3

Simon's hand went straight to the gun at the small of his back.

"Look at her one more time. I dare you."

Elena grabbed his arm immediately.

"Don't take the bait."

She turned to Marcus. "An hour isn't long enough. We need to verify the mining documents."

"Be my guest."

Marcus opened his briefcase.

"Survey reports, proof of ownership, collateral agreements. It's all here."

Victoria picked up the documents and went to work immediately.

She went through the watermarks, the mining-rights registration numbers, and the underwriting and audit details one by one, then logged in to the mining rights registry to check the records.

A little over ten minutes later, her face had gone pale.

"Antonio... the documents all look real."

Elena took the documents from her. "Could they be fake documents using real registration numbers?"

Victoria shook her head.

"If they did, I can't tell, at least not yet. Number Seven, Number Eight, and Blue Diamond Valley. All the registration details match."

Elena refused to believe it. She called a mining lawyer in London and a banker in Geneva.

Her expression was even grimmer when she hung up.

"Nobody's willing to vouch for us. Even people who owed us favors are ducking our calls."

Marcus leaned back on the sofa and lit a cigar, taking his sweet time.

"Do you get it now?

"I'm not here to ask you to sell off your assets.

"I'm here to take them over," he said quietly, as if he were discussing a deal that had already been signed.

Simon clenched his jaw.

Elena didn't fire back. She just gripped the stack of documents tighter and tighter.

Antonio's hand slowly tightened around the armrest.

There was a time when the whole New York underworld thought twice before crossing anyone named Ferro. But today, an outsider with four gunmen had the nerve to sit in the Ferro estate and wait for the Don himself to hand over the ring that symbolized the family's power.

He broke into a violent coughing fit.

Simon caught him right away.

"Dad, take it easy."

Antonio coughed for a long time before finally raising a hand.

"Don't embarrass us in front of him."

Somehow that hurt more than if he'd lost his temper.

Simon's eyes went red.

Marcus looked from one face to the next, and his smile deepened.

"Don Ferro, times have changed.

"You used to run things with guns, with the docks, with the rules of the street.

"Now all it takes is for the banks to stop clearing your transactions, and even the most powerful family can't hold out for long."

Antonio didn't argue.

Because he was right.

Back when the family was at its peak, they'd had people inside New York City Hall who put in a good word for them.

But that era was long gone.

A gun could shut someone up. It couldn't make a bank lend you money.

And it certainly couldn't make regulators drop their investigation.

Marcus had clearly counted on that. It was why he dared to walk in and sit down so brazenly.

Elena went through the documents again and still couldn't find a single flaw.

After a long silence, Antonio finally spoke. "Alfonso, go get the ring from the study."

"Dad!" Elena and Victoria cried in unison. Elena's eyes were red. "If we give up that ring, the Ferro family is finished!"

"If we don't hand it over, you could all be behind bars by tomorrow."

Antonio closed his eyes for a moment.

"I'm old. It doesn't matter what happens to me. You're all still young."

Then he looked up at the stairs. "Especially Chloe."

I was standing in the shadows, and my chest tightened.

"There's still a clean, separate trust in Simon's name."

Antonio went on. "Have Chloe sign the divorce settlement and take that money. She must never return to New York."

Elena's eyes filled with tears.

"Antonio, she may be immature, but she's still a Ferro."

"That's exactly why we can't let her go down with us," Antonio said.

"How touching."

Marcus clapped slowly from his seat.

"Though the lovely Chloe is probably upstairs packing up her jewelry as we speak."

"Shut up!"