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Natalia disappeared before sunrise.

Again.

At 5:18 a.m., Isabella woke to Gabriel crying.

At 5:24, she noticed the guest bathroom door open.

At 5:27, she discovered Natalia’s coat was gone.

By 5:31, Dante knew.

By 5:40, so did Marco.

“Her phone?” Dante asked.

“Left on the kitchen counter,” Isabella said.

“Of course.”

She sounded tired rather than surprised.

Natalia had spent two nights in Isabella’s guest room after surrendering the tape.

Not because Isabella trusted her.

Because Voss had started watching everyone connected to Port Crescent.

Natalia had nowhere secure to go.

Apparently security only mattered until it conflicted with whatever terrible decision Natalia had made next.

Dante paced the living room.

“She took anything?”

Isabella checked the metal box.

The cassette remained.

Victim photographs remained.

Her father’s copied letters remained.

Then she saw the empty slot beneath the photographs.

“The drive.”

“What drive?”

“The one she said contained her prison communications with Voss.”

Dante stopped.

“She took it?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Elias entered from the hallway.

“Because she’s meeting him.”

Everyone turned.

“What?” Isabella asked.

Elias held up his laptop.

“Natalia emailed me at 4:52.”

Dante’s face darkened.

“Read it.”

Elias did.

If I stay, Voss keeps moving. If I go to him, he thinks I’m desperate enough to sell. I can get him talking.

Isabella closed her eyes.

“Idiot.”

Dante looked almost impressed.

“Finally something we agree on.”

Elias continued.

Tell Isabella I’m sorry. Again.

Dante gave a cold laugh.

“She enjoys that sentence.”

Isabella glared at him.

“This isn’t about your feelings.”

“She is walking into a meeting with the man who may have killed her father.”

“And mine.”

That shut him up.

Marco called at 6:02.

He had found Natalia on traffic cameras heading toward Brooklyn.

Then footage ended.

At 6:15, Isabella received a text.

Natalia.

You have one hour.

Attached coordinates led to an abandoned marine repair yard near Red Hook.

Dante immediately stood.

“You’re not going.”

Isabella looked at him.

He corrected himself.

“I strongly prefer that you don’t go.”

“Better.”

“Isabella.”

“She asked for me.”

“Exactly.”

“She may need help.”

“She may be helping Voss.”

“You think she betrayed us again?”

“I think Natalia betrays whoever is standing closest whenever she feels cornered.”

The statement was cruel.

Also historically accurate.

Isabella grabbed her coat.

Dante blocked the doorway without touching her.

“Think about Gabriel.”

“I am.”

“Then don’t walk into an obvious trap.”

“You went into dangerous rooms your whole life and called it business.”

“Yes.”

“And now because I’m the mother of your child, I’m supposed to become furniture?”

“No.”

His voice softened.

“You’re supposed to remain alive.”

The words stopped her.

Dante continued.

“I know I don’t get to control you.”

He swallowed.

“I’m asking.”

That was harder to resist.

Not because she wanted to obey him.

Because he had learned the difference.

She looked at Elias.

“Can we involve federal investigators?”

“Yes.”

“Quietly?”

“Yes.”

“Do it.”

Thirty-eight minutes later Isabella entered the marine yard wearing a wire.

Dante hated every second.

He remained three blocks away in an unmarked SUV with Marco and two federal agents.

“I still hate this,” he said.

One agent replied, “Noted for the eighth time.”

Dante stared at him.

The agent looked forward.

At the warehouse, Isabella found Natalia alone.

At first.

Natalia stood beside a rusted workbench holding the encrypted drive.

“You came.”

“You told me to.”

“You shouldn’t have.”

Isabella nearly laughed.

“I am exhausted by people inviting me places and then deciding I should not have come.”

Natalia looked past her.

“Dante?”

“Not here.”

That was technically true.

“Police?”

Isabella said nothing.

Natalia nodded.

“Good.”

“You planned this.”

“I need Voss to admit he falsified the transfer order.”

“Why?”

“Because it clears your father.”

“Partially.”

“It matters.”

“To you?”

Natalia’s face tightened.

“To me, Gabriel Romano is the man who paid my mother sixty thousand dollars to stay quiet.”

Isabella absorbed that.

“But he also preserved proof.”

“Yes.”

“People can be more than one thing.”

Natalia laughed.

“You learned that from your marriage?”

“Yes.”

That surprised her.

Before Natalia could respond, a slow clap sounded from the catwalk above.

Samuel Voss.

He descended the metal stairs.

Alone.

At least visibly.

“You always did enjoy dangerous women, Isabella.”

She looked up.

“You barely know me.”

“I knew your father.”

“That isn’t the same.”

“No.”

Voss reached the floor.

“It’s worse.”

Natalia held up the drive.

“Five million.”

Voss smiled.

“You still think this is a negotiation.”

“I think you want what’s on here.”

“I already know what’s on there.”

Natalia’s face changed.

“How?”

“Because I gave you half of it.”

Silence.

Isabella turned toward her.

“What does that mean?”

Natalia said nothing.

Voss laughed.

“There it is.”

Isabella stared.

“Natalia.”

Her face collapsed.

“I contacted him before the gala.”

Dante heard every word through the wire.

His hands clenched.

In the warehouse Isabella asked, “Before the gala?”

“Yes.”

“How long before?”

“Three months.”

“Why?”

“I needed proof Luca wasn’t lying to me.”

“So Voss was part of your plan too?”

“No.”

“Then explain.”

Natalia stepped closer.

“Luca told me he had evidence Antonio ordered the chemical shipment that killed my father. I didn’t believe him. So I found Voss.”

“And?”

“He confirmed it.”

Voss smiled.

“I was very helpful.”

Natalia’s voice hardened.

“He also gave me the shell-company structure.”

Isabella froze.

“The financing scheme.”

“Yes.”

“Voss designed it?”

“Part of it.”

“Why?”

Voss answered.

“To destabilize both families.”

Isabella stared.

“You used Natalia and Luca.”

“Everyone uses everyone.”

“No.”

She thought of Gabriel upstairs that morning, calling for his father.

“No. That’s what men like you tell yourselves so you don’t have to admit you choose this.”

Voss’s smile disappeared.

Natalia quietly moved her hand toward her coat.

Voss noticed.

“Don’t.”

She stopped.

“You’re wearing a wire,” he said.

Isabella’s heart dropped.

In the SUV, Dante cursed.

Federal agents immediately moved.

Inside, Voss reached beneath his jacket.

Natalia moved first.

Not toward him.

Toward Isabella.

She shoved her behind the workbench just as a gunshot cracked through the warehouse.

Metal screamed.

Isabella hit the floor.

Natalia fell beside her.

Blood spread across Natalia’s shoulder.

“No.”

Isabella pressed both hands against the wound.

Voss ran toward the rear exit.

Federal agents stormed in.

“Stop!”

Another shot.

Then another.

Dante ignored every order to remain outside.

He entered the warehouse while agents chased Voss toward the dock.

He found Isabella kneeling in blood.

For half a second the world ended.

Then she looked up.

“I’m fine.”

Dante’s knees almost failed.

Natalia groaned beneath her hands.

“She’s hit.”

Paramedics rushed in.

Dante crouched.

His hands shook.

Isabella noticed.

“You’re shaking.”

“So are you.”

He reached for her face.

Stopped before touching.

She closed the distance herself.

Just once.

Her forehead rested against his.

The contact lasted three seconds.

Maybe four.

Then she pulled away.

Outside, agents captured Samuel Voss before he reached the water.

And while paramedics carried Natalia toward the ambulance, she grabbed Isabella’s sleeve.

“There’s something else.”

“You can tell me later.”

“No.”

“Natalia.”

“Dante didn’t know.”

Isabella froze.

“Know what?”

Natalia coughed.

“The affair.”

Dante stared at her.

“What?”

Natalia’s eyes closed briefly.

“I chose you because Voss told me to.”

The words hit differently than before.

Dante’s face hardened.

Natalia whispered.

“He said hurting Isabella would make you careless.”

Then she lost consciousness.

And Isabella realized Samuel Voss had not merely been blackmailing their parents’ generation.

He had been quietly engineering the collapse of theirs.