Chapter 14 - Victor Romano’s Final Offer
Dominic spent the next morning in a federal interview room.
No marble floors.
No expensive furniture.
No men standing when he entered.
Just a metal table.
Two chairs.
Rebecca Shaw.
And a stack of files thick enough to represent decades of bad decisions.
“You have an attorney?” Rebecca asked.
“He's coming.”
“You should wait.”
“I don't want to.”
“That is an unusually bad decision.”
“I've made worse.”
Rebecca sat.
She opened the ledger.
“Your name appears twelve times.”
Dominic nodded.
“Companies connected to you appear more.”
“What charges?”
“Potentially conspiracy, fraud, bribery.”
“Potentially?”
“Some entries are ambiguous.”
Dominic looked at her.
“And Victor's statement?”
“More direct.”
“Of course.”
Rebecca studied him.
“Victor wants immunity.”
“I know.”
“He offered to testify against Matteo.”
“And me.”
“Yes.”
Dominic leaned back.
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
“Everybody says that until they hear it.”
Rebecca did not smile.
Dominic spent six hours answering questions.
For the first time in his adult life, he stopped calculating which truth created the least legal damage.
He named businesses.
Accounts.
Politicians.
He admitted what he had authorized.
Denied what he had not.
He refused to implicate low-level employees who had not knowingly participated.
Rebecca listened.
Sometimes disappointed.
Sometimes surprised.
At three in the afternoon, the door opened.
Victor Romano entered with two attorneys.
Dominic stood.
Rebecca did too.
“What is this?”
Victor smiled.
“Hello, Dominic.”
He was sixty-eight.
Silver-haired.
Immaculate suit.
He looked like a man arriving for lunch.
Not like someone bargaining away a criminal empire.
“You asked for him?” Dominic asked Rebecca.
“No.”
Victor's attorney raised a hand.
“My client requested a brief conversation regarding potential cooperation.”
Dominic laughed.
Victor sat.
“Still dramatic.”
“You offered me to the government.”
“Business.”
“You offered your nephew too.”
Victor's smile disappeared.
“Matteo was disloyal.”
“And I wasn't?”
“You were competition.”
Dominic nodded.
“At least you're consistent.”
Victor leaned forward.
“I have an offer.”
Rebecca objected.
“No private agreements.”
Victor ignored her.
“You and I tell them Matteo acted independently.”
Dominic stared.
Victor continued.
“We reduce exposure. Protect legitimate assets. Give them small people.”
Rebecca's expression hardened.
“I'm in the room.”
Victor smiled.
“Yes, counselor.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Small people.”
“People who can be replaced.”
Something inside Dominic went cold.
Years ago he might have understood.
Today he saw Lily.
Sophia.
Isabella.
Employees.
Drivers.
Warehouse workers.
All the people powerful men described as replaceable.
“No.”
Victor frowned.
“Think.”
“I did.”
“You could lose everything.”
Dominic nodded.
“I know.”
Victor studied him.
Then realization arrived.
“The woman.”
Dominic's expression changed.
Victor smiled slowly.
“Matteo was right.”
“Careful.”
“You sacrificed an empire because some maid—”
Dominic stood.
Rebecca stood too.
Victor stopped smiling.
Dominic's voice was quiet.
“Her name is Sophia Carter.”
Victor raised his hands.
“Fine.”
“And Lily.”
“The child.”
“Lily.”
Victor stared at him.
“You've become sentimental.”
“No.”
Dominic sat.
“I've become specific.”
Victor didn't understand.
Dominic did.
Cruelty was easy when people became categories.
Worker.
Enemy.
Woman.
Child.
Collateral.
It became harder when they had names.
Rebecca closed the file.
“Mr. Romano, unless you have information relevant to the investigation—”
“I do.”
Victor looked at Dominic.
“Matteo has another copy.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“Of the ledger?”
“Digital.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect immunity without it?”
Victor smiled.
“I know who does.”
Dominic already knew.
“Marco.”
Victor shook his head.
“Daniel Carter.”
Dominic frowned.
Daniel had insisted the paper ledger was the only copy.
Victor continued.
“Daniel photographed several pages before stealing it.”
Rebecca called Daniel immediately.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Dominic's stomach tightened.
“Where is he?”
Rebecca checked.
Daniel had left protective custody two hours earlier.
Sophia learned twenty minutes later.
She was at Margaret's hospital appointment in Pennsylvania.
Dominic called.
“Daniel is missing.”
Sophia closed her eyes.
“Again.”
“Did he contact you?”
“No.”
“Lily?”
“No.”
“Margaret?”
Sophia looked at her mother.
Margaret shook her head.
“Why would he leave?”
Dominic hesitated.
“Victor says he has digital copies.”
Sophia swore.
Margaret looked impressed.
“I taught you better words than that.”
“Mom.”
Dominic continued.
“Daniel may be trying to trade them.”
“For what?”
“Protection.”
Sophia laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
“I'm going to find him.”
“Dominic, you're in federal custody.”
“Technically I'm cooperating voluntarily.”
Rebecca looked at him from across the room.
“Not for long if you leave.”
Sophia heard.
“Do not make this worse.”
“I can help.”
“You always think you can help by taking control.”
Dominic became silent.
Sophia softened.
“Stay.”
“What?”
“Stay there. Tell the truth. Finish what you started.”
Dominic stared at the phone.
“You trust Rebecca?”
“I trust that you're trying to become somebody who doesn't run when consequences arrive.”
The sentence struck him.
Sophia continued:
“Let somebody else find Daniel.”
Dominic exhaled.
“Okay.”
Rebecca lifted an eyebrow.
Dominic ignored her.
Before ending the call, Sophia said:
“Dominic?”
“Yes?”
“My mother wants to know something.”
Margaret called from across the hospital room:
“Ask him if he's still my daughter's boyfriend!”
Sophia covered her face.
Dominic smiled.
“What did you tell her?”
“That you were never my boyfriend.”
Margaret shouted:
“She's lying!”
Dominic laughed.
Rebecca stared.
Victor stared.
For a moment, the federal interview room felt almost human.
Then Marco called.
Dominic answered.
His smile disappeared.
“I found Daniel.”
“Where?”
“At the waterfront.”
Dominic went still.
The location of the original Saturday meeting.
Victor leaned forward.
Marco continued:
“And he's not alone.”
“Matteo's people?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Marco lowered his voice.
“Reporters.”
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
“He sent the digital ledger to three newspapers.”
Everyone became silent.
Marco added:
“And according to the email he copied me on, publication begins tonight.”
Victor Romano stood so quickly his chair fell.
Because Daniel Carter had done the one thing none of them expected.
May you like
He had made the secrets impossible to bury.
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