Leo lunged forward and grabbed him again.
“Where did you hear that?”
Tony shrugged.
“I hear things.”
“From who?”
“Marcus’s accountant.”
Leo stared at him.
Tony’s grin faded slightly.
“Look,” he muttered. “You wanted the truth.”
Leo released him slowly.
The room suddenly felt suffocating.
Marcus killed them.
The words refused to settle in Leo’s mind.
They circled endlessly.
Impossible.
But… what if it wasn’t?
Tony watched him carefully.
“You look like you’re about to throw up.”
Leo’s voice was hoarse.
“Where’s the crate?”
Tony sighed.
“Still worried about whiskey?”
Leo grabbed a knife from the table beside him.
The blade flashed under the weak light.
Tony’s eyes widened slightly.
“Whoa.”
Leo placed the knife against Tony’s throat.
“Where.”
Tony swallowed.
“Old storage warehouse by the river.”
Leo didn’t move.
Tony nodded quickly.
“I swear.”
Leo studied his face.
Tony looked terrified.
Finally, Leo lowered the knife.
But he didn’t leave immediately.
Instead, he asked quietly—
“Why steal it?”
Tony hesitated.
Then he sighed.
“Because Marcus was going to kill you.”
Leo frowned.
“What?”
Tony shrugged helplessly.
“You lost a crate during the ambush.”
Leo stared at him.
“So you… stole another one?”
Tony nodded weakly.
“Marcus always needs someone to blame.”
Leo’s mind spun again.
Tony leaned back in the chair.
“I figured if the crate disappeared completely… he’d think the rival gang took it.”
Leo said nothing.
Tony laughed bitterly.
“But instead I got caught.”
Silence filled the room again.
Finally Leo turned toward the door.
Before he left, Tony called after him.
“Leo.”
Leo stopped.
Tony’s voice was quieter now.
“Marcus isn’t the man you think he is.”
Leo didn’t respond.
He left the basement.
—
Upstairs, the mansion was quiet.
Leo walked down the long hallway toward the exit.
But halfway there—
He heard voices.
Marcus’s voice.
Leo stopped instinctively.
The door to Marcus’s office was slightly open.
Inside, Marcus spoke with two men in expensive suits.
“…Rossi family property will be transferred next month,” Marcus said.
Leo frowned.
Rossi.
Isabella’s last name.
One of the men asked, “What about the father?”
Marcus chuckled.
“He already signed everything.”
“And the daughter?”
Marcus’s voice turned colder.
“She doesn’t need to know the details.”
Leo’s stomach tightened.
Inside the room, Marcus poured himself a drink.
“The debt her father owed me was very convincing.”
One of the men laughed.
“You ruined that man.”
Marcus smiled.
“He ruined himself.”
Leo’s blood ran cold.
Marcus continued calmly.
“And now his daughter belongs to me.”
Leo stepped away from the door slowly.
Every instinct in his body screamed the same thing.
Nothing in this house was what it seemed.
—
Across the mansion, Isabella Rossi sat in her bedroom near the window.
The moonlight painted silver across the floor.
Lucy stood beside her nervously.
“You shouldn’t have told Leo about Tony,” Lucy whispered.
Isabella stared out the window.
“I had to.”
Lucy hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
Isabella turned.
Lucy looked uneasy.
“I overheard Marcus talking earlier.”
“What about?”
Lucy swallowed.
“Your father’s debt.”
Isabella’s fingers tightened on the windowsill.
“What about it?”
Lucy’s voice dropped.
“It wasn’t real.”
The room went still.
“What do you mean?”
Lucy looked at the floor.
“Marcus created it.”
Isabella’s heart skipped.
“What?”
“He manipulated the bank records,” Lucy said softly. “Your father never owed that money.”
The world seemed to tilt.
“Marcus wanted the Rossi wine business,” Lucy continued.
“And me.”
Lucy nodded slowly.
Isabella felt something inside her chest shatter.
All these years—
All the humiliation.
All the forced smiles beside Marcus.
All the nights trapped in this mansion.
Because of a lie.
Her voice trembled.
“My father lost everything because of him.”
Lucy nodded.
Tears filled Isabella’s eyes.
But they quickly turned to something colder.
Something sharper.
Anger.
—
Later that night, Leo stood outside the mansion gates.
The city lights flickered in the distance.
His mind was chaos.
Marcus killed his parents.
Marcus destroyed Isabella’s family.
The man he had trusted for years…
was a monster.
Footsteps approached behind him.
Leo turned.
Isabella stood there.
They stared at each other for a long moment.
Then she spoke.
“My father’s debt was fake.”
Leo froze.
“What?”
“Marcus created it,” she said quietly.
Leo felt the final piece fall into place.
They stood there in silence.
Two people whose lives had been quietly destroyed by the same man.
Finally Leo said softly—
“We need proof.”
Isabella nodded slowly.
“Marcus keeps records at his distillery outside the city.”
Leo’s eyes darkened.
“If we expose him…”
“He loses everything,” Isabella finished.
Lucy appeared behind her.
“I can get Tony out of the basement,” she whispered.
Leo looked at them both.
Three people.
Three victims.
One enemy.
Far behind them, the mansion lights flickered.
Leo spoke quietly.
“Then we burn his empire down.”
None of them noticed the shadow watching from the upstairs window.
Marcus Cohen stood there with a glass of whiskey in his hand.
He had heard enough.
And he was already smiling.