Chapter 13 - The Night Roman Chose a Side
Cross slowly removed his weapon.
He placed it on the floor.
Then stepped backward.
“I didn’t order anything.”
Roman stared.
“Your authorization code did.”
“My code has been compromised before.”
“Tonight.”
“Yes.”
“This was three years ago.”
Cross swallowed.
“I know.”
Roman’s voice remained level.
“Explain.”
Cross looked around.
Victor watched with obvious enjoyment.
Thomas looked uncertain.
David seemed exhausted.
Emily watched Roman.
His pain was different now.
Cross was not a corrupt business partner or suspicious relative.
He was one of Roman’s chosen people.
Sometimes chosen family hurt worse than blood.
Cross spoke.
“Three years ago, Michael Sarto was still running Harbor Crest security architecture.”
“Yes.”
“He asked for my master authentication token.”
“Why?”
“He said he was testing emergency failover.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“You gave it to him?”
“For forty minutes.”
Victor laughed.
Cross glared at him.
“Your son had top clearance.”
Victor said, “He was talented.”
Roman looked at Cross.
“Could Michael use your code to authorize something outside Harbor Crest?”
“Yes.”
“Vehicle systems?”
Cross’s face changed.
“Yes.”
Roman closed his eyes.
Luca’s car had been part of Moretti’s managed fleet.
Security updates.
Remote diagnostics.
Michael could have used Cross’s authorization to access it.
But Michael’s video said he was trying to stop the order.
Emily stepped toward the monitor.
“Maybe ‘Cross’ doesn’t mean Daniel.”
Everyone looked at her.
Roman frowned.
“What else could it mean?”
She pointed toward Edward’s notebook.
“He used words as codes.”
Roman opened it.
Emily searched.
Near the back was a diagram.
Four properties connected by lines.
Across the center Edward had written:
CROSS SYSTEM
Thomas leaned closer.
“What is that?”
Emily read the note below.
“Cross-company transfer.”
Conrad suddenly understood.
“It was accounting.”
Roman looked at him.
Conrad continued.
“Sinclair, Moretti, Sarto consulting. Payments crossed between companies to hide origin.”
Emily nodded.
“So Michael may not have said a person.”
Cross exhaled.
Roman turned toward him.
For a moment their eyes met.
Roman picked up Cross’s weapon and handed it back.
“I’m sorry.”
Cross accepted it.
“You had reason.”
Victor rolled his eyes.
“How touching.”
Roman ignored him.
Cross replayed the repaired audio.
“The authorization code belongs to cross…”
Static.
Then:
“…holdings.”
Conrad whispered, “Cross Holdings.”
Roman frowned.
“Company?”
Conrad nodded.
“Shell company.”
“Owned by whom?”
Conrad’s face went pale.
“Me.”
Vanessa stared.
“Dad.”
“I created it twenty years ago.”
Roman’s expression hardened.
“Who controlled it three years ago?”
Conrad looked devastated.
“Vanessa.”
Everyone turned.
Vanessa stepped backward.
“No.”
Conrad continued.
“When your mother died, I transferred several dormant entities to your trust.”
“I never managed them.”
“No. Victor did.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You let Victor control companies in my name?”
“I didn’t think—”
“That seems to be a family tradition.”
Roman looked at Victor.
Now the structure made sense.
Victor used an entity legally owned by Vanessa to authorize the payment.
If discovered, blame pointed toward her.
Roman asked Victor, “You framed Vanessa.”
Victor shrugged.
“Insurance.”
Vanessa’s face twisted.
“All these years I protected you.”
Victor smiled.
“No. You protected yourself. Don’t romanticize cowardice.”
The words hit because they contained truth.
Vanessa looked down.
Roman watched her.
He had loved her.
Maybe part of him still did.
But love did not erase deception.
Nor did guilt erase what Victor had done.
Roman turned back to the vault.
“Cross, duplicate everything.”
“Already started.”
“Three copies.”
“Four.”
Roman nodded.
“One goes federal.”
“Which agency?”
“All.”
David looked alarmed.
“Roman.”
Roman faced him.
“No more private solutions.”
“You do that, every Moretti business gets investigated.”
“Yes.”
“Hundreds of employees—”
“Will keep their jobs if the businesses are legitimate.”
“Some aren’t.”
Roman nodded.
“Then they end.”
David stared.
“You would dismantle your father’s legacy.”
Roman looked at Luca’s letter.
“My brother asked me to end it.”
David shook his head.
“He meant Victor.”
“No.”
Roman looked at Nicholas.
“He meant the cycle.”
Nicholas stood quietly.
Roman continued.
“Secrets. Fear. Loyalty to names instead of people.”
Emily watched him.
Something in Roman had changed since the lobby.
He no longer seemed like a man trying to defend a kingdom.
He seemed like someone deciding whether he wanted one.
Victor laughed.
“You think government prosecutors are cleaner?”
“No.”
Roman looked at him.
“But they get the evidence anyway.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
Roman turned to Emily.
“Your father’s files remain yours.”
She frowned.
“Evidence isn’t mine.”
“Personal material is.”
“The rest?”
“We release it.”
She looked at him for a long moment.
“Okay.”
Roman felt strangely relieved by her approval.
Then Cross’s phone rang.
Secure line.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Cross looked at Roman.
“NYPD units are outside.”
Roman frowned.
“We didn’t call them yet.”
“No.”
Victor smiled.
Roman saw it.
“You did.”
Victor shook his head.
“No phone.”
“You planned it earlier.”
Victor laughed softly.
David went pale.
“If police enter before federal agents…”
Victor finished the thought.
“They secure the scene.”
Cross looked at Roman.
“And the evidence.”
Roman understood.
Victor had people inside law enforcement.
The police outside might not be coming to arrest Victor.
They might be coming to seize and bury the vault.
Thomas whispered, “Same as twelve years ago.”
Emily looked toward the tunnel.
“How long?”
Cross checked the camera.
“Maybe three minutes.”
Roman looked around.
Hundreds of boxes.
Impossible to move.
Cross said, “Uploads aren’t complete.”
“How much?”
“Twenty-two percent.”
David stepped toward the rear wall.
“There’s another exit.”
Roman turned.
“You knew?”
“The vault connects to the old building basement.”
“Can we move drives?”
“Some.”
Roman looked at Victor.
The older man smiled.
“You see? Systems survive men.”
Roman crouched in front of him.
“Not tonight.”
He stood.
“Cross, take the digital drives. Thomas goes with you. Conrad, Vanessa, Nicholas—out.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I’m staying.”
Roman looked at her.
“No.”
“This is my family too.”
“Yes.”
His expression softened slightly.
“That’s why you go.”
She understood.
Their engagement was over.
Maybe it had ended the moment she tore the letter.
Maybe long before.
Vanessa removed her engagement ring.
She looked at it.
Then held it toward Roman.
He closed her fingers around it.
“Not now.”
Her eyes filled.
Roman turned to Emily.
“You go with them.”
“No.”
“Emily.”
She folded her arms.
“You are not doing this again.”
“Doing what?”
“Deciding that I’m safest when I’m ignorant.”
Roman stopped.
The line hit exactly where she intended.
He almost argued.
Then Luca’s words came back.
Don’t protect people by lying to them.
Roman exhaled.
“Fine.”
Emily nodded.
“But stay near me.”
“That part I can do.”
Victor laughed.
“You two are adorable.”
Emily looked at him.
“No one asked.”
Cross smiled despite the circumstances.
Police voices echoed through the tunnel.
“New York Police! Identify yourselves!”
Roman stood at the vault entrance.
Cross whispered, “Decision?”
Roman looked at the shelves.
At Edward’s evidence.
Luca’s work.
Decades of secrets.
Then at Victor.
Roman made the choice his father never had.
“Open the door.”
David stared.
“To police?”
“Yes.”
“What if they’re Victor’s?”
Roman pulled out his phone.
He began livestreaming.
To multiple journalists.
Multiple attorneys.
Multiple federal contacts.
He turned the camera toward the vault.
“If they bury it now, they do it in public.”
Cross smiled.
Roman looked at Emily.
She raised an eyebrow.
“Not bad.”
“High praise.”
The tunnel door burst open.
Officers entered.
Weapons raised.
Roman kept recording.
“Roman Moretti!”
“Yes.”
“Hands where we can see them!”
Roman raised one hand.
The other held the phone.
“I have evidence relating to multiple homicides, public corruption and financial crimes.”
The lead officer looked toward Victor.
For half a second, recognition crossed his face.
Victor smiled.
Roman caught it on camera.
The officer raised his weapon higher.
“Turn off the phone.”
Roman smiled.
“No.”
The officer’s face hardened.
“I said turn it off.”
Emily stepped beside Roman.
The officer looked at her.
“Ma’am, move away.”
“No.”
Roman whispered, “Emily.”
She ignored him.
“You want this phone off before you look at evidence?”
The officer snapped, “Move.”
Emily remained.
“You’re being recorded.”
The officer hesitated.
That hesitation changed everything.
Behind the police came another voice.
“Federal agents! Lower your weapons.”
FBI jackets filled the tunnel.
Cross exhaled.
Roman had sent the evidence widely enough that someone legitimate arrived.
Victor’s face finally lost confidence.
Agents separated everyone.
Roman surrendered his phone.
Emily watched Victor led away.
For the first time, he looked old.
Not powerful.
Not brilliant.
Old.
As he passed Roman, Victor whispered:
“You think this makes you clean?”
Roman looked at him.
“No.”
Victor paused.
Roman continued.
“It makes me willing to find out how dirty I am.”
Victor said nothing.
He was taken away.
Emily sat against the wall.
Exhaustion finally reached her.
Roman sat beside her.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then he said:
“You spent four dollars on a bus.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“That may become the most expensive bus ride in New York history.”
She laughed.
Actually laughed.
The sound surprised them both.
Then Roman’s phone rang from the evidence table.
Cross answered and handed it over.
Roman listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Emily looked at him.
Roman lowered the phone.
“Victor escaped.”
Everyone froze.
“How?”
“Transport vehicle intercepted.”
Cross swore.
Roman stared down the tunnel.
Victor had lost the vault.
But he was free.
And now he had nothing left to protect.
May you like
That made him more dangerous than before.
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