"I was just a waitress when I overheard a mafia boss’s wife whispering to her lover that they had sabotaged her husband’s brakes. I ran to warn him, but I was seconds too late. By the time I reached the mountain road, his car was already disappearing over the cliff, and I became the only person close enough to pull him back from death.

Mr. Rossi stepped into the room, entirely ignoring the gun Dante pointed at his head.

He placed the silver briefcase on the cheap motel table and clicked it open.

Inside rested a single glass vial filled with a clear liquid.

"Leo knows Dante is planning to crash the memorial tomorrow," Rossi said smoothly.

"He also knows Dante won't survive a frontal assault."

Rossi looked directly at me, his eyes cold and dead.

"You are going to pour this into Dante's coffee in the morning," Rossi instructed.

"It is a fast-acting, undetectable heart toxin."

"If Dante dies before the memorial, we will release Mia unharmed."

Dante cocked his weapon, pressing the barrel against Rossi's temple.

"I should blow your brains out right now," Dante snarled.

"If I don't check in within ten minutes, the girl gets a bullet," Rossi replied calmly.

Rossi turned and walked out of the motel room without another word.

I stared at the glass vial, feeling the impossible weight of the choice.

It was the life of a mafia boss I barely knew, against the life of my only sister.

Dante walked over to the table and picked up the vial.

"You have to do it, Cara," Dante said quietly.

I looked at him in absolute shock.

"I can't murder you," I cried, tears streaming down my face.

"Yes, you can, because this isn't poison," Dante smiled, holding the vial to the light.

"Leo is arrogant, but he isn't stupid."

Dante explained that the liquid was a powerful paralytic used by the mob to fake deaths during police raids.

"It will stop my heart long enough to fool a medical examiner," Dante said.

"You will deliver my 'dead' body to Leo to get Mia back."

I spent the entire night holding Dante's hand, terrified that he was wrong.

At dawn, I poured the vial into a glass of water and handed it to him.

He drank it down without hesitation.

Ten seconds later, Dante collapsed onto the floor, his eyes rolling back in his head.

I checked his pulse, but there was absolutely nothing.

The Clumsy Maid Bathed His Dog—Then The Mafia Boss Said She Wasn’t Leavi...

She found her husband with another woman and walked away so quietly that...

The Mafia Boss Asked a Disabled Widow If She Was Okay

I grabbed my phone to call Leo, but the motel door suddenly kicked open.

Leo walked in, holding a gun to my sister's head.

Chapter 6 - The Poisoned Choice