Chapter 1 - The Bloodline Betrayal
The study was deathly quiet except for the quiet hum of the rain striking the heavy stained-glass windows.
Dominic Caruso gripped his mahogany desk until the wood creaked under his fingers. The third name Nathan Briggs had spoken echoed through his mind like a death sentence: Frank "The Hammer" Valenti.
Frank wasn't just a captain. He was Dominic’s late father’s closest confidant, the man who had placed a nine-millimeter in Dominic’s hands when he was twenty-one and taught him how to survive the streets of North Philly. Frank was godfather to Sophie. He was the man who had sat at the head of the table during Dominic's wedding.
"Are you certain, Nathan?" Dominic asked, his voice chillingly calm.
"The system logs don't lie, Boss," Nathan replied over the phone. "The override key belonged to Frank’s master fob. It was logged in at 4:12 PM, right when the gift box was being transferred from the staging pantry into the ballroom."
Dominic slowly hung up the phone. He walked down the corridor to Sophie’s bedroom, where two heavily armed guards stood watch. Through the cracked door, he watched his daughter sleep peacefully under her pale pink blanket.
Just hours ago, that paper crown she wore would have been buried in glass and shrapnel.
He walked down to the basement holding cells—a reinforced suite beneath the garage that had served as an interrogation room for three decades.
Frank Valenti sat in a metal chair, drinking espresso from a paper cup, looking completely unbothered. He was sixty-eight, with thick white hair, sharp blue eyes, and a tailored wool coat resting across his knees.
"Dominic," Frank said, setting his cup down. "The security boys are jumping at shadows. I came down here willingly out of respect for your father, but this is ridiculous."
Dominic stepped into the room, closing the heavy steel door behind him. "Frank... who paid you?"
Frank’s face didn't twitch. "What are you talking about?"
"Six minutes, Frank," Dominic said softly. "The hallway camera behind the kitchen was disabled using your master key between 4:12 PM and 4:18 PM. That was the window when the device was armed."
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Frank shook his head slowly, sighing like a disappointed mentor. "Dominic, you know me. I lost my key fob two days ago. I told Nathan’s junior officer to revoke access."
"Nathan checked," Dominic replied. "No report was ever filed."
