Chapter 7 - The Room Without Cameras
Beatrice's words followed Damian everywhere.
This has to end.
The estate attack failed.
Three intruders were arrested after Paul convinced Damian that Tessa's preference for legal consequences was rapidly becoming house policy.
One escaped.
Victor Sloane remained untouched.
But something had shifted.
Damian sat beside his mother's bed the next morning.
Beatrice remembered none of it.
She hummed softly while Tessa brushed her hair.
Damian watched.
"What?" Tessa asked.
"Nothing."
"You're staring."
"I own the room."
"That doesn't make staring less weird."
Beatrice laughed.
Damian smiled.
Then Tessa's expression became serious.
"What are you going to do?"
He knew what she meant.
"Finish it."
"How?"
"Without killing him."
She studied him.
"Really?"
"Don't sound so shocked."
"I'm adjusting."
Damian stood.
"I have twenty years of financial records on Sloane. The foundation was his mistake."
Tessa understood.
"You're giving them to law enforcement."
"Anonymously."
"Why anonymously?"
He looked at her.
"Because explaining where I got them creates questions."
"Right. Mafia."
"Exactly."
She crossed her arms.
"And after Sloane?"
Damian was quiet.
"After Sloane, things change."
"What things?"
"My business."
Tessa stared.
"You can't just quit being a mafia boss."
"Apparently I can. I checked."
Despite herself, she laughed.
Damian continued.
"Most of my legitimate companies are already separated from the organization. Shipping. Construction. Hospitality. Security."
"And everything else?"
"Gets dismantled."
"Just like that?"
"No."
His expression hardened.
"It will be difficult. Dangerous. Expensive."
"Why?"
Damian looked toward Beatrice.
Then back to Tessa.
"Because my mother asked me to stop surviving."
Tessa's eyes filled.
"And?"
"And somebody told me I've survived long enough."
She remembered the terrace.
Damian approached her.
"I don't know what happens if I change everything."
"Nobody does."
"I may lose people."
"You will."
"Power."
"Probably."
"Money."
"You'll somehow survive with your mansions."
"Estate. Singular."
"Tragic."
He smiled.
Then became serious.
"But I might get a life."
Tessa took his hand.
"That's the idea."
The evidence against Sloane was delivered forty-eight hours later.
Federal investigators moved quickly once they saw the scale of the fraud.
Nine million dollars stolen from medical funds was only the beginning.
Tax fraud.
Bribery.
Money laundering.
Extortion.
Sloane's legitimate empire collapsed first.
Then his allies abandoned him.
Men loyal to money discovered they weren't loyal at all.
Damian watched it happen without firing a shot.
"Feels strange?" Paul asked.
"Extremely."
"Efficient, though."
"I hate that she's right."
"Which time?"
Damian glared.
Paul grinned.
Three weeks later, Victor Sloane was arrested while attempting to leave the country.
The city expected war.
None came.
Instead, Damian summoned the leaders of his organization.
Twenty-three men gathered in the old conference room.
Some had known him since childhood.
Others had served his father.
Damian stood at the head of the table.
"The Costa organization as you know it is finished."
Nobody moved.
Then voices erupted.
Damian raised one hand.
Silence returned.
"The legitimate companies remain. Employees with legal positions keep them. Anyone who wants out gets enough money to start over."
One man stood.
"And the rest?"
"There is no rest."
"You've lost your mind."
"Possibly."
"This because of that maid?"
Damian's face hardened.
"Sit down."
The man did.
Damian looked around the table.
"My father built this organization because he believed power was the only thing protecting our family."
He paused.
"Then that power got him killed."
Nobody spoke.
"My mother spent thirty years defending what remained. I spent another twenty becoming exactly what killed him."
Paul watched from the wall.
Damian continued.
"I'm done."
It took months.
There were threats.
Arguments.
Financial losses.
Two men tried to betray him.
Paul handled one legally.
The other reconsidered after Damian had a very private conversation with him that Tessa wisely never requested details about.
Meanwhile, Beatrice declined.
Her good days became fewer.
Tessa stayed beside her.
So did Damian.
He stopped watching Monitor Four.
In fact, one evening Tessa found him dismantling the private camera feed in Beatrice's bedroom.
"What are you doing?"
"Removing it."
"Why?"
"I don't need it anymore."
She leaned against the doorway.
"That's big."
"It's a camera."
"You know that's not what I mean."
Damian looked at the tiny device in his hand.
"No."
He didn't need to watch love through a screen anymore.
He could walk into the room.
Sit down.
Participate.
That night Beatrice was unusually clear.
She asked for dinner in the formal dining room.
Damian almost refused because moving her was difficult.
Tessa gave him a look.
Twenty minutes later, Beatrice sat at the head of a table she had once ruled.
Candles burned.
Paul joined them reluctantly.
Tessa sat beside Beatrice.
Damian sat across from her.
Beatrice looked around.
"Where is everybody?"
Damian understood.
She was remembering dinners from decades ago.
"They couldn't make it."
"My husband?"
Damian swallowed.
"He couldn't make it either."
Beatrice nodded as if that made sense.
Then she looked at Tessa.
"You're the girl."
Tessa smiled.
"I am."
"The one my son loves."
Damian nearly choked on his wine.
Paul became fascinated by his plate.
Tessa turned pink.
"Beatrice—"
"Does he?"
The old woman looked at Damian.
"Do you love her?"
Damian froze.
He had faced guns with less discomfort.
Tessa looked at him.
"You don't have to answer."
Beatrice frowned.
"He does."
Paul coughed suspiciously.
Damian glared at him.
Then he looked at Tessa.
"Yes."
The room went silent.
Tessa's eyes widened.
Damian seemed irritated with himself now that the word existed.
"Yes," he repeated. "I do."
Beatrice smiled.
"Good."
Tessa stared at Damian.
"That's how you're telling me?"
"I hadn't planned this."
"Clearly."
"I was going to do it differently."
Paul stood.
"I think I'll leave."
"Sit down," Damian snapped.
"I'm absolutely not sitting down."
He left.
Tessa started laughing.
Damian tried not to.
Failed.
Beatrice watched them with satisfaction.
Later, after she was returned to bed, Tessa found Damian in the hallway.
"So."
"So."
"You love me."
"Apparently my mother has removed any possibility of subtlety."
"Did you mean it?"
Damian looked offended.
"I don't say things I don't mean."
"That's not entirely true. You once told me my diner job ended immediately."
"It did."
"I worked two more shifts."
"Against my instructions."
Tessa smiled.
Damian stepped closer.
"Yes."
Her smile disappeared.
"I mean it."
He touched her face.
"I love you."
Tears gathered in her eyes.
"That's inconvenient."
"Extremely."
"I love you too."
He kissed her.
Behind them, Beatrice's bedroom door opened.
"Keep it down," she called.
They broke apart.
Tessa covered her mouth, laughing.
Damian closed his eyes.
"She hasn't known what year it is all day."
"Apparently she knows exactly what's happening in the hallway."
Damian laughed.
It was becoming easier.
But at dawn, Tessa woke to the sound of the medical alarm.
She ran into Room 104.
Beatrice wasn't breathing properly.
Damian arrived seconds later.
Doctors were called.
Oxygen.
Medication.
Urgent voices.
Damian stood frozen while Tessa held Beatrice's hand.
For the first time in his life, there was nothing he could threaten, buy, control, or defeat.
Beatrice opened her eyes.
"Damian."
He moved instantly.
"I'm here, Ma."
She smiled weakly.
"My boy."
"I'm here."
Her gaze found Tessa.
Then returned to him.
"You found it."
Damian's throat closed.
"What?"
"A life."
He bowed his head against her hand.
"Don't go."
Beatrice touched his hair.
For one moment, he was eight years old again.
"I'm tired, sweetheart."
"No."
"Damian."
His shoulders shook.
Tessa had never seen him cry.
Beatrice smiled.
"Let me rest."
Damian pressed her hand against his face.
"I love you."
"I know."
Her eyes closed.
The room became quiet.
Tessa wrapped one arm around Damian.
He didn't pull away.
He leaned into her.
May you like
And when Beatrice Costa died with her son holding one hand and the woman who had given him back his humanity holding the other, Damian finally understood that love did not become meaningless because it ended.
Sometimes its ending was exactly what proved it had existed.
