Chapter 5 - The Trap at Lakeshore
Lakeshore had been abandoned for eighteen months.
We arrived before dawn.
Damien wanted me wearing a protective vest.
I refused until he stared at me long enough that I changed my mind.
“Happy?” I asked.
“No.”
“That seems to be your permanent condition.”
His mouth almost moved.
Almost.
Then he became serious.
“You stay behind me.”
“Marco asked for me.”
“I don't care.”
“You brought twelve men.”
“Fourteen.”
I stared at him.
“You brought fourteen armed men to meet one man?”
“Marco knows me.”
“That doesn't answer the question.”
“It does.”
We entered through the old rehabilitation wing.
Dust covered everything.
The therapy room where I had once worked still contained faded murals.
I stopped.
Damien noticed.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You're lying.”
“I'm functional.”
“I'll accept functional.”
A voice echoed through the hallway.
“Still giving orders, Ellie?”
Marco stepped into view.
He was alone.
At least he appeared to be.
Damien moved in front of me.
Marco laughed.
“There's the protective father.”
“Where's the evidence?”
Marco smiled.
“Straight to business.”
Damien's voice remained calm.
“You went near my sons.”
“I never wanted them dead.”
“You put something in their bottle.”
“Something Keller provided.”
Behind us, one of Damien's men quietly activated a recorder.
Marco continued.
“It was supposed to frighten you.”
“Why?”
“Because you were cutting me out.”
“You stole from me.”
“I built half your network.”
“You stole from my family.”
“Our family!”
Damien's expression didn't change.
Marco pointed toward me.
“And she ruined everything.”
I stepped around Damien.
“How?”
“You found those records three years ago.”
“You framed me.”
“Keller framed you.”
“You paid him.”
Marco smiled.
“Yes.”
There it was.
The truth I had spent three years trying to prove.
I forced myself not to react.
“You destroyed my career because I saw you?”
“You were inconvenient.”
Damien moved.
I touched his arm.
He stopped.
Marco noticed.
His smile faded.
“You trust her already?”
“She saved my sons.”
“No. She made herself useful.”
I looked at Marco.
“You didn't expect me to be at Bellavita.”
“No.”
“Then why threaten me?”
“Because once Damien started investigating you, everything connected.”
“You panicked.”
His eyes hardened.
“You always did talk too much.”
A door slammed behind us.
Two men appeared.
Damien's guards immediately moved forward.
No shots.
No chaos.
Just a wall of black suits.
Marco looked around.
Damien said quietly, “Fourteen.”
I almost smiled.
Marco backed away.
“You think this is over?”
Damien held up his phone.
“No.”
Police sirens approached outside.
Marco's face changed.
“You called them?”
“I did.”
“You're giving me to the police?”
“You poisoned two infants.”
Marco looked genuinely offended.
“We're Morettis.”
Damien's expression became colder than I had ever seen it.
“They're my sons.”
The sirens grew louder.
Marco turned toward me.
“This is because of you.”
“No,” I said.
“This is because you thought everyone around you was disposable.”
Officers entered minutes later.
Keller's cooperation, restaurant footage, financial records, Marco's recorded confession and the contaminated bottle gave investigators more than enough to begin unraveling the operation.
As they took Marco away, he looked at Damien.
“You're choosing a waitress over blood.”
Damien answered without hesitation.
“I'm choosing my children.”
Then Marco looked at me.
“You'll always be the woman nobody believed.”
I stepped closer.
“Not anymore.”
He was taken outside.
I stood in the hallway after everyone left.
Three years earlier, I had walked out of Lakeshore believing my life was finished.
Now Damien stood beside me.
“You proved it,” he said.
“We proved it.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You came back.”
For once, I had nothing clever to say.
Then his phone rang.
He answered immediately.
His face changed.
“The twins?”
I asked.
He nodded.
The hospital wanted him there.
I turned toward the exit.
“Go.”
He didn't move.
“What?”
“You're coming.”
“Damien—”
“My sons settle when they hear your rhythm.”
“That doesn't mean—”
“They also like you.”
“They're babies.”
“So?”
“So babies like ceiling fans.”
He stared at me.
“Ellie.”
“Yes?”
“Come to the hospital.”
I looked at the man Chicago feared.
For the first time, he wasn't commanding me.
He was asking.
May you like
“All right.”
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