Chapter 3 - The Price of Treason
The realization settled over the room like an avalanche.
Dr. Harrison whimpered, sliding lower into his chair as the guards shifted their weight behind him.
Valentina’s defiance finally cracked, replaced by a desperate, snarling panic. “Rocco! You can't do anything to me! I know where the offshore accounts are hidden! I know the names of every federal prosecutor on your payroll! If I go down, I take the whole syndicate with me!”
Rocco didn't blink. He reached down, grabbed Valentina by the heavy silk collar of her robe, and yanked her upright with effortless strength. The plastic zip-ties bit painfully into her wrists, but she couldn't break his grip.
“You think my empire was built on secrets you could trade?” Rocco asked, his breath hot and steady against her face. “My father built this syndicate on blood, and I built it on loyalty. You touched my blood. You threw my son into a trash bin like garbage.”
He dropped her back into the chair. She slumped sideways, gasping for breath.
“Thomas,” Rocco commanded without turning around.
“Boss?”
“Take Dr. Harrison to the harbor docks. Put him on a container ship heading south of the equator. Ensure he never practices medicine again, anywhere on this earth.”
Dr. Harrison screamed, thrashing wildly as the two massive guards hauled him out of the room by his arms, his frantic pleadings echoing down the marble hallway until the heavy oak doors slammed shut.
Rocco turned his attention back to Valentina.
“As for you,” Rocco said softly, “you will sign over every share, every trust, every property deed, and every asset you hold to the legal name of my son before midnight.”
“And if I refuse?” Valentina hissed, blood running from a small cut on her lip where she had bitten it in frustration.
“Then,” Rocco replied, stepping toward the door, “I will let Thomas handle your estate. And unlike me, Thomas has very little patience for paperwork.”
May you like
Without waiting for her answer, Rocco walked out of the dining room.
The heavy oak doors clicked shut behind him, sealing her fate in the dark.
