The Contract I Tore

Chapter 2 The Invisible Chains

I pressed the icon.

Years of work vanished from the screen, starting with the algorithms that laundered his money.

The models that warned him about federal investigations followed, along with the ghost fleets in my grandfather's network that carried his illicit cargo.

The last status bar emptied. I sat back in the secure penthouse Marcello had never found. For a decade, those systems had kept him alive. Now the screens were blank.

"It's done, Gabriel."

My family's head of security left the window and handed me a tablet. "Rotterdam flagged one shipment. His shell company's credit line was cut ten minutes ago."

Both failures were already on the screen.

By the next morning, Gabriel's report ran to several pages.

Marcello had woken in the master suite after another sleepless night. His usual migraine followed. There was no herbal tea beside his breakfast.

Camilla had given him a sugary espresso instead.

At his ten o'clock meeting with the Commission, he opened his briefing folder. The red-tabbed annexes were missing. So were my notes on customs loopholes and rival weaknesses.

The staff spent the morning opening drawers and searching rooms they had never touched before.

Then Bianca broke out in hives. Camilla had given her a pastry made with almond flour. The ten-page binder I left on Bianca's dietary needs was still unopened.

Marcello's shout reached the east wing. "Where the hell is Serena?!"

He had spent the morning shouting for me. By noon, he was calling my absence a tantrum.

Before noon, his most trusted capo called with worse news.

The port authority had seized three cargo ships loaded with untraceable weapons. All three financial guarantees had failed.

Those guarantees came from me.

Gabriel's source sent us Marcello's answer.

"It's her," he told his underboss. "The little fool thinks she can scare me with her dead grandfather's name."

To him, I still cooked, gardened, and stood beside him at parties.

He ordered a team to find me.

"Drag her to the industry hearing tomorrow if you have to. I'll put her on that stand and show everyone what an ignorant, hysterical woman she is. It's time I taught my wife a lesson."