Chapter 14 - Why Victor Wanted Lena
Victor did not want page 88 anymore.
He did not want Sofia’s journal.
He wanted Lena.
That frightened Dante more.
They returned to New York under intense security.
The photograph was examined.
No fingerprints.
No usable trace evidence.
But the angle mattered.
It had been taken inside Lena’s bedroom at the villa.
Someone had stood less than six feet from her while she slept.
Matteo hated that fact.
Dante hated it more.
Lena pretended it did not bother her.
Nobody believed her.
Isabella arrived at the estate the next morning.
When she saw the photograph, she turned pale.
“You know why.”
Lena looked at her.
“Tell me.”
Isabella sat slowly.
“Elena never told Gabriel everything about her family.”
“What does that mean?”
“Valdez was not her original surname.”
Dante frowned.
“What was?”
Isabella whispered, “Valenti.”
Silence.
Lena stared.
“No.”
“Your mother was Victor’s younger half sister.”
Lena stood.
“No.”
“Elena Valenti changed her name when she was nineteen.”
“That makes Victor…”
“Your uncle.”
Lena backed away.
Dante looked furious.
“You knew?”
“Only after Gabriel died.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Victor was hunting Elena.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“Why?”
Isabella looked at Lena.
“Because Elena inherited something.”
“What?”
“Voting control in the Valenti shipping company.”
Lena laughed in disbelief.
“I’m a waitress.”
“Legally, you own thirty-one percent of Valenti Maritime.”
Silence.
Lena stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
Isabella produced old legal documents.
“Elena’s mother placed the shares in trust.”
“Why didn’t my mother tell me?”
“She wanted you to have a normal life.”
Lena almost laughed again.
“Mission accomplished.”
Dante examined the papers.
“If Lena owns thirty-one percent…”
Matteo understood.
“Victor cannot legally sell or restructure the company without her.”
Isabella nodded.
“And Domenico’s network depends on those shipping assets.”
Dante looked toward Lena.
“That’s why Victor needs you alive.”
“To sign.”
“Yes.”
“And if I refuse?”
Nobody answered.
Lena understood.
Dante folded the documents.
“You’re not signing anything.”
“Obviously.”
“You’re also not leaving this estate.”
Lena narrowed her eyes.
“No.”
Dante sighed.
“We have discussed your survival instincts.”
“And we have discussed you ordering me around.”
“I’m your uncle.”
“For a week.”
“It still counts.”
“No.”
Matteo quietly left the room.
He had learned when to disappear.
Lena crossed her arms.
“I want to transfer the shares.”
“To whom?”
“The government.”
Dante paused.
“You can’t transfer them instantly.”
“Then freeze them.”
Isabella smiled faintly.
“Elena would like you.”
Lena looked at her.
“You don’t get to say that yet.”
Isabella’s smile disappeared.
Fair.
Lena still had not forgiven her for disappearing.
That afternoon, lawyers began preparing an injunction freezing all Valenti corporate transactions.
Victor reacted within an hour.
He called Lena directly.
Dante stood beside her while she answered.
“Hello, niece.”
Lena’s skin crawled.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Family is complicated.”
“You murdered my mother.”
Victor was silent.
Then:
“She chose Gabriel.”
“That isn’t a reason.”
“It was never about romance.”
“What was it about?”
“She stole from me.”
“She exposed you.”
“She betrayed blood.”
Lena looked at Dante.
Then answered:
“Blood doesn’t excuse evil.”
Victor laughed.
“You sound like Gabriel.”
“Good.”
Silence.
Then Victor’s voice changed.
“Sign the authorization.”
“No.”
“I’ll make this simple.”
A video arrived.
Lena opened it.
Erin sat tied to a chair.
Beside her was her younger brother Kevin.
Both alive.
Both terrified.
Lena stopped breathing.
Victor continued.
“Tomorrow.”
Dante shook his head.
Lena understood.
Do not agree.
Victor gave an address.
An abandoned ferry terminal.
“No police.”
He hung up.
Lena looked at Dante.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“He’ll kill them.”
“He may kill them anyway.”
“So we do nothing?”
“No.”
Dante moved closer.
“We make him believe you are coming.”
Lena’s eyes narrowed.
“And then?”
“We end it.”
The operation began immediately.
Federal agents were contacted.
Matteo planned entry routes.
Lena was fitted with a tracker.
Dante objected to her physically attending.
Lena refused to stay behind.
Again.
“You cannot keep using yourself as bait.”
“Victor is using people I love because of me.”
“That is his choice.”
“It still affects me.”
Dante stared at her.
Lena continued.
“Gabriel died trying to stop people like Victor from hurting strangers.”
Her voice softened.
“I’m not leaving Erin because I’m scared.”
Dante looked away.
He knew he had lost the argument.
The next night, Lena entered the ferry terminal alone.
Or appeared to.
Dante watched from a surveillance van.
Matteo’s men surrounded the building.
Federal agents waited two blocks away.
Victor appeared on the upper level.
“Alina.”
Lena looked up.
“Where are Erin and Kevin?”
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
He gestured.
Lights came on.
Two chairs.
Two bound figures.
Alive.
Lena exhaled.
“Release them.”
“Sign first.”
A tablet waited on a metal table.
Lena approached.
Dante’s voice whispered through her hidden earpiece.
“Do not touch it yet.”
Victor watched.
Lena stalled.
“You killed your own sister.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“She stopped being my sister when she chose Rosselli.”
“She chose decency.”
“She chose weakness.”
Lena looked directly at him.
“No.”
“She chose a man who died.”
“And you’ve spent twenty-seven years afraid of what he left behind.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
Lena smiled.
“That means Gabriel won.”
Victor raised his gun.
Dante’s voice came urgently.
“Lena, down.”
She dropped.
Shots erupted.
Agents stormed the terminal.
Victor fired toward the upper windows.
Dante entered from the side.
Matteo freed Erin.
Kevin collapsed into his sister’s arms.
Victor fled toward the dock.
Lena saw him.
Then she saw something else.
A small boat.
And inside it—
Leo’s pediatric nurse.
Holding a second infant carrier.
Empty.
Victor had planned another attempt.
Dante reached him at the dock.
Victor fired.
The shot hit Dante.
Lena screamed.
May you like
Dante fell backward into the water.
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