Chapter 4 - The DA’s ShadowThree days later, I sat across from Chloe at a sunlit outdoor bistro in Soho.
She was sitting under an overhead heater, furiously typing an encrypted text on her phone. When I pulled out my chair, she instantly flipped her screen face down on the table, forcing a tight, nervous smile.
"Myra! You're late," Chloe said, her voice strained and tight.
"Apologies, traffic coming off the bridge was unbearable," I said, setting my designer handbag on the extra chair. "Are you alright, Chloe? You look exhausted."
Chloe leaned across the small marble table, glancing over both shoulders to ensure no passersby were listening before leaning in close. "Nico showed up at my apartment at three in the morning, Myra. He was completely out of his mind. He said his father is trying to force him to sign over half of the Brooklyn port terminal deeds to you!"
I took a slow, composed sip of my iced water, watching her inner panic burn through her polished exterior. "Yes. Mr. Casaro brought it up at dinner. He wants our financial futures bound together before the trust unlocks."
"You have to reject it, Myra!" Chloe blurted out, her composure slipping entirely. "It’s a set-up! Leo Casaro is a ruthless criminal kingpin! He’s just using your innocence to keep Nico under his thumb! You need to tell them you refuse to sign those corporate papers!"
"Why on earth would I refuse?" I asked innocently, tilting my head in confusion. "If Nico loves me, and we are getting married... isn't sharing our future the normal thing to do?"
Chloe’s eyes burned with a flash of raw, bitter jealousy. "Because you don't belong in that world, Myra! You're an art restorer! You're soft! You have no idea what Nico and I..."
She cut herself off mid-sentence, biting her lip so hard the skin turned white.
"What you and Nico what?" I asked softly, leaning closer.
Chloe swallowed hard, struggling to pull her defensive mask back over her face. "I just mean... my father’s office is actively investigating the Casaro family, Myra! The Federal Bureau and the DA are finalizing a massive RICO indictment! If your name is listed on those port terminal deeds when the feds execute their search warrants, you will be dragged to a federal prison right alongside Leo!"
My heart hammered, but my expression remained perfectly serene. So that was their real game.
Nico and Chloe weren't merely trying to humiliate me to win a ten-thousand-dollar bet. Chloe was funneling privileged intelligence to her father in the District Attorney's office. Nico was planning to use me as a human shield—placing the terminal titles in my name so that when the federal authorities seized the property for illegal shipping activity, I would take the legal fall, leaving Nico clean to abscond with his mother’s liquid inheritance!
"Is that true, Chloe?" I whispered, letting my eyes widen in theatrical terror. "The federal agents are going to raid the docks?"
"Yes!" Chloe hissed, grabbing my wrist across the table with fake, desperate urgency. "Nico told me everything! He’s trying to protect himself, but his father is forcing his hand! You are being thrown to the wolves, Myra! You need to break up with him and leave the estate tonight!"
I looked down at her hand gripping my wrist. The viper had finally shown her fangs, desperate to scare me away so she could take my place beside Nico before the Gala trust deadline passed.
"Thank you for telling me, Chloe," I whispered, squeezing her fingers back while letting a single fake tear pool in my eye. "You really are the best friend I could ever ask for. What would I do without you?"
"I know, sweetie," Chloe smiled, her smug arrogance returning instantly as she patted my hand. "That’s what real friends are for. Tell Nico tonight that you refuse to have your name on any corporate deeds. Pack your bags, go back to your father's apartment in Brooklyn, and let me handle Nico."
"I will," I lied effortlessly. "I'll take care of everything tonight."
An hour later, I was standing inside Leo’s private study at the manor.
I laid out every word of Chloe’s revelation. Leo sat motionless behind his walnut desk, taking silent drags from a dark cigar, while his chief security director, a lethal man named Dominic, stood near the bookshelf reviewing encrypted files on a tablet.
"She’s telling the truth about the wiretaps, Boss," Dominic spoke up smoothly. "Investigator Vance has had Nico’s secondary cell phone tapped for nearly a month. Nico has been feeding Vance location logs for our secondary storage facilities in exchange for a written non-prosecution agreement when the federal warrants drop."
Leo didn't look shocked. He blew a long, thin stream of gray smoke toward the high ceiling, his face carved from stone.
"My son is not merely a traitor to his blood," Leo said quietly. "He is an amateur playing a grandmaster's game. He believes he can sacrifice Myra to the federal prosecutor, claim his mother's cash reserves, marry Chloe Vance, and walk away clean."
Leo turned his gray eyes toward me.
"You handled her exceptionally well today, Myra," Leo murmured, a cold gleam of approval shining in his eyes. "She believes you are fleeing back to Brooklyn in tears."
"I am not running anywhere," I said, my voice ringing with absolute certainty. "What is our next move, Mr. Casaro?"
Leo smiled—a dark, majestic, terrifying expression that made me understand precisely why the entire city feared his name.
"Dominic," Leo commanded flatly. "Prepare the master ownership transfer for the entirety of Casaro Logistics. Not fifty percent. One hundred percent."
May you like
Dominic paused, his eyes widening slightly. "Boss? You're handing the entire commercial fleet over?"
"I am transferring total control into a private, irrevocable family trust managed exclusively by Myra Miller," Leo declared, his voice booming softly in the quiet room. "And next week, at Nico’s birthday Gala... we will give Assistant District Attorney Vance, his deceptive daughter, and my foolish son a lesson they will not survive."
