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Chapter 5

Autor: Crab
"Who the hell do you think you're scaring?"

My calm gaze enraged Nico, and he reached for my collar.

Just then a phone rang sharply in the living room.

It was Marianna's phone.

She frowned and answered, "Hello? What is it... What? You're not coming to see the apartment this afternoon? Why? We already agreed..."

The caller hung up on her.

Marianna swore, and before she could put the phone down it rang again.

"You're canceling too? If the price is the problem, we can negotiate... What do you mean this district is done? Explain yourself!"

A third. A fourth. A fifth.

Within five minutes, every prospective tenant scheduled to view the apartment that day called Marianna to cancel, one after another, as if they had coordinated it.

Carlo immediately sensed that something was wrong. "What's going on?"

When the final call came, Marianna put it on speaker and shouted in frustration, "Did you all conspire to make a fool of me?! What do you people want?"

A cold male voice came through the speaker. "Ma'am, do you not read the news or internal bulletins? Moretti Logistics Group issued an official company-wide relocation notice this morning. By the end of the month, more than two hundred employees, every convoy, and every piece of equipment will have moved to the new North Port campus.

"Not even a dog would rent in Port San Vito now. You might as well keep the place as your tomb!"

The call ended.

The living room was quiet enough to hear water dripping in the pipes.

"Moving... everyone is moving?" Every trace of color drained from Marianna's face.

Nico stared at me in disbelief. "Is that true?! Your whole company is leaving?! Then who are we supposed to collect from?"

Carlo stared at me, his lips trembling. "Impossible... A logistics company that size, with more than a million dollars in renovations—where would you find another dock this close to customs? You're lying!"

"What exactly did I lie about?" I brushed dust from my coat and regarded the narrow-minded fools with pity. "Three years ago, we bought industrial land at North Port. The new office tower, climate-controlled warehouses, staff apartments, and even private loading docks are already in operation."

I watched Carlo's face turn ashen and began to deliver his sentence:

"Mr. Rossi, you've squeezed us for the last time. Starting tomorrow, you won't get another cent out of us."

"You bitch! You dare cut off our money!"

Nico went berserk. He lunged, seized my wrist, and thrust the folding knife at me.

"Hand over the money! Cancel the company's relocation! Or I'll finish you here today!"

The knife point was a breath from my coat when—

"Bang!"

The reinforced door flew off its hinges and slammed into the living room wall.

Four men in black trench coats appeared in the corridor like ghosts. The man in front had a deep old scar above his left eyebrow.

"I'm counting to three." Victor's low, hoarse voice echoed through the room.

Nico froze. Instinct warned him that Victor radiated a suffocating menace, the kind carried only by a man who had fought his way through piles of bodies.

"One."

Nico's hand jerked. The folding knife clattered to the floor, and he released me as if shocked.

The moment Carlo recognized Victor, his legs buckled and he nearly dropped to his knees.

"V-Victor..." Carlo's voice shook uncontrollably. Every trace of his usual swagger vanished, and he cowered like an old dog before its master. "This is a misunderstanding... We have no quarrel with the Moretti family. None at all..."

"Of course you didn't." Victor stepped over the shattered glass, entered the living room, and picked up my crushed phone.

He raised his emotionless eyes to Carlo. "At least, you didn't ten minutes ago."

Nico still did not understand. He craned his neck and shouted, "Who the hell are you? This is our territory, and she owes us money—"

Carlo backhanded Nico hard enough to split the two-hundred-pound thug's lip and knock him to the floor.

"Shut up! Do you want to die?" Carlo screamed himself hoarse.

Victor ignored the farce. He approached me respectfully and bowed his head. "Are you hurt, madam?"

At Victor's deferential address, Marianna and Nico froze as if struck by lightning.

Carlo's eyes nearly popped out of his head. He pointed at me, his finger shaking violently. "Isn't she just a finance manager at your company?"

Victor turned his head.

"Allow me to introduce her properly.

"The woman you just held hostage and tried to extort is Mr. Moretti's own sister. Her name is Irene Moretti."
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  • After I Left, the Port Boss Begged Me Back   Chapter 10

    Within three months, Port San Vito had become a ghost town.The vacancy rate hit a staggering seventy percent. At night the whole street was pitch dark, without so much as a soul in sight.The Rossi crew refused to wait quietly for ruin. Marianna found a third-rate online content creator and posted a self-pitying video.In the video, Marianna sobbed uncontrollably. "Moretti is a heartless corporation with no sense of social responsibility! They moved out without warning and abandoned those of us who have lived here for years. More than a hundred families have lost their income, and we can't even put food on the table! We demand compensation!"The video sparked a brief flare of resentment against the wealthy online. People who knew nothing about the situation piled into the comments and called us cold-blooded capitalists."So you want a public-relations war?" From my bright, spacious finance director's office at the new North Port campus, I watched the ugly performance on-screen.I post

  • After I Left, the Port Boss Begged Me Back   Chapter 9

    The so-called underworld council consisted of only a handful of old-family bosses who controlled East Coast shipping routes and the criminal order beneath them.The next morning, with a bandage wrapped around my arm, I waited in the black sedan at the back door of the Bellini Club.The meeting lasted less than two hours.When Carlo came out the back door of the club, he looked as though he had aged twenty years in an instant.Victor opened the door. Alessandro slid into the back seat and tossed a napkin covered in terms onto the center console."It's over," Alessandro said calmly. "The Rossi family is finished."I picked up the napkin. It bore the council's indisputable ruling:One: Carlo seriously violated the rules by opening fire on a direct member of the Moretti family without authorization. Effective immediately, his right to collect protection money anywhere in Port San Vito is revoked indefinitely.Two: the Rossi family's interests in three parking lots and two illicit bars will

  • After I Left, the Port Boss Begged Me Back   Chapter 8

    Two days later, an icy rain fell over Port San Vito.At eleven that night, the Moretti Group's final convoy prepared to leave. Twelve heavy trucks switched on their headlights one after another, and their engines roared through the deserted old district.Ordinary employees had all been moved to North Port. All that was left tonight were the drivers and the Moretti family's own people.I insisted on being there. I wanted to watch the gate that had imprisoned us for two years close forever.Alessandro and I stood beside the first truck, with Victor and a dozen expressionless men in black spread out around us.The first truck had just begun to move, its cab rounding the corner, when—Screech. Bang!A battered black pickup roared out of a side street like a charging bull, skidded broadside across the slick road, and blocked the entire intersection."Ambush! Take cover!" Victor shouted.A second later, a gunshot cracked through the rain-soaked night.The shot shattered the second-floor ware

  • After I Left, the Port Boss Begged Me Back   Chapter 7

    Mark's mother jabbed a finger at Carlo and Marianna, spraying spittle toward their faces."This is all your fault, you bloodsuckers! If you hadn't pressured Mark every day to dig up company secrets, would internal audit have fired him? He was supposed to become deputy manager next month, and now it's all ruined!"Marianna promptly put her hands on her hips and fired back. "The hell it is! He wasn't saying that when he took our information fees. He set up that private group, and every landlord and bar owner who joined paid five hundred dollars in membership. Did ghosts swallow that money? Nobody held a knife to his throat to make him set up that group!"Mark had kept his head down the entire time, trembling violently. Then he cautiously looked up and saw Alessandro standing in the middle of the living room.He dropped to his knees on the shattered glass with a thud."Mr. Moretti..." Mark's voice was full of despair. Then he saw me standing beside Alessandro."Irene... so you are..." Mar

  • After I Left, the Port Boss Begged Me Back   Chapter 6

    Heavy, steady footsteps came from the far end of the corridor.The men in black outside moved aside on their own and lowered their heads respectfully.Alessandro Moretti entered in a bespoke suit. His gaze passed over Carlo and went straight to me.He looked first at the red marks Nico had left on my wrist, then at the phone shattered on the floor. His brow furrowed slightly.That tiny movement drained the last strength from Carlo's legs. He dropped to his knees with a thud."Mr. Moretti..." Carlo forced out a smile uglier than a sob. "This truly is a misunderstanding... a rental dispute. The boy didn't know any better, and his temper got the better of him...""A misunderstanding?"Alessandro approached the broken coffee table, pinched the absurd bill demanding another seven thousand dollars between two fingers, glanced at it, and tossed it into Carlo's face."You collect protection money on your own turf. Extorting those poor shopkeepers is how you survive, and I never cared enough to

  • After I Left, the Port Boss Begged Me Back   Chapter 5

    "Who the hell do you think you're scaring?"My calm gaze enraged Nico, and he reached for my collar.Just then a phone rang sharply in the living room.It was Marianna's phone.She frowned and answered, "Hello? What is it... What? You're not coming to see the apartment this afternoon? Why? We already agreed..."The caller hung up on her.Marianna swore, and before she could put the phone down it rang again."You're canceling too? If the price is the problem, we can negotiate... What do you mean this district is done? Explain yourself!"A third. A fourth. A fifth.Within five minutes, every prospective tenant scheduled to view the apartment that day called Marianna to cancel, one after another, as if they had coordinated it.Carlo immediately sensed that something was wrong. "What's going on?"When the final call came, Marianna put it on speaker and shouted in frustration, "Did you all conspire to make a fool of me?! What do you people want?"A cold male voice came through the speaker.

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