Chapter 15 - THE MAN WHO BEGGED ME TO STAY
Arthur hit the floor.
I screamed.
My father shoved me behind him.
Vale stood with the smoking gun.
“No!” I cried.
Arthur wasn't moving.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Vale smiled.
“For twenty years, Arthur Costello believed he was protecting Chicago.”
My father raised his gun.
“You're finished.”
Vale laughed.
“Look at your daughter.”
He pointed toward me.
“She chose him.”
My father lowered his weapon.
“For once, she chose for herself.”
I looked at Arthur.
He was breathing.
Barely.
I dropped beside him.
His eyes opened.
“Norah.”
“Stay awake.”
He tried to smile.
“Bossy.”
“Shut up.”
His hand found mine.
“You shouldn't be here.”
“Neither should you.”
He laughed weakly.
My father and Vale exchanged gunfire.
Evan attacked one of Vale's men.
My mother pulled me away.
Then silence.
Vale was dead.
Cross was arrested upstairs by federal agents who had been waiting for the evidence from the ledger.
The Costello organization collapsed within weeks.
Judges resigned.
Police commanders disappeared.
Companies were seized.
People who had spent decades believing themselves untouchable suddenly discovered what prison doors sounded like.
My father testified.
My mother testified.
Evan disappeared into witness protection for a while.
And Arthur?
Arthur survived.
The bullet missed his heart by less than an inch.
Three months later, I returned to the Costello estate.
The mansion was being sold.
The staff basement was empty.
My old room still smelled like dust and lavender detergent.
I stood beside the cheap bed.
The same bed where the most feared man in Chicago had once slept on the floor because he couldn't trust anyone else.
Arthur appeared in the doorway.
No suit.
No guards.
Just a dark sweater and tired eyes.
“You came back.”
I smiled.
“This used to be my room.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
I looked at him.
“Why did you come downstairs that night?”
He thought for a moment.
“Because I was scared.”
“You admitted that?”
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
He looked at me.
“You didn't look at me like a monster.”
I swallowed.
“You were bleeding.”
“I was still a monster.”
“Maybe.”
He stepped closer.
“Do you regret opening the door?”
I thought about my father.
My mother.
Evan.
The ledger.
The bodies.
The lies.
Everything that had shattered my life.
Then I looked at Arthur.
“No.”
He smiled.
“Neither do I.”
I touched the scar hidden beneath his shirt.
“You nearly died.”
“So did you.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“It is to me.”
He took my hand.
For once, there was no command in his voice.
No fear.
No order.
Just honesty.
“Norah.”
“What?”
“Stay.”
I stared at him.
The same man who had once stumbled into my basement begging not to be thrown out was now standing in front of me without an empire, without an army, without the protection of fear.
Just Arthur.
I smiled.
“Okay.”
Then my father called.
I answered.
His voice was unusually serious.
“Norah.”
“What happened?”
“I found something in Vale's files.”
My heart sank.
“What?”
A pause.
Then my father said,
“Gabriel Costello wasn't running the organization.”
I looked at Arthur.
Arthur's smile vanished.
“Dad,” I whispered, “who was?”
My father answered,
“The federal government.”
The line went dead.
Arthur and I stared at each other.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
And slowly, all the color drained from his face.
He looked at me.
“They found us.”
“Who?”
Arthur closed his eyes.
“The people who taught Gabriel everything.”
Outside, headlights appeared through the mansion windows.
One car.
Then five.
Then ten.
Arthur reached for my hand.
This time, I didn't let go.
Because I finally understood something.
The night he had stumbled into my basement was not the night my life fell apart.
It was the night the truth found me.
May you like
And whatever was coming next was bigger than the Costellos.
Much bigger.
