All Chapters of Crowned in Carnage: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The thirty days counting down to Giordano’s exile had only just begun when the documents Petrov delivered caused their first issue. Elena could not say she was shocked. Ever since her father passed away, nothing in her life had stayed calm or uncomplicated for more than a week at a time.Marco discovered the problem on a Tuesday morning. He was reviewing Petrov’s files and comparing them carefully with their own intelligence records. During that process, he noticed a small difference in the timeline of a meeting. In Petrov’s documents, Giordano supposedly met a Russian operative named Sokolov in February three years earlier at a hotel in midtown. However, Marco’s surveillance reports showed that Giordano had spent that entire week in Miami, attending his granddaughter’s school performance.It was a minor detail. It might have been nothing more than a recording mistake. Yet in their line of work, small details rarely meant nothing. They were either harmless errors or intentional decept

The West Village was already crowded by eight in the morning, filled with that familiar New York energy of people walking with clear purpose along narrow streets lined with coffee shops and small boutiques that had not yet opened for the day. Elena sat in the back of a surveillance van parked two blocks away from the target location, with Damien beside her and four screens displaying different camera angles of the coffee shop’s interior and exterior, all focused on the table in the back corner where Marcus Flynn was expected to sit in about twelve minutes, based on Marco’s detailed intelligence about his usual morning routine.Marco was positioned in a car on the other side of the block, directing the six people he had strategically placed around the location. Two were inside the coffee shop pretending to be customers who had arrived early enough to blend in naturally, two were stationed on the street with long lens cameras, and two were in a second vehicle prepared to intercept Flynn

Elena did not sleep well that night. That was no longer strange for her, but this time it felt worse. The reason she stayed awake was not fear about an operation or concern about Isabella’s safety. It was something simpler and more painful. She knew the truth, and she could not unknow it. Yet she had to act as if she did not know.Tommy Castellano had helped kill her father. After that, he had spent almost a year sitting across from her at Commission meetings. He had offered advice, support, and the calm authority of a man who had been in the life longer than almost anyone still alive. She had called him for guidance. She had listened carefully to his opinions. She had been truly thankful for his support when she moved against Giordano. At the time, she did not understand that his support was another form of control. It was another way to stay close to her investigation and make sure it moved in the direction Petrov wanted.At four in the morning, she stopped trying to sleep. She knew

Marco began with the financial records. Numbers were harder to deny than words. He spread transaction histories across the table while the Commission members opened their folders and studied the pages. Elena watched their faces as they read. She saw the moment each of them understood what the documents showed and who the money led back to.Tommy remained very still during the first ten minutes. His face looked calm to anyone who did not know him well. But Elena had spent two weeks studying his smallest expressions and movements, just as her father had once taught her to do. She noticed the tightness in his shoulders and the change in his breathing.“These payments began with shell companies registered in Cyprus,” Marco said as he displayed the documents on the screen. “The same system was used to pay Salvatore Giordano over the last fifteen years. The pattern is the same. The timing matches Commission activity. The amounts match known intelligence payments at this level.”“Who made th

Elena took two full days to decide what should happen to Tommy Castellano. During those two days, she moved through her usual routine while her thoughts examined the problem from every direction. She fed Isabella, changed her diapers, and sat on the nursery floor playing with her. Beneath those simple tasks, her mind constantly weighed justice against mercy, practicality against emotion, and her own judgment against what her father might have chosen.Damien did not pressure her to decide, but she knew he was paying attention. He gave her room to think while remaining close enough to make it clear he would stand behind whatever she chose. Marco, however, was more restless. He called twice each day with updates on Tommy’s condition and gently reminded her that holding him in custody forever was not realistic, either for security reasons or for political stability.“The longer he remains alive, the greater the risk,” Marco said on the second evening, when she still had not reached a deci