Chapter 7 - The True Poison Exposed
Alessandro didn't look at Carmine. He looked down at Isabella, who was kneeling in the mud at his feet, weeping bitterly.
“You think you brought me here to die, Carmine?” Alessandro called out over the roar of the wind. “Look around you. You’re in a bowl. My men have the high ground on every ridge of this quarry. You didn't catch me. I brought you here to be executed.”
On cue, heavy spotlights flared to life from the upper rims of the quarry, illuminating the Lucchese forces like rats in a laboratory. The click of thirty sniper safety switches echoed simultaneously through the night.
Don Carmine’s smile vanished, his face turning an ash-gray color. He turned fiercely to Daniel Vance. “You said this route was verified! You said he didn't know!”
Daniel looked up at the ridges, his tactical training instantly telling him they were completely trapped. He slowly lowered his weapon, realizing the game was over. “She blew it. The girl must have talked.”
“Isabella didn't blow anything,” Alessandro said, stepping forward, his boots splashing in the mud. “She was just a tool used by a monster. Tell her the truth, Carmine. Tell her who really killed her father, Enzo Romano.”
Isabella looked up through her tears, her gaze shifting between Alessandro and the old Don who had promised her justice. “What… what is he talking about, Carmine? You told me the Morettis poisoned my father to take over our territory!”
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Carmine sneered, realizing he had nothing left to lose. “Your father was old, Isabella! He was weak! He wanted peace with the Morettis, he wanted to merge the families legally through a marriage! I couldn't let that happen. It would have pushed New York out of the Midwest entirely. So yes… I put the toxin in his wine. And I used your stupid, blind grief to turn you into my perfect little weapon inside Alessandro’s house!”
Isabella let out a broken, agonizing scream of pure realization. The betrayal she had harbored against Alessandro was a lie. She had served the man who had murdered her father, and she had nearly destroyed the only man who had truly loved her.
