Chapter 12 - THE DECRYPTED TRUTH|
"Amelia! Move!" Enzo barked, grabbing the heavy military ammo box from the floor.
We sprinted up the blood-stained basement stairs, stepping over the fallen mercenary, and burst through the back kitchen door out into the pouring rain.
A third gunman waiting in the alley raised his rifle, but a loud gunshot echoed from the far end of the street.
BANG!
The gunman spun around and collapsed into the mud as Tomaso’s SUV pulled up onto the curb, its passenger door swinging open.
"Get in! Get in!" Tomaso roared from the front seat.
Enzo threw me into the back seat, diving in right after me as the SUV sped away from the burning neighborhood, leaving the dark ghosts of my childhood behind forever.
Thirty minutes later, we pulled into a private, high-security underground parking garage beneath a high-rise building in Jersey City.
We entered a luxurious, hidden safe-house apartment equipped with steel security shutters, medical supplies, and advanced computer servers.
Enzo set the heavy green ammo box onto the steel kitchen island. He picked up a crowbar from a tool kit and pried open the rusted latch with a loud metallic crack.
Inside sat three thick, leather-bound accounting journals, alongside five encrypted flash drives sealed in vacuum bags.
Enzo picked up the first journal, opening the yellowed pages filled with my father's meticulous handwriting and glued receipts.
He scanned the first page, his dark eyes widening in genuine shock.
"This isn't just a ledger of political bribes, Amelia," Enzo said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "This is a record of an internal coup within the Marciano family from twenty years ago."
I leaned over the counter, looking at my father's notes. "What does it mean?"
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Enzo turned his head toward me, his face pale under the harsh LED lights.
"My father didn't order your father's murder," Enzo revealed softly. "It was my half-brother Gianni... and Senator Falcone. They killed your father to cover up the fact that they poisoned my father twenty years ago to take control of the syndicate."
