Page 180 of Merciless Daddy

“Is this a trap?”

“No. You asked to help. I said yes.”

I set the bowl down and opened the laptop at the kitchen table. Not the surrender document. That one remained closed in the office, waiting for her decision.

“Your shareholder authority gives you access to the clean fleet,” I said. “Gianni uses its reputation as cover. You can suspend his access to the fleet’s legitimate accounts.”

“He’ll fight it.”

“Good.”

“He’ll call Lev.”

“Also good. It makes them show their hands.”

Her eyes sharpened.

“We build a permanent employee relief fund,” I continued. “Independent trustees. Protected operating reserve. Mezza Notte workers receive payment now. Other workers hit by Gianni’s financial attacks receive support later.”

Yelena sat straighter.

“Through the fleet subsidiary.”

“Yes.”

“Not through Caruso accounts.”

“No.”

“Then Halberd cannot freeze it by targeting your family.”

“Correct.”

She looked at the screen. The exhaustion remained, but something else arrived beneath it.

Purpose.

Not guilt. Not payment.

Power.

Chapter 14

Yelena

The breakfast tray waited beside my laptop.

Eggs. Toast. Coffee. A bowl of cut fruit so bright it looked almost unreal, like it had been plucked from an oil painting.

Sal had arranged it on the library table before I came downstairs. No speech. No note saying eat this or else. No “remember what happened yesterday”. Just a linen napkin, a glass of water, and my work waiting beside it.

Angela sat across from me with her computer open. Pietro occupied the window, coffee in hand, watching the trees beyond the lake.

I took a bite of toast before opening the first file.

It felt good. Domestic. Like truly was part of this new family. A good feeling, and it dawned on me that it was actually something I craved. My relationship with my other brothers—Arkady and Daniil—had been good when we were kids. The three of us, and Kiryl to a lesser degree, had been close. Playing together, arguing a little, doing what siblings do. They were sweet in their own way, protective and kind, but as we’d grown, and the demands of my father had roughened them up, that feeling of family had disappeared.

Here, in the quiet companionship of the lake house, I felt the love and acceptance that had been missing from my life for so long.