60

60
  The words hung in the air, thick and suffocating. Mafia. Giancarlo family. Samantha’s brother. Eliminated. Killed. Thomas felt the bottom drop out of his stomach, a dizzying spiral into a nightmare far more real and terrifying than anything he could have imagined. His affair, his stupid, selfish mistake, wasn’t just a personal failing; it was a tripwire for his own execution, and worse, Delia's.
  “K-killed?” Thomas stammered, his voice thin, barely a whisper. The cold dread that had gripped him earlier now froze his veins. “Samantha… she wants us killed? For… for what? Because I broke up with her? That’s… that’s insane! She’s vindictive, yes, but this is… this is beyond anything.” His mind raced, flashing back to Samantha’s theatrical outbursts, her threats of ruining his life, but never, not once, had he conceived of actual murder. This was a jump from petty revenge to outright professional assassination.
  Frank watched him, his ice-blue eyes unblinking, like a clinician observing a specimen under a microscope. “Thomas, you underestimate the depths of certain people’s resentments, especially when those resentments are intertwined with a sense of entitlement and a desire for control. Samantha didn’t just want to ruin your life; she wanted to own it, and when you slipped from her grasp, she sought to obliterate it. And anyone connected to it, like Delia, who she likely saw as the true obstacle.”
  A fresh wave of terror washed over Thomas. Delia. His ex-wife. The woman he’d hurt, betrayed, but still, deep down, cared for. “Delia,” he croaked, pushing himself further up against the headboard, ignoring the lingering ache in his side. “Is she… is she safe? Do you have her? Where is she?”
  Frank sighed, a subtle, almost theatrical release of air. “Our mandate, as I said, is your safety. And implicitly, the safety of anyone who might inadvertently be caught in the crossfire of this particular conflict. Delia Henson is… accounted for.” His emphasis on "accounted for" rather than "safe" or "here" sent a fresh spike of anxiety through Thomas.
  “Accounted for? What does that mean, Frank? Is she alive? Is she with you?” Thomas demanded, his voice rising, laced with desperation. He remembered their last conversation, strained and angry, the divorce papers looming. Had her safety been compromised even then?
  “She is not with us here, Thomas,” Frank stated calmly, his tone conveying a subtle hint of reproof for Thomas’s outburst. “Nor is she currently with Samantha, which, given the circumstances, I believe you’ll agree is a positive development. Her whereabouts are secure. For now.”
  “For now?” Thomas echoed, the words chilling him to the bone. “What does that mean? Are you saying she’s still in danger?”
  Frank leaned back slightly, steepling his fingers again. “Let’s just say that the Giancarlo family operates with a certain thoroughness. Once a target is identified, they don’t easily let go. And your ex-wife was very much on Samantha’s list. Having you both silenced would have sent a clear message, ensuring no future complications for her or her brother.”
  “Complications? What complications? What in God’s name did I do besides sleep with the wrong person?” Thomas felt a surge of frustrated anger, a desperate need to understand the scale of the disaster he’d unwittingly created. His affair, once a sordid secret, now felt like the butterfly wing-flap that had somehow triggered a hurricane.
  Frank’s gaze sharpened. “That’s a very pertinent question, Thomas. Because while a jilted lover’s revenge can be potent, involving a major crime syndicate usually requires more than just wounded pride. Tell me, what do you know about Samantha’s family, beyond her ‘devoted brother’?”
  Thomas shook his head, running a hand through his disheveled hair. “Nothing. She never spoke of them. Said she was estranged, a lone wolf, always trying to make it on her own. It was part of her… appeal, I suppose. The damsel in distress act.” He scoffed, the memory now tainted with a hideous irony.
  “Indeed,” Frank mused, a faint, sardonic curve to his lips. “A very convincing act. Samantha, Thomas, isn’t just some secretary. She’s a highly skilled operative, though not in the way you might imagine. She’s a professional information broker, a manipulator of circumstances, and a purveyor of secrets. And her brother, well he was her primary enforcer, her muscle, her fixer. He is the reason she has access to the Giancarlo family’s protection, among other things.”
  Thomas stared, speechless. Samantha? An operative? This was getting increasingly surreal. “Information broker? What kind of information?”
  “The kind that can ruin lives, collapse corporations, shift political landscapes,” Frank explained, his voice low and steady. “The kind that people pay immense sums to acquire or to suppress. And you, Thomas, inadvertently stumbled into her web, not as a target for information, but as a useful asset to be exploited. Your company, your reputation, your access… all of it was potentially valuable.”
  “Valuable for what?” Thomas pressed, his mind struggling to keep up.
  “For leverage. For positioning. Perhaps even for a hidden agenda we’re still working to uncover,” Frank replied, a flicker of something almost like respect in his tone when speaking of Samantha’s capabilities. “She cultivated you, Thomas. Systematically. She learned your vulnerabilities, your desires, your fears. The affair was a means to an end, a way to establish control and create a convenient narrative for her eventual demands. The pregnancy was the ultimate trump card in that particular game.”
  Thomas felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead. Every word Frank spoke painted a horrifying picture of a woman he thought he knew, revealed as a calculating, ruthless puppeteer. “The pregnancy… you said ‘was.’ You implied it wasn’t mine? Has she had that kid? Thats why she wants me to sign everything I own over to her.”
  Frank’s eyes flickered with a hint of regret, or perhaps just a momentary lapse into the subdued tone he always maintained around dangerous truths. “Thomas, I’m not in the business of confirming or denying personal details—”
  “Answer the question!” Thomas cut in, voice rising with a mixture of anger and desperation. “Is the baby mine? Or is she lying? Because if she’s lying—if she’s pregnant with someone else’s child—then everything I thought I knew about her is a lie!”
  Frank hesitated, then leaned forward slightly, his expression impassive but his voice measured. “The details are murky. Whatever the case, it’s clear she’s using that story to manipulate you, to force your hand. Whether she’s still pregnant or not, her goal remains the same: control, leverage, and revenge.”
  Thomas felt a shiver run down his spine. His mind spun with the implications. Samantha was a manipulator, a puppet master whose strings extended far beyond what he’d imagined. And now, her threats of destruction weren’t just empty words—they were backed by a network of violence, secrets, and ruthless ambition.
  “So, what now?” Thomas asked, voice trembling. “You’re telling me she’s capable of anything. That she’s in deep with the Giancarlo family. And that my life, Delia’s life, everything is at risk because of my stupidity with her.”
  Frank nodded solemnly. “Your best course of action now is to stay hidden, stay quiet, and let us handle the rest. We have people watching, assessing movements. But understand this—if she truly wants you dead, if her brother is involved, then it’s only a matter of time before she makes her move.”
  Thomas looked away, struggling to breathe. The room felt suffocating, the weight of his mistakes pressing down on him like an anvil. He thought of Delia, safe and innocent in all this chaos—yet even that hope was fragile now.
  “Is there any way to stop her? To protect Delia and myself?” he asked desperately.
  Frank’s face was unreadable. “There are no guarantees, Thomas. But I can tell you this—trust no one outside this room. And as for Delia and the child, they will remain safe. Because Samantha’s game is about control, and she’ll use everything—her family, her secrets, her lies—to keep her grip.”
  Thomas nodded slowly, the reality settling over him like a shroud. His life had become a tangled web of lies, betrayal, and danger. And the only thing he could do now was wait, hope that Frank’s people could keep Samantha’s wrath at bay—and pray that he could find a way out before the next move was made.