Chapter 4 - The Night the Tailor Shop Burned
Noah refused to let me go alone.
I refused to stay behind.
We argued for nine minutes, and neither of us raised our voice.
That made the disagreement more dangerous.
“Victor asked for me because he thinks I am frightened enough to surrender the ledger,” I said.
“He asked for you because he knows you matter to me.”
“You are proving his theory every time you try to lock me away.”
“I am trying to keep you alive.”
“So was my father when he lied for five years.”
The comparison struck him.
He turned toward the shop window, where morning rain blurred the street.
“What do you propose?”
“I attend the council dinner carrying a copy of the ledger.”
“No.”
“You asked.”
“I asked for a plan, not assisted suicide.”
“Maya’s team will surround the building.”
“She cannot guarantee Victor has not purchased someone inside her team.”
“Then your men enter with us.”
“He will kill your father the moment he sees them.”
I stepped closer.
“Noah, you told me wanting me did not create ownership. Prove it now.”
The muscles in his jaw tightened.
Then he closed his eyes.
“What do you need from me?”
The question changed everything.
“Trust me enough to let me participate in my own rescue.”
He nodded.
We prepared a false ledger containing enough genuine entries to convince Victor at first glance. The real records were already with Maya.
I hid a small transmitter inside the hem of my dress. Noah wore the completed suit beneath his black coat. Paulie and three trusted guards entered the council building disguised as catering staff.
The meeting took place inside an abandoned hotel near the river. Once, politicians had danced beneath its chandeliers. Now dust covered the marble floor, and armed men guarded every entrance.
Victor sat at the head of a long dining table.
Twelve captains occupied the surrounding chairs.
My father was tied to one near the fireplace.
A bruise marked his cheek, but he was alive.
When I entered carrying the ledger, his face filled with fear.
“Isabel, leave.”
Victor smiled.
“She came because she understands family loyalty.”
“No,” I said. “I came because you mistake hostages for respect.”
Several captains looked away.
Victor extended his hand.
“The book.”
“Release my father.”
“You are not negotiating.”
“Then you do not receive it.”
His smile disappeared.
He motioned toward a guard, who pressed a weapon against Papa’s shoulder.
I placed the ledger on the table.
Victor opened it and flipped through several pages.
“These are genuine.”
“Of course.”
He looked up.
“Where is Noah?”
“Preparing to surrender his companies.”
A murmur spread around the room.
Victor laughed.
“Noah would burn the city before surrendering power.”
“You never understood him.”
“And you do?”
“I understand that he knows power is not the same as worth.”
Victor closed the ledger.
“Such influence after one fitting.”
His eyes moved over my dress.
“My nephew always did become possessive about beautiful things.”
“I am not a thing.”
“No. You are pressure applied to the correct wound.”
The words traveled through my transmitter.
Maya needed a direct confession connecting Victor to Giovanni’s death and the counterfeit medicine.
I had to keep him talking.
“Did you poison my father?”
“I gave your baker a choice. Debt or obedience.”
“Where is Brett?”
“Gone.”
“Dead?”
“If he is fortunate.”
Victor stood.
“Your father should have handed over Giovanni’s book five years ago.”
“You killed your brother because of it.”
The captains became still.
Victor walked toward me.
“Giovanni planned to give away businesses our family built.”
“To the employees.”
“To servants.”
My anger sharpened.
“People whose work produced the money.”
“Your father filled your head with dangerous ideas.”
“My father tried to save Giovanni.”
“He should have allowed him to die quietly.”
The admission had been made.
I touched the transmitter twice, signaling Maya.
Nothing happened.
Victor smiled.
He pulled the device from beneath my dress strap.
“You think I entered this room without checking frequencies?”
He crushed it beneath his shoe.
The windows exploded inward.
Not from federal agents.
From Victor’s men setting fire to the lower floor.
Smoke rose through the ballroom doors.
Victor had planned to destroy the hotel with everyone inside and blame Noah for the massacre. The captains were not guests.
They were witnesses he intended to eliminate.
Panic spread.
Victor grabbed my arm and dragged me toward a service exit. My father struggled against his restraints.
Then Noah entered through the smoke.
He wore the suit I had made and carried no visible weapon.
Every man in the room turned toward him.
“Release her,” he said.
Victor pulled me closer.
“You came alone.”
“No.”
Paulie and the disguised guards appeared behind the captains.
Several men loyal to Victor raised their weapons.
The first shot struck Noah in the chest.
I screamed.
He staggered but remained standing.
My protective panels had worked.
A second shot struck his shoulder, where the reinforcement was thinner.
Blood darkened the wool.
Chaos erupted.
The captains overturned the table. Paulie tackled one gunman. My father tipped his chair sideways and reached the broken edge of a wine bottle.
I drove my heel into Victor’s foot and pulled away.
Noah crossed the room despite the blood running down his arm. He struck Victor before his uncle could aim again.
They crashed against the table.
Flames moved through the doorway.
I cut my father’s restraints with the broken bottle while smoke filled the ceiling.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“That answer sounded dishonest.”
“It was.”
I supported him toward the emergency stairs.
Behind us, Victor and Noah fought near the burning curtains. Victor reached for a fallen weapon.
Noah saw it too late.
I threw the false ledger.
It struck Victor’s hand, knocking the weapon away.
Paulie forced him to the floor.
Federal agents finally entered through the eastern corridor. Maya’s team had heard the confession through a secondary recorder hidden inside the ledger’s spine.
Victor was arrested.
The captains surrendered one by one.
Noah tried to follow us outside but collapsed near the stairs.
I ran back.
“Noah.”
“I’m fine.”
“You have blood on a suit that took me fourteen hours to finish.”
His mouth almost smiled.
“Then save the suit.”
“I am considering saving the man inside it.”
Firefighters carried my father out while Paulie helped me support Noah. We reached the street as flames broke through the hotel windows.
Ambulances filled the block.
Maya approached holding the false ledger.
“We have the confession, account records, and shipment locations.”
“What about the shop?” I asked.
Her expression changed.
Victor had sent another crew to Fourth Street before the council dinner.
They had poured fuel through the back entrance and set fire to Rossi & Daughter Tailoring.
By the time firefighters arrived, the roof had collapsed.
Everything my family had built was gone.
I stood on the sidewalk beside the ambulance, unable to speak.
Noah reached for my hand but stopped.
Even bleeding, he waited for permission.
I took it.
He closed his fingers around mine.
“I will rebuild it.”
The words triggered anger through my grief.
“No.”
His face tightened.
“I didn’t mean—”
“I know what you meant. But you cannot replace my father’s life with your money and call the wound closed.”
He nodded slowly.
“You’re right.”
“What you can do is survive surgery.”
Paramedics lifted him into the ambulance.
Before the doors closed, he looked at me.
“One dinner.”
Tears burned my eyes.
May you like
“Survive first.”
“I intend to collect.”
