CHAPTER 7 She Opened the Last Page of the Secret Ledger… And Every Powerful Man in the Room Turned Their Guns on Each Other
No one breathed.
Sophie's trembling fingers slowly pulled the folded page from her jacket pocket.
The paper looked ordinary.
Yellowed by time.
Its edges were worn, as if someone had opened and hidden it dozens of times over the years.
Dominic stared at it without blinking.
"So... Evelyn really found it."
Sophie looked at him in confusion.
"My mother knew about this?"
Dominic nodded slowly.
"She died protecting that ledger."
Before Sophie could unfold the page, every light inside Moretti Manor suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the mansion.
A second later...
The emergency generators kicked in.
Dim red lights flooded every hallway.
Then every security monitor flickered to life.
Vincent Moretti appeared again, smiling calmly.
"I knew you'd find the last page."
"But you made one mistake."
"You brought it home."
At that exact moment, explosions rocked the estate.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The reinforced front gate collapsed.
More than thirty armored vehicles burst through the smoke.
Not rivals.
Not police.
Private soldiers.
Each vehicle carried the insignia of different criminal organizations.
For the first time in history...
Chicago's five largest mafia families had united.
Not to destroy Dominic.
To capture Sophie.
Inside the panic room, Dominic's captains reached for their weapons.
"No one leaves."
"If they want her..."
"They'll have to walk through our bodies."
Sophie's heart pounded.
"This is because of me."
Dominic looked directly at her.
"No."
"This war started long before you were born."
Outside, hundreds of gunshots echoed across the estate.
The battle became a full-scale siege.
Leo suddenly grabbed Sophie's sleeve.
"I remember something."
She knelt beside him.
"What is it?"
"The night my mom died..."
"I heard Uncle Vincent say one name."
"What name?"
Leo whispered,
"Black Raven."
Dominic's face instantly changed.
Every captain in the room exchanged nervous glances.
One elderly bodyguard quietly crossed himself.
Sophie frowned.
"What is Black Raven?"
Dominic answered with a voice colder than ice.
"It isn't a person."
"It's the organization that secretly controls every mafia family."
"They've been hiding in the shadows for over thirty years."
"And if they finally revealed themselves..."
"They're no longer trying to buy the ledger."
"They're trying to erase everyone who has ever seen it."
Just then...
One of Dominic's most trusted captains stepped forward.
Marco Ricci.
A man who had protected Dominic for nearly twenty years.
Without warning...
He pulled out his pistol.
Every guard raised their rifles.
Marco didn't aim at the enemy.
He aimed directly at Dominic.
"I'm sorry, Boss."
"I was Black Raven long before I was ever your captain."
Before anyone could react...
He fired.
Bang!
The bullet shattered the glass display behind Dominic instead of hitting him.
Marco had deliberately missed.
He threw another object toward Sophie.
It slid across the marble floor.
A small silver key.
"There isn't time to explain," Marco shouted.
"The truth is buried beneath Saint Gabriel's Cathedral."
"Your mother hid everything there!"
Another sniper's bullet pierced the window.
Marco's chest exploded with blood.
He staggered backward.
Falling to his knees, he looked at Sophie one final time.
"Don't trust..."
He coughed violently.
"...the man..."
His eyes shifted toward Dominic.
"...standing beside..."
Before he could finish...
A second shot struck his forehead.
Silence.
Marco collapsed lifeless onto the marble floor.
Everyone slowly turned toward Dominic.
No one spoke.
But the unfinished warning echoed through every mind.
"Don't trust... the man standing beside..."
Was Marco trying to expose Dominic...
Or someone else still hiding inside the room?
As Sophie looked down at the silver key in her hand, she realized one terrifying truth.
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The greatest betrayal had not happened yet.
It had been standing beside her all along.
