Chapter 16 - THE BALLROOM TRAPWe escaped Moretti Tower through a service elevator connected to an underground freight tunnel.
Dante had built the route after an assassination attempt years earlier.
I decided not to ask how many escape tunnels he owned.
Rosa drove us to a hotel near Lake Michigan.
The property belonged to one of Dante’s legitimate companies, but no employee knew he owned the penthouse.
My mother and Sarah were transferred under police guard.
Thomas disappeared again.
This time, by choice.
He left a message promising to find Liam.
I no longer knew whether to be angry or afraid.
Probably both.
Dante stood at the penthouse window, watching emergency lights surround Moretti Tower.
“Ward planned the attack,” I said.
“Possibly.”
“She entered with officers immediately before the explosion.”
“Which gave her legal justification to seize the building.”
“And the hard drives.”
“Yes.”
“Did she get them?”
“No. Copies were transferred before she arrived.”
“To where?”
Dante looked at me.
“You don’t want to know.”
“I’m beginning to hate that sentence.”
His phone rang.
The caller was Judge Halpern.
Dante placed it on speaker.
“Tomorrow night,” the judge said, “the Civic Restoration Foundation is holding its annual gala.”
“You called to discuss charity?” Dante asked.
“I called because Vittorio will attend.”
“He is wanted for murder.”
“He will be protected by people who consider themselves more powerful than law.”
“The Serpent Council,” I said.
Silence followed.
Halpern’s voice changed.
“Who told her?”
“She has eyes,” Dante answered.
The judge continued.
“Ward plans to present Emma as mentally unstable and Dante as her captor. Several board members will support an emergency seizure of Moretti assets.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“To survive.”
“Then testify.”
“I would not live long enough to reach court.”
“Help us record the meeting.”
Halpern hesitated.
“The gala ballroom is protected from electronic surveillance.”
Dante looked toward me.
“But not from waitstaff.”
The next night, I returned to a black uniform.
Not Marello’s.
A catering company supplied staff to the gala.
Sarah wanted to take the assignment, but she was still recovering.
I knew how to become invisible.
Dante hated the plan.
“You are a publicly recognized Moretti heir.”
“With different hair, makeup, and glasses.”
“Vittorio studied you for years.”
“He studied a frightened waitress who looked at the floor.”
I straightened the black jacket.
“That woman doesn’t exist anymore.”
Dante attended through the front entrance wearing a tuxedo.
Cameras surrounded him.
Reporters shouted questions about the explosion, Liam’s escape, and our family connection.
He gave them nothing.
Inside, the ballroom glittered beneath enormous chandeliers.
For one terrible second, I was back at Marello’s.
The flickering light.
The heavy tray.
The floor rising toward me.
I pressed my hand against my ribs.
They were healing.
So was I.
Vittorio arrived without disguise.
Power had taught him he did not need one.
Agent Ward accompanied him.
Judge Halpern sat at their table with three politicians, two business executives, and Chicago’s deputy police superintendent.
The Serpent Council.
I served wine.
No one looked closely at the waitress.
Dante remained across the room, speaking with donors.
Our eyes never met.
A microphone was hidden inside the corkscrew in my pocket.
Vittorio began the meeting after dessert.
“Dante has become sentimental,” he said. “He intends to dissolve structures that have protected our interests for decades.”
Ward sipped her wine.
“And Emma?”
“Legally vulnerable.”
“She survived the competency attack.”
“For now.”
Judge Halpern shifted.
“What about Liam Foster?”
“Ward’s footage places him in the guard’s murder.”
“The man in that video was taller,” Halpern said.
Ward’s expression sharpened.
“You have become observant.”
“I have become nervous.”
“Then become useful.”
I poured wine into Vittorio’s glass.
His eyes moved to my wrist.
The hospital bracelet had been removed, but a faint line remained where it had rubbed my skin.
He looked at my face.
Recognition entered slowly.
“Emma.”
Every person at the table became still.
I dropped the bottle.
It struck the carpet without breaking.
Ward reached beneath her jacket.
Dante’s voice came from behind me.
“Hands on the table.”
He stood ten feet away with Rosa and Detective Ruiz.
Uniformed officers entered through every door.
Vittorio smiled.
“You think a recording will matter?”
“It is currently streaming to twelve news organizations,” I said.
Ward’s face changed.
The corkscrew microphone was not recording locally.
Dante had learned from the cemetery.
No single copy could be destroyed.
The ballroom erupted.
Guests ran.
Cameras appeared.
Judge Halpern raised both hands.
“I will testify.”
Ward drew her weapon.
She aimed at me.
Dante fired first.
The bullet struck her shoulder.
She fell.
Vittorio overturned the table and ran toward the service hallway.
I followed.
“Emma!” Dante shouted.
Vittorio entered the kitchen.
He seized a young dishwasher and pressed a knife to his throat.
“Back away.”
I stopped.
The boy could not have been older than sixteen.
His entire body shook.
Vittorio smiled at me.
“You see? Everyone becomes leverage.”
“No,” I said. “Only if we play by your rules.”
I grabbed a saucepan from the counter and struck the fire-suppression switch.
Foam exploded from the ceiling.
Vittorio lost his grip.
The dishwasher dropped.
I threw the pan.
It struck Vittorio’s wrist.
The knife fell.
Dante reached him before he recovered.
He drove Vittorio against the wall.
For a second, I thought he would kill him.
Then Dante looked at me.
I shook my head.
He released his uncle to Detective Ruiz.
Vittorio laughed as officers cuffed him.
“You believe this ends with an arrest?”
“It ends with everyone hearing you,” I said.
His smile vanished.
The gala recording spread across every major network.
Ward survived surgery and was charged.
Judge Halpern entered protective custody.
The deputy superintendent resigned.
Vittorio was finally held inside a military detention facility.
At midnight, Dante and I stood alone in the empty ballroom.
The orchestra had left.
Broken plates covered the floor.
“You followed him into the kitchen,” he said.
“You followed me into an apartment.”
“That was different.”
“It usually is when you do it.”
He exhaled.
“I was afraid.”
The admission surprised me.
“Of losing control?”
“Of losing you.”
The words held no romance now.
They could not.
We were siblings by blood, strangers by life, allies by disaster.
I touched his arm.
“You didn’t lose me.”
Dante looked down at my hand.
“No,” he said. “But we are still losing something.”
His phone rang.
Dr. Chen spoke urgently.
May you like
My mother had collapsed.
Her cancer had spread.
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