Chapter 7
"This is illegal!" Preston cried out, his voice cracking. He pointed a trembling finger at the two capos guarding the door. "You can't just steal our company and hold us hostage! I'll call the FBI! I'll tell them everything about the Marconi syndicate!"
One of the bodyguards let out a low, dark chuckle, shifting his weight.
Giulietta didn't laugh. Her beautiful face hardened into stone. "You will call no one, Preston. Because if you utter a single word to the authorities, I will hand over the ledgers we found in your father’s private safe."
Warren’s head snapped up, his jaw dropping in sheer, unadulterated horror. "You... you couldn't have. That safe is biometric."
"I am a resourceful woman," Giulietta said, inspecting her manicured nails. "The ledgers detailing your money laundering for the Russian factions, the embezzlement from the union pension funds, and the bribes to the federal judges. You are in debt for over sixty million dollars, Warren. You didn't arrange this marriage to expand your empire. You arranged it because you were drowning, and you wanted to use my family's treasury as a life raft."
"We were going to pay it back!" Preston yelled, defending his father's honor in the most pathetic way possible. "Once the merger was complete, we were going to use the Marconi ports to move the Russian shipments! We would have been clean in a year!"
"You idiot," Warren hissed, slapping his son’s shoulder. "Shut your mouth!"
"Let him speak," Giulietta commanded, her voice slicing through the air like a razor. She stepped closer to the sofa, towering over the two men. "I want to hear exactly how you planned to turn my family’s ports into a highway for human trafficking. I want to hear how you planned to drug me, beat me, and keep me locked in a penthouse while you dismantled my father’s legacy."
"It was business, Giulietta," Warren pleaded, sweating profusely in his three-piece suit. "Just business! The Russians were putting pressure on us. We had to offer them something massive!"
"So you offered them me," Giulietta summarized perfectly.
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"We were desperate!" Warren begged, tears of absolute panic welling in his eyes. "Please. You have our assets. You have the company. Just let us walk out of this room alive. We'll leave the country. You'll never see us again."
"That is a very tempting offer," Giulietta said softly.
