Chapter 6 - The Steward's Betrayal
The silence in the penthouse was completely deafening.
Walter Bell, the man who had served the Moretti family for four decades, was the true mastermind behind the entire coup.
"You orchestrated this entire war?" Dominic demanded, his voice shaking with absolute, murderous fury.
"I have managed your family's dirty secrets for forty years, Dominic," Walter replied calmly through the speaker.
"I decided it was finally time I managed the bank accounts instead."
"Arthur was eager to kill your mother, and Vanessa was stupid enough to help him."
"I simply provided them with the access codes and the opportunity."
Hannah stared at the phone in pure horror.
She remembered Walter watching her carefully when she treated her wrist in the pantry.
He had known exactly who she was the entire time.
"Where are you right now, Walter?" Dominic growled, gripping the edge of the mahogany desk until his knuckles turned white.
"I am sitting in your private office, liquidating your offshore accounts as we speak," Walter chuckled.
"By sunrise, the Moretti empire will belong entirely to me, and you will be completely penniless."
"I will hunt you down and end you," Dominic swore fiercely.
"I don't think you will have the time, my boy," Walter said softly.
"I just tipped off the FBI about the massive stockpile of illegal weapons hidden in your safehouse."
"They will be breaching your penthouse doors in exactly five minutes."
The line went completely dead with a sharp click.
Dominic slammed the phone down and turned to Hannah and his mother.
"We have to leave right now," Dominic ordered, grabbing a heavy tactical bag from the closet.
"If the feds arrest me tonight, Walter wins the entire city."
Hannah rushed to help Eleanor into her wheelchair, adrenaline pumping fiercely through her veins.
They sprinted toward the private service elevator in the back of the penthouse.
Just as the elevator doors closed, they heard the heavy, concussive boom of a police battering ram smashing into the front doors.
They rode the elevator down to the subterranean parking garage in tense, suffocating silence.
Dominic led them to a plain, unmarked sedan he kept for emergencies.
"Where can we possibly go?" Hannah asked, climbing into the driver's seat as Dominic loaded his mother.
"The FBI will have all your properties under surveillance."
"We are not going to a property," Dominic said, jumping into the passenger seat.
"We are going to the docks."
Hannah drove the unassuming car expertly through the slick, rain-soaked streets, avoiding major intersections and police cruisers.
They arrived at a desolate, foggy shipping yard owned by the Moretti enterprise.
Dominic guided them through a maze of massive steel shipping containers until they reached a small, rusted tugboat tied to the pier.
An older man with a thick white beard was waiting on the deck, holding a heavy shotgun.
"I received your signal, boss," the captain said gruffly.
"Get us out onto the lake, Sal," Dominic ordered, helping his mother aboard.
As the small boat chugged slowly out into the dark, freezing waters of Lake Michigan, Dominic finally let out a long breath.
He turned to Hannah, who was shivering lightly in the cold wind.
He took off his heavy suit jacket and draped it gently around her shoulders for the second time that night.
"You should have run when you had the chance, Doctor," Dominic murmured softly, standing very close to her.
"I told you, Mr. Moretti," Hannah replied, looking up into his dark, intense eyes.
"I take my oaths very seriously."
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Suddenly, the small tugboat's engine sputtered violently and died completely, leaving them stranded in the pitch-black water.
A massive, blinding spotlight clicked on from a large yacht rapidly approaching them in the dark.
