Chapter 20 - The Final Cut
The rain washed away the blood and ash as we drove silently through the dark, winding country roads far outside of London.
Nobody spoke for hours, the heavy weight of our survival completely settling over the cramped, freezing interior of the van.
We eventually pulled up to a private, desolate airfield where a small, untraceable charter plane was waiting on the tarmac.
Alessandro carried his sleeping sister out of the van, placing her gently into the secure cabin of the aircraft.
My father stood on the wet pavement, looking at me with eyes full of deep, completely unfixable regret.
He quietly asked if I could ever find a way to forgive him for the terrible things he had done.
I looked at him, completely devoid of any anger, sadness, or love, feeling nothing but cold, absolute clarity.
I told him that the jeweler's daughter he had raised died the moment she realized her father was a monster.
I handed him a forged passport and a small duffel bag of untraceable cash, telling him to vanish and never contact us again.
He nodded slowly, entirely broken, and walked away into the heavy fog, disappearing from my life forever.
Alessandro stood beside me, wrapping his warm, familiar coat around my shivering, exhausted shoulders.
He asked me where I wanted to go, promising that he would follow me to the absolute ends of the earth.
I looked at the man who had lied to me, protected me, and bled for me time and time again.
I realized that we could never truly outrun the darkness, because the darkness was permanently ingrained in our blood.
We could not hide from the syndicates, the commissions, or the ruthless empires that ruled the criminal underworld.
If we wanted to survive, we could no longer be the prey running desperately from the hunters.
I looked at Alessandro and told him that we were not going to hide in Sicily, Chicago, or anywhere else.
I pulled the stolen leather ledger from my coat pocket, running my fingers over the incredibly valuable codes inside.
We were going to use the Tsar’s stolen billions to rebuild my father’s secret empire, but we would do it our way.
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I was no longer just the innocent wife of a mafia boss, nor was I simply the pawn of a Russian mastermind.
I was the master jeweler, and it was finally my turn to control the board.
