Chapter 14 - Veronica Finally Spoke to the Man She Thought Was Helpless

No one answered Veronica.

Luca muted the call and looked at Kim.

“Trace?”

Agent Lee was already working.

Veronica spoke again through the speaker.

“You always hated being underestimated. I should have remembered that.”

My heartbeat rose.

Kim pointed at me: stay silent.

Veronica laughed softly.

“Shaw missed her check-in. Anthony says that means nothing. Anthony is an idiot.”

That interested everyone.

She continued. “If you are awake, Dominic, you should know I never wanted Nico dead.”

My hands tightened beneath the blanket.

“I wanted you frightened,” she said. “I wanted you to postpone Friday. Anthony decided fear was not enough.”

Kim’s eyes sharpened.

Not a confession to everything, but close.

Veronica went on. “He told Rinaldi to make sure the Bentley failed at speed. I paid the garage because Pierce said cash could not be traced back to family accounts. I did not know Nico would be driving.”

I wanted to speak more than I had wanted anything all week.

Kim shook her head.

Let her talk.

“Calder said the accident would look clean,” Veronica continued. “Then you survived. Of course you survived. You survive everything.”

Her voice changed.

Not grief.

Not fear.

Resentment.

“You were going to revoke my trust on Friday. Pierce told me. Do you know what it is like to spend six years beside a man who measures affection in access? You gave me houses, jewelry, security, and never once let me forget that you could remove all of it with a signature.”

Grace’s face remained hard.

Veronica was trying to turn motive into justification.

“I deserved something,” she said.

Kim wrote the words down.

Then Veronica stopped.

When she spoke again, the performance was gone.

“Anthony wants me to go to the hospital tonight and finish this myself.”

The room seemed to contract.

“I am not doing it.”

A car horn sounded faintly behind her.

Lee whispered that the trace was narrowing to Midtown.

Veronica said, “If you can hear me, understand this: Anthony is moving the warehouse records before sunrise. Pier 38. Calder has people clearing the cameras.”

Luca looked at Kim.

A trap was possible.

So was truth.

“Why tell me?” I said before anyone could stop me.

Kim’s head snapped toward me.

Veronica inhaled.

“So you are awake.”

“Yes.”

For several seconds, neither of us spoke.

Then she said, “Because Anthony told Pierce I become a liability the moment you die.”

There it was.

Betrayal consuming betrayal.

“Where are you?” I asked.

“I’m leaving.”

“For where?”

“A place none of you control.”

“Veronica, if you run, Anthony will find you before the government does.”

“And if I surrender, the government puts me in prison.”

“Yes.”

She laughed once, bitterly. “At least you’re finally honest.”

Kim held up a card with instructions: KEEP HER TALKING.

“Did you order the medication?” I asked.

“No. Anthony did through Pierce. Shaw was Pierce’s contact.”

“Did you know?”

A pause.

“Yes.”

Grace closed her eyes briefly.

Veronica continued, “I told myself a coma was not a life. I told myself you would never wake. People can make anything sound acceptable if enough money is waiting behind the sentence.”

For the first time, I understood that Veronica and I had used the same skill in different rooms.

We had both renamed harm until we could live beside it.

Lee pointed to his screen.

They had her location: a parking garage near East Fifty-Third Street.

Agents were moving.

Kim signaled for me to keep my voice level. Panic could make Veronica run toward Anthony instead of away from him. For all the crimes between us, the immediate objective was simple: keep her alive long enough to become a witness and keep whatever evidence she possessed from disappearing with her. It was a strange mercy, protecting someone who had helped plan my death, but justice had begun forcing me to separate what I wanted from what the truth required.

“Veronica,” I said, “stay where you are.”

She knew what that meant.

“No.”

The call disconnected.

Kim immediately ordered teams to the garage and Pier 38.

I pushed myself upright for the first time in five days.

Pain tore through my ribs so violently my vision darkened.

Weiss forced me back against the pillow.

“What are you doing?”

“Pier 38.”

“You are not going anywhere.”

“My records are there.”

“Federal agents have vehicles, weapons, and functioning rib cages.”

Grace almost smiled.

Kim stood over me. “You have done enough field work from this bed.”

I hated every word.

She left with Lee.

For the next two hours, we waited.

At three twelve, Luca’s phone rang.

Kim.

He answered.

She spoke for less than a minute.

When he hung up, his expression held relief and something darker.

“Pier 38 was real,” he said. “Agents stopped a truck leaving the warehouse with servers, paper ledgers, and two industrial shredders.”

“Anthony?”

“Gone.”

“Calder?”

“Not there.”

“Veronica?” Grace asked.

Luca looked at me.

“They found her car in the Midtown garage.”

“Empty?”

“Yes.”

May you like

[COMPLETED] “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DRESS! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN OLD SEAM...

[COMPLETED] At the Mafia Boss's Engagement Party, I Served His Hungry So...

[COMPLETED] The Mafia Boss’s Fiancée Tried to Dismiss His Father’s Loyal...

On the driver’s seat lay her engagement ring.

And a single white lily.