Chapter 18 - A Debt Paid in Roses
The torrential autumn rain had stopped by two o'clock in the morning,
leaving the grounds of the Moretti estate dripping,
cold,
and shrouded in heavy fog.
The floodlights around the perimeter burned bright white,
illuminating the grand stone courtyard and the sweeping manicured lawns.
At the far edge of the property sat the famous rose garden—a vast circular maze of white marble arches,
dark red rosebushes,
and wet soil.
Carmine sat on his knees in the center of the muddy path,
his silk suit ruined,
his hands bound tightly behind his back with plastic zip-ties.
Vincent and six armed guards stood quietly around the perimeter,
their faces shadowed beneath their caps.
The continuous hum of Gabriel’s motorized wheelchair was gone forever.
Instead,
the sound of Gabriel’s firm,
heavy footsteps echoed along the gravel path as he walked into the garden.
He wore a long dark trench coat over his tuxedo,
his tall frame imposing against the white fog.
I walked a few paces behind him,
wearing a heavy woolen coat Gabriel had draped over my shoulders to protect me from the chill.
Carmine looked up,
his breath coming in frantic,
ragged gasps.
"Gabriel... please!"
he wept,
tears streaming through the dirt on his cheeks.
"I'll give back the money!"
"All twelve million!"
"I'll leave the country!"
"You'll never see me again!"
Gabriel stopped three feet in front of his uncle.
He looked around at the dark red roses blooming around them in the cold damp night.
"Do you remember what I told Maya on her very first day here,
Carmine?"
Gabriel asked quietly,
his voice smooth and deadly.
"I told her if she touched me without permission,"
"I would have her buried under the rose garden."
Gabriel reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a sleek silver fountain pen—the very pen Carmine had used to sign the forged property transfers and fake medical orders.
Gabriel dropped the silver pen into the dark mud at Carmine’s feet.
"You touched my empire,"
Gabriel said softly.
"You touched my life."
"And worst of all,"
"you tried to touch her."
Gabriel looked over at Vincent.
"Strip him of the family name."
"Deliver him to the federal authorities outside the gates along with the financial evidence."
Carmine blinked,
stunned,
his weeping suddenly stopping mid-breath.
"You're... you're not going to kill me?"
Gabriel turned his back on his uncle,
taking my hand in his,
his fingers warm and strong against mine.
"Death is easy,
Carmine,"
Gabriel said over his shoulder as we walked back toward the illuminated mansion.
"You are going to spend the remaining thirty years of your life in a maximum-security federal cell,"
"watching from a tiny window as I build this family higher than my father ever dreamed."
May you like
"And every time you take a breath,"
"you will remember that a broke nurse with a phone camera put you there."
