Chapter 4 - The Execution of the TraitorsVanessa let out a high-pitched, hysterical shriek, taking two fast steps backward. "That's a lie! My father built the secondary holdings for this family! You can't trust the word of a woman who abandoned you for six years!"
Isabella stepped forward, stopping directly beside Dante, looking down at Vanessa with a calm, chilling disdain that cut deeper than any physical blow.
"I didn't abandon him, Vanessa," Isabella spoke, her voice clear, resonant, and echoing through the ballroom. "I stepped aside because your father threatened to cut off the medical funding for the pediatric clinic in Milwaukee where my mother was receiving treatment if I didn't sign the divorce papers."
Vanessa’s jaw sagged open in total, speech-bound panic. Her face drained of all color as she looked at her father.
Arthur Vance’s calm composure completely shattered. He stumbled backward against his leather chair, his hands trembling violently as he looked at the thick binder on the table.
"Dante... listen to me!" Arthur stammered, his voice cracking into a high, frantic squeak. "I did it for the family! She was too soft! She wasn't built to be the Donna of the Moretti empire! You needed a woman from an established family like Vanessa to secure the East Coast contracts!"
Dante slowly pulled his silver sidearm from his shoulder holster.
He didn't aim it at Arthur's head. He held it casually by his side, the cold steel reflecting the golden chandelier light overhead.
"My family isn't built on political contracts, Arthur," Dante whispered softly, every word laced with an absolute, unyielding mortality. "My family is built on loyalty. And seven years ago... you stole six years of my children's lives."
The side service doors of the ballroom swung open.
Four uniformed Federal Marshals, accompanied by two lead prosecutors from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, stepped into the room holding heavy steel handcuffs.
"Arthur Vance and Vanessa Caldwell," Lead Prosecutor Vance announced cleanly. "You are under arrest for Corporate Wire Fraud, Extortion, Evidence Tampering, and Conspiracy to Commit Endangerment."
CLICK. CLICK.
The heavy steel cuffs locked tightly around Arthur Vance’s wrists first. The old man let out a pathetic, groveling sob as his hands were forced behind his back.
CLICK. CLICK.
A second set of cuffs locked around Vanessa’s manicured wrists. She thritted wildly, screaming curses at Isabella as the federal agents dragged her and her father flat across the marble floorboards toward the service elevator in chains.
Dante didn't watch them leave. He turned his head slowly, looking at Isabella standing beside him in the quiet, empty ballroom.
May you like
He reached out his broad, calloused hand, taking her thin, warm fingers into his palm, interlacing their fingers under the brilliant golden light of the chandeliers.
"It's over, Isabella," Dante whispered into the quiet room. "The house is clean."
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