His Merciless Redemption novel Chapter 165

Chapter 165

Dominic’s POV

The penthouse was quiet for what seemed like the first time since the engagement announcement had taken place a week back.

Eduardo stood across from me at the long table in the study, a digital map of our network projected across the glass screen between us. Names. Routes. Warehouses. Contacts.

Every line on that map represented trust.

And one of those lines was poisoned.

Eduardo tapped the screen.

“We start here,” he said. “You give three different pieces of intel to three different people. Same shipment category, different routes.”

“A triangulation trap,” I said.

“Exactly.”

I leaned back slightly in the chair, studying the names.

Leo.

Dante.

Gianni.

Three men who had been inside my circle for years. Three men who had eaten at my table. One of them might be selling my family.

“If the Vitellis intercept one of the routes,” Eduardo continued, “we’ll know exactly where the leak came from.”

I nodded slowly.

“And the information has to look legitimate,” I added. “Nothing that feels staged.”

Eduardo zoomed in on the map. “We’ll make it real shipments. Smaller ones. Valuable enough to tempt but not critical enough to damage us.”

“Good,”

He pointed to the first name.

“Leo gets the Genoa route,”

them

“Too obvious,” I said immediately. “He’ll suspect something.”

Eduardo considered that. “Then we shift him to the Naples line.”

“Better.”

We worked through the list methodically, who receives what, what details they hear, when the information is delivered. It felt like planning a surgical strike. Except the battlefield was my own house.

Eduardo finally leaned back, folding his arms. “That should do it.”

“Once the leaks begin,” I said quietly, “we watch who reacts.”

“And then?”

“Then we start dismantling.”

Silence settled between us. The weight of what we were about to do hung heavily in the room. These weren’t random soldiers. They were men who had stood beside me for years.

“Dominic,” Eduardo said carefully, “once we start this, there’s no undoing it.”

“I know.”

The room fell quiet again.

Then, there was a faint sound outside the study door.

Eduardo’s head snapped towards it, and mine followed instantly. We both froze.

Footsteps.

Or something brushing against the door.

Had someone been listening?

My pulse slowed into something cold and sharp.

Eduardo moved subtly, closing the file on the screen.

The handle turned, the door opening.

Alessia stepped inside,

The tension in the room dissolved instantly.

“Sorry,” she said softly. “I didn’t realize you were in a meeting.”

Eduardo gave me a quick look. Then he nodded politely to her. “We’re finished.”

He gathered his tablet. “I’ll have the information distributed by tonight,” he said quietly to me,

Chapter 165

“Good.”

He paused near the door. “Everything will be in place before tomorrow.”

Tomorrow.

The word echoed through my chest.

E55 vouchers

Tomorrow was a big day. The day of the engagement ceremony. The past week had been filled with so many meetings and work that I hadn’t even realised it was almost time until now. I’d dared to call Isa twice in the

past

week and she hadn’t picked up either time, nor had she called me back. Stubborn as she was, it seemed she was well and truly done with me now.

Eduardo gave Alessia another polite nod and stepped out, closing the door behind him.

Silence settled again. Alessia stood near the doorway, her hands clasped lightly together.

“You look tense,” she said.

“I’ve had a long day.”

She walked further into the room slowly. “I think we both have.”

Of course.

Tomorrow wasn’t just political for her unlike me.

It was personal.

“Everyone keeps talking about the engagement like it’s a military operation,” she said quietly.

“In many ways it is.”

She gave a faint, sad smile. “That’s not very romantic.”

Romance had never been part of this equation.

“You’re sure about this?” she asked.

The question lingered.

I had been asked that a dozen times already.

By her father. By the lawyers. By myself.

“Yes,”

She studied my face. “You don’t sound happy.”

“I’m not doing it for happiness.”

Chapter 165

Her eyes softened. “I know. But you will learn to like it. Love it. I’m sure of it.”

I was sure I wouldn’t. But I didn’t say anything in reply. What was the point anyway?

A moment passed.

“Tomorrow changes everything,” she said.

“Yes.”

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She nodded slowly, as if accepting that reality again. “I should let you work,” she said finally. Then, she turned and left the study quietly.

The silence she left behind felt heavier than before.

I leaned back in the chair, staring at the ceiling for a moment.

Tomorrow changes everything.

The phrase repeated in my mind. Because tomorrow wasn’t just the engagement.

It was also Isabella’s opening.

I knew the date.

Of course, I knew the date. I’d been following the project all along. In a way, it was the reason I had been to discover that Isa was still alive. And I would forever be grateful for that even if she never speaks to me again

now.

The Renaissance Revival project.

Months of work. Years of ambition.

And it was happening on the same day as the engagement ceremony.

A coincidence? Unlikely.

Isabella didn’t do things without intention. She had probably chosen that date deliberately. Not because she expected me to attend. She knew I wouldn’t. But because it gave her a reason not to attend the engagement.

Not that I had ever expected her to.

In all honesty, I could’ve had the date of the opening changed, I had enough influence to do so. But it was something she had put years of work into. I wanted her to do it however she saw fit.

And maybe, she had also chosen it so I couldn’t be at her opening.

A clean cut. A brutal one,

She was removing me from her life piece by piece. And there was nothing I could do to stop it no matter how much I wanted to. I had dug my own grave, now I had to learn to lie in it.

The thought tightened something deep in my chest.

I made a quiet decision in that moment.

I’ll go. Even if it’s just for five minutes. Even if I stand at the back of the room unnoticed.

I would see it. Her moment. Her victory.

A knock interrupted my thoughts.

The door opened again.

Lorenzo entered with two lawyers behind him.

“Dominic, we need your signatures.”

Of course.

I straightened slightly.

Documents were placed in front of me. Contracts. Legal confirmations. Alliance structures.

I signed where they pointed, page after page, each signature binding the Russo and Moretti families closer together.

Each signature pushing Isabella further away.

By the time the lawyers finished, the room had filled again with movement.

Phones ringing. People entering and leaving.

But through all of it, the emptiness inside my, chest remained untouched. Nothing filled it. Not power. Not strategy. Not tomorrow’s alliance.

My phone buzzed on the table.

It was Marco. I’d sent him with Isa the day they’d left for Sicily. I’d been keeping tabs on them through him, making sure they were safe and well taken care of.

I picked it up immediately. “Yes.”

“Security update,” he said.

“Go ahead.”

“Your mother, Isabella, and Mateo landed in Florence an hour ago. They reached the house without incident.”

I exhaled slowly, Good.

“Perimeter secure?”

Chapter 165

“Yes.”

“Additional surveillance?”

“In place.”

I nodded to myself. “Stay close.”

“Of course.”

The call ended.

For a moment I sat there quietly, staring at the dark screen.

They were home. Safe. That should have brought relief. And in a small way, it did.

But the hollow ache in my chest remained.

Because safety had never been the only thing I wanted.

I leaned back in the chair again.

Tomorrow, the alliance would be announced.

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Tomorrow, Isabella would stand in Florence presenting the project she had built with her own hands.

And tomorrow, I would stand beside another woman.

The penthouse buzzed with activity around me.

But inside, nothing in this world could fill the emptiness Isabella had left behind.