity. Metal braces surrounded both knees beneath his trousers, forcing him to walk with a cane.
“You look better without the cardigan,” he said.
“You look worse outside the hospital.”
His smile tightened.
Vincent Valenti appeared on an elevated walkway with four armed men.
He was in his sixties, silver-haired and elegant.
“Ms. Hayes,” he called. “Your mother caused my family a great deal of trouble.”
“My mother had good judgment.”
“And Dominic has poor judgment. Bringing you here was sentimental.”
Dominic entered from the opposite side.
Every weapon turned toward him.
He raised empty hands.
Augustus’s eyes gleamed.
“The great Dominic Rossi,” he said. “Unarmed for a woman.”
“For my sister.”
“Of course.”
Sofia rolled her eyes. “Please stop enjoying your speech and shoot him or release me. This chair is terrible.”
Augustus struck her across the face.
Dominic moved.
Valenti’s men aimed their guns.
“Another step,” Valenti warned, “and she dies.”
Dominic stopped.
Lydia opened the laptop.
“You want the foundation accounts?”
Valenti looked at her. “Seven million is only what your friend noticed. The network is worth hundreds of millions.”
“The access requires a physical authorization code.”
She held up the ledger.
Augustus limped closer.
“Give it to me.”
“Release Sofia first.”
He laughed. “You are in no position to negotiate.”
“Then you don’t understand the system. Three incorrect attempts trigger a permanent account freeze and notify federal investigators.”
That part was not entirely true.
But Augustus did not know that.
Valenti’s smile vanished.
“Let her work.”
Augustus snatched the ledger from Lydia.
He entered the account information she indicated.
A green confirmation page appeared.
AVAILABLE FUNDS: $214,600,000.
Greed changed every face in the room.
Even Frank looked at the screen.
Lydia watched him.
“How much did they promise you, Dad?”
His face crumpled. “Enough to start over.”
“You have started over twenty times.”
“This time would’ve been different.”
“No. This time you just sold me more carefully.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“You told them where I lived.”
“I knew Dominic would protect you.”
The selfish logic was so perfectly Frank that Lydia almost laughed.
“You used the man you called a monster to protect the daughter you betrayed.”
Frank’s eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
“You are always sorry after the cost belongs to someone else.”
Augustus pushed the laptop toward Lydia.
“Transfer everything.”
She entered a sequence.
The screen displayed AUTHORIZATION PENDING.
“Dominic’s biometric code is required.”
Augustus looked at his cousin.
Dominic smiled faintly.
“You should have studied the accounts before stealing from them.”
Augustus drew a knife and approached him.
“His fingerprint will work whether he’s alive or dead.”
Lydia stepped between them.
“No. The system measures pulse.”
Another lie.
Augustus grabbed her by the hair.
Dominic’s calm disappeared.
“Release her.”
“Or what?”
Dominic looked toward the ceiling.
“Or you learn why I came unarmed.”
The warehouse lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Gunfire erupted from the elevated walkway.
But it was not directed at Dominic.
Matteo’s men had entered through the roof access.
Sofia threw herself sideways, knocking her chair into Augustus’s injured knees.
He screamed and fell.
Lydia dropped to the floor.
Dominic reached her in the darkness and pulled her behind a steel column.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“You lied about the biometric code.”
“Yes.”
“I’m proud of you.”
“That is a disturbing compliment.”
Emergency lights flashed.
Valenti ran toward the loading dock.
Matteo intercepted him with two armed guards.
Augustus crawled toward a fallen pistol.
Frank saw him.
For once in his life, Frank Hayes moved before fear could stop him.
He kicked the gun into the shadows.
Augustus swung the cane, striking Frank across the head.
Frank fell.
Lydia started toward him, but Dominic held her back as Augustus seized another weapon.
Augustus pointed it at Lydia.
“You ruined everything.”
He fired.
Frank pushed himself from the floor and stepped in front of her.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
Dominic fired from behind the column.
Augustus’s weapon flew from his hand.
He collapsed, clutching his arm.
The warehouse became silent except for Frank’s groans and the distant approach of sirens.
Lydia knelt beside her father.
Blood spread across his shirt, but the wound was not fatal.
“Why?” she asked.
Frank’s face twisted.
“Because once,” he whispered, “I wanted to pay one of my own debts.”
Paramedics arrived with police officers and federal agents.
Lydia had scheduled the foundation’s records, the altered ledger pages, and Eleanor’s video files to be transmitted automatically to three law firms and a federal investigative unit the moment the false transfer was attempted.
Valenti realized it when agents placed him in handcuffs.
“You think this ends because you sent them files?” he shouted.
“No,” Lydia replied. “It ends because accountants are patient.”
Augustus was taken into custody.
Frank was carried to an ambulance under police guard. He faced charges for fraud, conspiracy, and his role in Lydia’s abduction.
Before the doors closed, he reached toward her.
Lydia did not take his hand.
“I love you,” he said.
“I know.”
It was true.
It was also no longer enough.
Dawn broke over the shipyard as Lydia walked toward the water.
Dominic joined her.
Sofia was being examined by paramedics, insulting each one who suggested she rest.
“You chose both women,” Lydia said.
“I had help.”
“You trusted me.”
“I found the experience unpleasant.”
“You’ll need practice.”
Dominic looked out at the river.
“The debt is gone.”
“My father’s?”
“All of it.”
“Because he saved me?”
“Because it should never have been yours.”
He handed her a folded document.
It released every claim connected to Frank’s gambling markers and confirmed that Lydia’s apartment belonged solely to her.
There were no conditions.
“No job?” she asked.
“The foundation needs an independent investigator.”
“That sounds like a job.”
“You would answer to the board, not to me.”
“And if the investigation leads to your crimes?”
“Then follow the numbers.”
She studied his face.
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the man who thought everyone was guilty?”
“He met an accountant with onion perfume.”
Lydia smiled.
Dominic stared at her eyes again.
The look no longer made her feel exposed.
It made her feel seen.
“I’m not marrying you,” she said.
“I have not asked.”
“You were thinking about it.”
“I was thinking that your sweater is covered in warehouse dust.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“So I have been told.”
She stepped closer.
“If you ever use me as bait again, I will personally give your financial records to every tax agency in the country.”
“That seems excessive.”
“It isn’t.”
“And if I agree?”
“You may take me to dinner.”
Dominic glanced toward the rising sun.
“Without the cardigan?”
“No promises.”
This time, when he kissed her, there were no gunshots.
No threats.
No hidden contracts.
Only the river, the dawn, and the dangerous possibility of something neither of them could control.
Three weeks later, Lydia returned to her Brooklyn apartment after her first official day investigating the Rossi Family Foundation.
A package waited outside her door.
There was no return address.
Inside lay a photograph of Eleanor Hayes standing beside the blue house.
Dominic was next to her.
So was Vittorio Rossi.
And between them stood a woman Lydia had never seen.
On the back, someone had written a single sentence.
Your mother did not hide the ledger to destroy the Rossi family.
She hid it to protect its rightful heir.
Beneath the message was a name.
Lydia Hayes Rossi.
Lydia stared at it until the hallway seemed to tilt.
Then her phone rang.
Dominic.
She answered.
“Did you send me something?”
“No.”
His voice changed immediately.
“What did you receive?”
Before Lydia could answer, the apartment lights went out.
A floorboard creaked behind her.
May you like
And a woman’s voice whispered from the darkness.
“You have your mother’s eyes.”
