Chapter 10 - The False Victory
Ryan stepped fully into the light of the panic room, a nasty, triumphant smirk twisting his face.
He looked exactly the same as he had this morning—cheap leather jacket, smelling faintly of stale beer, but now holding a deadly, suppressed pistol.
I stared at him in absolute, mind-numbing shock.
"Ryan?" I whispered, my voice completely failing me. "How did you get in here?"
Ryan chuckled, a harsh, grating sound that instantly brought back months of terrifying memories.
"You really thought your new billionaire boyfriend scared me away with one phone call, Mandy?" Ryan sneered, pointing the gun casually at me.
"He just confirmed exactly where you were hiding."
Isabella remained perfectly still, her silver pistol still aimed directly at my chest, completely ignoring the armed intruder behind her.
"Mrs. Raldi, what are you doing?" I panicked, looking frantically between the two armed people. "He's going to kill us!"
Isabella laughed softly, lowering her weapon and turning to face Ryan with a look of mild annoyance.
"You are late, Mr. Jenkins," the powerful matriarch scolded him coldly. "I had to improvise the accusations regarding the poisoned IV bag to buy us more time."
The floor completely dropped out from beneath my feet.
My brain desperately tried to connect the impossible dots forming in front of me.
The matriarch of the most powerful mafia family in New York was actively conspiring with my abusive, unemployed ex-boyfriend.
"Traffic was a bitch, lady," Ryan grumbled, pocketing his weapon. "Did you bring the money?"
Isabella walked over to a heavy steel safe built into the wall of the panic room.
She opened it with a quick combination and pulled out two massive, bound stacks of hundred-dollar bills.
She tossed the money carelessly onto the leather sofa.
"Two hundred thousand dollars, as agreed," Isabella stated smoothly. "For providing the necessary distractions."
"Wait," I gasped, clutching the edge of the Don's medical bed for support. "You hired him? You paid him to beat me?"
Isabella turned back to me, her expression entirely devoid of any guilt or sympathy.
"Don't be ridiculous, Amanda," Isabella scoffed. "I didn't pay him to beat you. I simply paid him to ensure you were desperate enough to accept Aleandro’s job offer when he inevitably 'rescued' you."
The horrific reality crashed over me like a tidal wave.
This entire nightmare—the subway fainting, the heroic rescue, the offered job—had been meticulously orchestrated by the matriarch of the family.
"Why?" I cried out, tears of absolute betrayal streaming down my face. "Why would you do this to me?"
"Because five years ago, you saved my husband's life, and you disappeared," Isabella explained, her voice hardening into steel.
"When I finally found you, you were a broken, pathetic girl living in Queens. But I needed a highly skilled, completely expendable nurse for my husband."
She pointed a perfectly manicured finger at my chest.
"I needed a nurse who had absolutely no family, no friends, and no one who would ask questions when she eventually took the fall for his murder."
My blood ran completely cold.
"You tried to poison your own husband," I realized in horror. "The digitalis in the IV bag... it was you."
"My husband is old, weak, and his outdated morals are ruining this syndicate's profit margins," Isabella confessed without a single ounce of shame.
"The bombing downstairs is a fake breach orchestrated by my own men to cover up his 'unfortunate' assassination during the chaos."
She picked up her silver pistol again, aiming it directly at my forehead.
"You were always going to be the perfect scapegoat, Amanda," Isabella smiled wickedly. "The ungrateful, gold-digging nurse who tried to kill the Don to steal his fortune."
Ryan picked up the stacks of cash, stuffing them greedily into his jacket pockets.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Mrs. Raldi," Ryan laughed, turning to leave through the secret maintenance tunnel at the back of the panic room.
"Goodbye, Mandy. Try not to bleed on the nice rugs."
Isabella raised her weapon, her finger tightening firmly on the trigger.
I closed my eyes, preparing for the inevitable, terrifying end.
Suddenly, the heavy steel vault door of the panic room exploded violently inward with a deafening, catastrophic roar.
The heavy metal door crushed Ryan instantly against the back wall, silencing his cruel laughter forever.
Isabella screamed, dropping her weapon as she covered her ears from the concussive blast.
Standing in the smoking, ruined doorway was Aleandro Raldi, covered in blood and ash, looking like an absolute demon emerging from hell.
He aimed a massive assault rifle directly at his own mother's chest, his dark eyes burning with complete, devastating heartbreak.
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"You forgot one critical detail about my security system, Mother," Aleandro growled, his voice vibrating with lethal fury.
"I have hidden audio recorders in every single panic room in this building."
