The Mafia's Undoing Chapter 104: The Meeting

The note is still crumpled in my hand.

Business dinner running late. Don’t wait up. -T

Another one, the fifth this week and the twentieth this month.

I’m standing in our empty apartnt, staring at those words, and I realize sothing: I’m done waiting.

My phone buzzes with a text from an unknown number with a photo attached.

Tony was in a hotel bar with her.

Vivian Cross.

She’s leaning close, laughing at sothing he said. Her hand on his arm with that perfect smile and calculated intimacy.

The text read: Thought you should know where your boyfriend really is. The Regency Hotel. Room 1267. -A Friend

My hands shook; this could be a setup or a manipulation.

But the photo is tistamped twenty minutes ago.

I grabbed my coat and determined that I was going.

The Regency is upscale. The kind of place Tony and I used to go for date nights, and where we celebrated our first year anniversary together before he got too busy for anything remotely dating or hanging out.

I spot them imdiately in the bar at a corner table with low lighting... looking intimate.

Vivian’s wearing an expensive-looking dress, with her perfect makeup and hair. Everything about her scread expensive, sophisticated, and successful.

Everything I’m not right now, standing here in jeans and yesterday’s shirt because I was too tired to change after work.

I watch from behind a column. Trying to read Tony’s body language.

He’s... engaged. Leaning forward and focused on whatever she’s saying. His body language was... receptive? Really hard to tell from my position.

She touches his arm again, and he doesn’t pull away.

My heart cracks a little more.

Then they stood, she gathered the papers as he paid the bill.

They were leaving together toward the elevators.

And I follow, staying back and invisible.

They get in. I catch the floor number as the doors close.

Twelve.

Room 1267. Exactly what the text said.

I took the next elevator. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it.

This is stupid. I should leave, I trust him.

But six months of distance, six months of late nights, and six months of feeling like I’m competing with his ambition ca crashing down.

The elevator dings. Twelfth floor.

I found room 1267, stood outside the door, and raised my hand to knock.

I hear voices inside. I couldn’t make out the words, but I heard her laugh.

I should leave. This is wrong, and I’m being paranoid.

But I can’t move.

Then I hear Tony’s voice, muffled through the door but unmistakable: "This could really work."

Sothing inside breaks.

I knocked. Hard and loud.

Silence inside.

Then footsteps. The door opens.

Tony’s face. Shock with confusion. Guilt?

"Katherine? What are you-"

I push past him into the suite.

It’s beautiful and expensive, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Manhattan.

And Vivian. Standing by a table covered in architectural plans and financial docunts.

Not what I feared and definitely not what I imagined.

They were actually working.

But Vivian’s smile tells she knew. She wanted to think the worst, to follow, and for this exact mont.

"Katherine!" Tony’s closing the door. "How did you know I was here?"

"Soone sent a photo. You and her, looking very... cozy."

"We’re negotiating the hotel acquisition. That’s all this is."

"At eleven PM? In a hotel suite?" My voice is rising despite myself. "With a woman who’s been texting you, ’tonight was special’?"

Vivian was still smiling. "Oh dear. This does look bad, doesn’t it? Tony, you didn’t tell Katherine we’d be working late?"

"I texted her," Tony says, confusion turning to defensiveness. "She knew I had a business dinner."

"You said dinner. Not a private suite eting with your business partner." I’m shaking now, from anger, hurt, or both.

"Katherine, nothing happened, and nothing’s happening." He crosses to and tries to take my hand.

I pull away. "But sothing is. You’re choosing this..." I gesture around the suite, at the plans, at Vivian’s perfectly composed face, "... over us. Over ."

"That’s not fair-"

"Isn’t it? When’s the last ti you ca ho before midnight? When’s the last ti you had dinner with ? When’s the last ti you chose over a business deal?"

Vivian speaks up, her voice all concern and sympathy: "Perhaps I should give you two so privacy."

But she doesn’t move, just watches with those calculating eyes.

I turn on her. "Who are you really? Why are you doing this?"

Her mask slips just for a second. "Doing what? Building a business empire with an ambitious man? Perhaps you should ask yourself why that threatens you so much."

"Because it’s taking him away from ."

"Then maybe-" her smile is razor-sharp now, "-you’re not enough for where he’s going."

The words hit like a physical blow.

Tony steps between us. "Vivian, that’s enough."

"Is it?" She’s not backing down. "Katherine, Tony is building sothing extraordinary. Sothing that requires focus, dedication, and sacrifice. If you can’t handle that, maybe you shouldn’t be here."

"Maybe I shouldn’t." The words ca out before I could stop them.

I turn to Tony to really look him in the eye. "I’m not asking you to choose between and your business. I’m asking you to choose us. To include , to talk to , and to co ho once in a while."

"Katherine-"

"But if you can’t do that... if this empire is more important than what we have, then I’m done." My voice breaks. "I’m not competing with your ambition anymore."

I walk toward the door.

"Katherine, wait!" Tony’s following. "Please. Let’s talk about this."

"We’ve been trying to talk for months!" I spin on him. "But you’re never there! You’re always here or at another eting, another deal, and I’m tired of waiting for scraps of your ti!"

Vivian calls from behind us: "Tony, the buyers are waiting downstairs. We only have until midnight to close this deal."

He looks torn between the deal and .

That hesitation tells everything I need to know.

"Go," I say quietly. "Close your deal and build your empire."

"Katherine-"

"I an it. Go."

Then I walk out.

He follows to the elevator. "Don’t do this. Please, just let explain-"

"Explain what? That I’m not a priority? I already know that."

The elevator arrives, and I step in. He tries to follow.

I hold up my hand. "No. You need to decide right now. The deal or . Your empire or us."

"That’s not fair-"

"Life isn’t fair!" I’m crying now, can’t hold it back. "I survived being kidnapped, tortured, and hunted by assassins. I survived Morrison, Charles Sterling, and being frad for terrorism, but I can’t survive this. I can’t survive being ignored by the man I love."

"I’m not ignoring you! I’m trying to build sothing! Sothing legitimate for us!"

"I never asked for an empire!" The words echo in the elevator. "I asked for you! Just you, but that’s apparently not enough anymore!"

The doors start to close. He catches them.

"Katherine, please-"

"Let go, Tony."

"I can’t."

"Then you have to choose. Deal or . Right now."

His face shows everything - the agony, the indecision, the torn loyalty.

And that hesitation breaks my heart completely.

"That’s what I thought." I press the lobby button.

This ti, when the doors close, he doesn’t stop them.