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I turn to Enzo, rage fuelling my words. “If you are accusing my father of something, say it out loud Enzo. Do not hide behind veiled hypotheticals.”
“Your father is spearheading a huge racket that is peddling drugs to school children. Once they’re hooked, he recruits them. As for what, we don’t know but we believe the answers lie in his vault.”
The entire room goes silent. I say no words. Jasmine gasps. My father? Selling drugs to children? No. Never. Why?
“I don’t believe you,” I whisper, the betrayal cutting deep.
To my relief, Jasmine takes over. She opens the folder that was passed across to me, the one I didn’t touch and glances through it.
"Encrypted ledgers," she explains out loud. "Takes a while to crack them but your men have done it well, and now you have access to all of your father's financial records. Nothing shows intent better than financial records. Have a look, Dario. Does anything look out of the ordinary?"
I muster courage and ask her to pass the folder to me. I look through the records, and horror seeps through my bones. All these years, I thought I was privy to all our financial records but these? I've never seen these before.
The weight of the realization settles on my shoulders like a boulder, crushing my chest and making it difficult to breathe. Panic grips me tightly, its icy fingers wrapping around my heart. I feel a bead of sweat trickle down the side of my temple as my mind races back in time.
I was eleven. My mother disappeared. Her screams. Father told me they had a fight and she ran away. The blood I saw was his. She threw a vase at him, it hit his head. He was only trying to get her to stay, but she was in love with another man.
Why wouldn't I have believed him? He was walking around the next day like nothing happened, a huge cut on his head, bandaged and bleeding through.
I believed my mother abandoned us. Until I turned sixteen and found her grave in our family gardens. It's easy to disguise, when you have hundreds of acres of it.
He told me he lied to protect me. I was too young to know. When I asked how she died, he said she shot herself. He was injured when he tried to take the gun from her, just before she pulled the trigger on herself.
For years, I didn't believe him. He had betrayed me in the highest sense. But over the years, I tried to force myself to trust him. What else could I do? I had to live with the man under the same roof and the resentment I held on to hurt no one but me. Eventually, it was Marco who helped me heal. Who reminded me of the good in my father.
My father always kept his word. He's never broken a promise to me. Never lied before or since.
Perhaps he truly hid my mother's death to protect me.
Or perhaps, he has more secrets that haven't been unveiled and I've been a fool all along?
"Are you sure these are authentic?" I ask Cipher.
"Affirmative."
I've known Cipher since he was a kid. The kid never lies.
My father, on the other hand? He's betrayed me before.
"Drug trafficking?" I stammer, my voice quivering with disbelief. "You can't be serious. My father..." The cold truth slices through me like a blade, and I struggle to keep my composure.
"Capo," the former intelligence officer, Enzo, speaks up, his eyes never leaving mine. "We know it's hard to believe, but the evidence is there. We've intercepted communications between the Don's men and known drug traffickers."
"Enzo's right," Cipher chimes in, dark bags under his eyes from endless hours spent hacking into encrypted systems. "I've seen the ledgers myself. The money trail doesn't lie."
"Look, boss," Luciano says, his voice low and heavy with emotion. "We don't want to work for someone who's involved in something so vile. We swore our loyalty to you, not the Don."
"Enough!" I shout, slamming my fist on the table. The sound echoes through the dimly lit warehouse as the others fall silent. I close my eyes, attempting to process the weight of everything they've just shared. I believe them, I do. But it's still too much, too soon.
"Listen," I say, opening my eyes and fixing my gaze on each of them. "I need time to think of what we are to do next. But know this – no matter what the truth may be, I value your loyalty above all else." My men nod solemnly, understanding the gravity of the situation.
"Thank you, Capo," Enzo replies, his voice thick with appreciation.
I stand and walk to the corner of the room, taking deep breaths. Just then, I feel Jasmine's hand on my shoulder, her touch both comforting and electrifying. "Dario, are you alright?" She whispers. No one can hear her but me.
"Am I alright?" I repeat, bitterness lacing my words. "My whole world is crumbling, Jasmine. The man I trusted most in this life may be a monster, and I...I don't know what to do."
"Hey," she says softly, tilting my chin so that our eyes meet. "We'll face this together, okay? You're not alone in this fight."
