The Mafia's Undoing-Chapter 106: Phase 2

The cab pulls up to the hospital. I pay, then run inside.

Bella’s in the surgical waiting room. She stands when she sees me.

"Tony." She pulls me into a hug. I’m soaking wet, getting her clothes wet, but she doesn’t care.

"How is he?"

"In surgery. They said it was close, another ten minutes and-" Her voice breaks.

We sit and wait, both of us silent.

My phone keeps buzzing with Vivian’s calls and texts. Angry that I walked away from the deal.

I turn it off.

After two hours, a doctor emerges.

"Family of Thomas Marvin?"

We stand.

"He’s stable. The surgery was successful, but it was very close. The stress on his body from everything - the shooting months ago, the explosion injuries, the emotional trauma, it all caught up."

"Can we see him?" I ask.

"One at a time. He’s awake but very weak."

Bella gestures. "Go. I’ll wait."

I follow the doctor to Thomas’s room.

My father looks old and fragile. Mortal in a way I’ve never seen.

His eyes open when I enter. "Anthony."

"Dad." I sit beside the bed and take his hand. "You scared me."

"I scared myself." He tries to smile but fails. "How long have I been out?"

"A few hours, surgery was successful. You’re going to be okay."

"Am I?" His eyes are too knowing. "Anthony, I need to tell you something. About your mother and how I lost her."

"Dad, you don’t have to-"

"I do. Because you’re making the same mistakes I made."

I go still.

"Your mother didn’t just die only from childbirth complications," Thomas says. His voice is weak but determined. "She was leaving me. Had packed her bags and made plans."

"What?"

"I was obsessed with building the empire, the Marvin legacy. Working late and barely coming home. I wasn’t focused on the long-term relationship thing as I felt it was a weakness and a trap, and I only had a responsibility to you as my son." His eyes fill with tears. "She told me she couldn’t do it anymore. Couldn’t compete with my ambition."

I waited to let him continue.

"We were arguing. She was eight months pregnant. The stress... it triggered the premature labor. And she-" He can’t finish.

"Dad..."

"I killed her, Anthony. Not with my hands, but with my neglect by choosing the empire over her. The threats from external parties were not the only thing that triggered her premature labour. And I’ve lived with that guilt every day since."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I see you making the same choices. Katherine-"

"Left me tonight. She took off her ring and walked away."

Thomas’s face crumples. "Because you’ve been choosing the business over her."

It’s not a question. He already knows.

"I thought I was building something for us, for our future."

"But you forgot to include her in that future." Thomas squeezes my hand weakly. "Don’t make my mistakes, son. Don’t lose Katherine the way I lost your mother. The empire means nothing if you’re alone."

I’m crying now. Can’t hold it back.

"I don’t know how to fix this. She’s done. She said she can’t watch me become you."

"Then don’t become me. Change and show her you choose her."

"What if it’s too late?"

"Then you try anyway. You fight for her and prove you’ve learned." Thomas’s eyes are closing. The medication was pulling him under. "Promise me, Anthony. Promise you won’t lose her."

"I promise, Dad. I promise."

But I’m making a promise I don’t know how to keep.

Thomas falls asleep. I sit there, holding his hand, holding Katherine’s ring.

Everything I thought mattered - the deals, the empire, the success - it’s all meaningless.

Katherine was right.

I became my father.

And it cost me everything.

Bella comes in quietly and sits beside me.

"He told you? About your mother?"

"You knew?"

"He told me a few weeks ago. When I asked about family history. Medical stuff." She looks at Thomas. "He’s carried that guilt for thirty years."

"And now I’m doing the same thing to Katherine."

"Are you?" Bella meets my eyes. "Or are you going to change? Actually change?"

"I don’t know if she’ll give me another chance."

"Then you make her want to. You prove you’re different. You choose better."

"How?"

"Start by actually choosing her over everything, every time."

We sat in silence. The hospital was quiet around us.

My phone turned back on, and it shows messages from Vivian - angry and threatening legal action for backing out.

I delete them all.

The business can burn. The empire can fall.

All that matters is Katherine.

And somehow, I have to prove that to her.

Before it’s too late.

Before I lose her forever.

I turn my phone off again and place it on the small table beside Thomas’s bed.

Bella stands. "I’m going to get coffee. You want anything?"

"No. I’m fine."

She leaves, and I sit there with my unconscious father, holding Katherine’s ring, trying to figure out how to fix the unfixable.

***

Somewhere down In The Hallway...

VIVIAN’S POV

Vivian Cross stands outside Thomas Marvin’s hospital room, looking through the small window in the door.

Tony sits beside his father’s bed- broken, defeated, and alone.

Perfect.

She pulls out her phone to type a quick message to an unknown number

He chose the girl. Proceed with Phase 2.

The response comes within seconds

Understood. The girl won’t be a problem much longer.

Vivian’s lips curve into a smile. Not the professional, charming smile she’s shown Tony for months. This one is cold.

She turns and walks down the hospital corridor, her heels clicking on the linoleum.

Because the business deal was never the point.

The hotel acquisition, the late-night meetings, the flirtation, all of it was theatrics.

She never wanted Tony’s money.

She wanted him distracted, vulnerable, and separated from Katherine.

And Phase 2 is already in motion.

By tomorrow, Katherine Blaire won’t be a problem anymore.

Vivian exits the hospital into the rainy New York night, still smiling.

Everything is going exactly according to plan.