Shattered Vows Romano Revenge - Full Story

For the next forty-eight hours, the Romano penthouse became a war room.

While Dr. Mercer monitored my recovery, a team of top-tier forensic accountants, corporate lawyers, and private investigators worked around the clock in Dominic's massive library. Screens lined the walls, displaying wire transfers, bank statements, and private text messages intercepted from Barrett's and Taryn's encrypted phones.

I sat in a plush armchair, wrapped tightly in medical bandages, watching the ugly truth unravel before my eyes.

"Look at this," said Sarah Jenkins, the lead forensic auditor Dominic had hired—a brilliant woman who used to head the SEC's fraud division. She pointed her laser pen at a complex flow chart on the wall screen. "Barrett Hayes was drowning. His father's company, Hayes Development, took out high-interest loans from offshore lenders to finance a failed resort project in the Bahamas. They were facing foreclosure and bankruptcy."

"So Barrett used my firm to save them," I said, holding a cup of hot herbal tea.

"Worse," Sarah corrected. "He used your personal credit rating and your family's design assets as collateral without your knowledge. He forged your signature on four separate loan guarantees totaling twenty-two million dollars."

My hand trembled slightly. "If those loans default..."

"You would be personally bankrupt, Mallory," Sarah said gravely. "And because he structured it through your firm, you would face federal wire fraud charges. Meanwhile, he and Taryn were planning to take the fourteen million stolen retainers and flee to Europe under their new entity."

"And Taryn's father?" I asked. "Assemblyman Marcus Vance?"

Dominic stepped out from the shadowy corner of the room, holding a glass of scotch. "Marcus Vance used his political influence to clear zoning permits for the Bahamas project in exchange for a twenty-percent cut of the offshore account. The entire family is dirty."

A quiet knock echoed at the library door, and Rocco stepped in, holding a folder.

"Don Dominic, Barrett Hayes has been trying to contact Miss Mallory's firm. He realized her phone went offline after she sent her location to you. He's panicking."

"What is he doing right now?" I asked.

Rocco smiled a thin, vicious smile. "He called an emergency board meeting for tomorrow afternoon at Hayes & Romano Headquarters. He intends to announce your 'sudden medical leave due to nervous breakdown' and vote himself full voting control of your shares."

"A nervous breakdown?" I laughed cold, bitter laughter. "He breaks three of my ribs, locks me in a dark basement, and then tells my board I lost my mind?"

"He's desperate," Dominic said, walking over to stand beside my chair. "A wounded rat will snap at anything when cornered. He knows something went wrong, but he still doesn't realize the full extent of who I am. He thinks I'm just an old mobster who retired twenty years ago."

Dominic laid a heavy, reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"He thinks money and high-society connections will protect him. He forgets that I built the very foundations this city's rich men walk on."

I looked up at my father. "What do we do tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow, you don't go to that board meeting," Dominic said smoothly.

I blinked, surprised. "What? Why? I need to stop him from taking my shares!"

"Let him sign the paper, star," Dominic said, a sinister glint in his dark eyes. "Let him put his signature on that fraudulent document in front of twelve board members and court stenographers. The higher he climbs on his ladder of lies, the harder his fall will shatter him."

"And what about the Greenwich gala on Saturday?" I asked.

Dominic’s cold smile widened. "Saturday is when we drop the hammer. But first, let him think he's winning. Let him feel victorious for forty-eight hours."

I leaned back against the cushions, feeling the sharp pull of my mending ribs. The pain was still there, constant and throbbing, but inside my chest, something far more powerful was taking root.

For ten years, I had been Barrett's compliant, dutiful wife, absorbing his quiet abuse and letting him shine in my light.