[COMPLETED] Her Family Arranged Her Sister's Marriage to Chicago's Most Feared Mafia Boss—But He Asked for the Daughter They Ignored

The default hearing was set for the following week.

Charles had told everyone the family's creditors would wait until winter. The bank's notice said otherwise. Unless he presented a credible repayment or sale plan, it would begin enforcing its security against the estate.

Tessa read the notice beside the floral shop's cutting table. Vivienne stood across from her, turning a plain gold bracelet around her wrist.

"We have to tell him we know about the payroll," Vivienne said.

"We will. But not before Mr. Harris and the others understand their rights."

They had an appointment with Alina that afternoon. She had arranged for an employment attorney to review the staff's records and explain how to claim overdue wages and missing retirement contributions. None of the workers had to rely on the Ellsworth daughters for permission.

Mr. Harris listened with two cooks and a housekeeper in a modest conference room.

He had brought his pay statements in a worn folder.

"We thought the delay was temporary," he said. "Mr. Ellsworth always said he'd make it right."

The attorney looked at the figures. "You can seek payment whether the property is sold or not. These deductions require a separate accounting. I can't promise how quickly the money will return, but you do not have to accept silence."

Tessa watched Mr. Harris straighten in his chair.

It was the first time she'd seen the older man treated as someone with a claim rather than someone waiting for a favor.

Afterward, she and Vivienne returned to the estate.

Their father was in his study. A glass of untouched whiskey rested near a stack of creditor letters. He glanced at the folder Tessa placed on his desk and immediately looked away.

"You invited lawyers into our home?"

"We met them at an office," Tessa said. "The workers have a right to independent advice."

"You're destroying what little negotiating leverage I have left."

"Are their retirement deductions in the mortgage payments?"

Charles's face lost its color.

Vivienne moved closer. "Dad. Answer her."

He sat down slowly.

"I used some cash from the operating account when a payment was due. I intended to replace it as soon as Aleksander invested."

"Those deductions weren't yours," Tessa said.

"The house was going to be sold from under us. I was trying to keep everyone employed."

"They haven't been paid for six weeks."

Charles rubbed his forehead. "If I'd told the staff, half of them would have left before the dinner. We needed that dinner to succeed."

The admission settled between them.

He hadn't merely hoped the evening would rescue the family. He had continued spending money he didn't have, gambling that Vivienne's marriage would erase the shortage.

"How much?" Vivienne asked.

"The missing contributions total twenty-four thousand six hundred dollars. The wages are another fifty-one thousand, approximately."

Tessa looked at him.

"And you were going to give your daughter's hand in marriage to pay it back?"

"Don't make it sound vulgar."

"What would you call it?"

He stood so quickly the chair struck the carpet behind him.

"You don't understand the people I owe. You don't understand what happens when a family loses everything."

"Mr. Harris understands not receiving his wages," Tessa said. "You could try asking him."

Charles stared at her as though he had never heard her contradict him so plainly.

Margaret entered at the sound of raised voices. When Vivienne told her about the deductions, she gripped the back of the chair but did not immediately defend Charles.

"You said the bank was giving us time," she whispered.

"It would have if Orlov had agreed."

"He didn't," Tessa said. "And he never promised he would."

Charles reached for a sheet on his desk. "Perhaps I can still convince him. The estate is valuable. He's interested. And after what he said to you—"

"No."

"Tessa, for once, think about the family."

"I am thinking about the people you've made part of this debt without their consent. I won't persuade Aleksander to rescue your business because he spoke to me."

Charles dropped the paper.

"So you'd rather see our home auctioned?"

Tessa's throat tightened. She remembered the roses, the staircase, the rooms where she and Vivienne had grown up at different distances from their parents' attention. She wasn't indifferent to losing those things.

But the house was not innocent merely because it was beautiful.

"I'd rather sell it honestly than keep it by lying to more people."

Vivienne looked at her, then at their father.

"She's right," she said.

Charles turned away.

Margaret said nothing.

That night, Aleksander asked Tessa to meet him in a public restaurant owned by neither family. He had spoken with his counsel and wanted to share information about the business proposal. She agreed on the condition that anything important be copied to Alina.

He arrived without a bodyguard at the table and sat opposite her, leaving the choice of conversation to her.

"I heard your father is facing a default hearing," he said.

"I suppose half of Chicago knows by now."

"Not the details. I won't ask for them unless you want to tell me."

Tessa looked at the menu without reading it.

"The staff hasn't been paid. Their retirement deductions are missing. My father used my name on a guarantee. I spent years thinking I was the daughter who wasn't worth anyone's attention. Apparently my signature was useful enough."

Aleksander did not reach across the table as if he could mend that with a gesture.

"You didn't deserve any of it."

"Neither did Vivienne. She thought she was choosing to help. Now she's finding out she was one more part of a transaction."

"Then both of you should be free of it."

Tessa watched him closely. "You could make one call and intimidate the bank, couldn't you?"

The question hung between them.

People had called him Chicago's most feared Mafia boss for reasons he did not pretend were imaginary.

"I know how to exert pressure," he said. "That doesn't mean I should."

"And if I asked you not to?"

"Then I wouldn't."

"Even if it would make the problem disappear faster?"

"Especially then. It would leave you owing me something you never agreed to owe."

He offered something narrower: his investment office would provide the records showing it had made no funding commitment. His counsel would answer Alina's questions. Beyond that, he would not bid for the property while Tessa's forged guarantee remained in dispute.

There was no promise of rescue.

Strangely, that made the offer easier to accept.

Before they parted, he mentioned the black velvet box.

"I returned the ring to the jeweler. It belonged to an arrangement I decided not to make."

Tessa nodded. She hadn't realized she'd needed to hear that.

The next morning Alina called with worse news. The bank would consider a short delay only if Charles formally authorized an independently managed sale and disclosed the estate's outstanding liabilities.

"He hasn't agreed," she said.

"Then we have to make him understand what refusing will cost."

"There's another concern. A regulator may investigate the missing contributions once the employees report them. We should preserve every record before anybody tries to move money or destroy a file."

Tessa looked through the floral shop window at people walking past, carrying on with their ordinary mornings.