The Mafia's Undoing-Chapter 78: Breaking

"ONE!"

Vincent’s countdown finishes just as the train roars past.

The wind hits me like a wall. I’m dangling over the tracks with Vincent’s hand around my throat, the train was so close I could feel the vibration through his body.

I couldn’t breathe or think. My world was reduced to Vincent’s grip, the train’s deafening roar, and Tony’s face across the platform.

I see Tony lower his weapon.

No. No, no, no-

"Let her go, Vincent." Tony’s voice cuts through the chaos. "You want me? Here I am."

"Gun on the ground." Vincent’s grip tightens. "and kick it away."

"Tony, don’t-" I try to scream, but his hand crushes my windpipe. The words come out as a wheeze.

Tony’s eyes meet mine, and I see the decision there - the surrender.

He drops his weapon and kicks it away.

"Noble," Vincent says. "Stupid but noble."

He pulls me back from the edge slightly, and for a moment, I thought he was letting me go.

Then his grip tightens impossibly more. "Now Katherine dies, and you get to watch."

I was feeling gray at the edges due to lack of oxygen, and I feel I’m going to pass out or die.

Tony’s self-defense lessons flash through my mind. His voice in my memory: If someone has you in a choke hold, don’t fight it. Go limp and make them think you’re unconscious; they’ll loosen their grip.

I stop fighting and let my body go slack to become dead weight in Vincent’s grip.

His hand loosens fractionally, just enough.

I twist hard, everything Tony taught me channeled into pure survival instinct.

My elbow drives into his ribs, and my knee finds his groin just like Tony had shown me a hundred times.

Vincent doubles over with a grunt of pain.

I stumble away, gasping, hands at my throat with sweet air flooding my lungs.

But Vincent recovers fast... too fast. He’s lunging at me before I could run, before I could even reach Tony, and I couldn’t do anything but raise my hands defensively.

We go down hard, him on top with his hands reaching for my throat again.

I’m fighting - scratching his face, trying to gouge his eyes, anything to get him off me, but he’s trained, stronger, and I’m exhausted.

"Should’ve stayed with him," Vincent snarls, blood streaming from where I scratched him. "Now you both die."

Then gunfire erupts.

Not from Tony but from everywhere.

There were more of Vincent’s men appearing from the crowd - Marie’s backup plan, and they’re firing at Tony and at the FBI agents arriving, creating chaos. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The crowd panicked, screaming and running.

Vincent was distracted by the gunfire, and I used the moment to shove him off and scramble away.

"Katherine!" Tony’s voice came through. "Stay down!"

I duck behind a support column as bullets ricochet around me. My heart was hammering so hard I thought it might explode.

Through the chaos, I see Tony fighting. He’s shooting, moving, and taking down Vincent’s men with brutal efficiency, but there are too many, and he keeps looking for me, making sure I’m okay, which is slowing him down.

Vincent appears beside me. I didn’t hear him approach over the gunfire.

His hand grabs my hair and yanks me up. "Come on. We’re finishing this."

He’s dragging me toward the platform edge again, and I fight every step - biting, kicking, scratching - making myself as difficult as possible.

I could hear another train coming in the tunnel, and I could feel the vibration.

"Vincent, stop!" I’m pleading now, desperate. "This is insane! Marie’s using you! She’ll kill you next!"

"Maybe." He doesn’t sound concerned. "But at least I’ll have completed my job first."

We’re at the edge now with the train getting closer. The platform drops just inches from my feet.

Vincent positions me right at the brink - one push and I’m gone.

"Say goodbye to Tony," he says almost gently. "At least you’ll die knowing he loved you."

I’m going to die - actually die. The train is right there, the edge is right here, and Vincent’s going to push me and-

I feel hands grabbing me and pulling me back.

For a wild moment, I thought it was Tony, that he had made it through somehow.

But the hands are smaller; it was a woman’s hands.

Marie Sterling.

She’s appeared like a ghost, elegant even in this chaos, and for one confused second, I thought she was saving me.

Then I see her face, the cold rage there, and grief twisted into something monstrous.

"My daughter died terrified and alone," Marie says, her cultured voice cutting through the noise. "So will you."

She’s not saving me but positioning me.

Her grip is iron-strong despite her age. She maneuvers me right to the edge, holding me there as the train approaches.

"I want Tony to see this," she continues, speaking directly into my ear. "To remember this. To never forget the moment you died because of him."

I’m struggling, but she’s surprisingly strong, and Vincent’s beside her now, supporting her hold.

"Victoria loved him." Marie’s voice was like venom. "She loved him with everything she had, and he rejected her for you. For THIS."

She spits the last word like it’s poison.

The train is so close now. Thirty seconds, maybe less.

Through the chaos, I see Tony. He’s fighting through Vincent’s men, taking hits, bleeding, but still coming.

Our eyes meet across the platform.

I mouth the words: I love you.

His face contorts with anguish; he’s not going to make it. We both know it.

The train horn blares.

Marie’s grip tightens, preparing to push.

I make a decision.

If I’m going to die, Marie Sterling is coming with me.

I stop fighting to stay on the platform. Instead, I grab Marie’s arms, her coat, anything I can reach, and pull her toward me - toward the edge.

"If I go," I say through gritted teeth, "you go."

Her eyes widen when she realizes what I’m doing. She sees I’m willing to take her with me.

For a moment, we’re locked together. Two women on a platform edge, a train seconds away, both calculating who’s going to survive this.

Then Vincent’s voice cuts through: "Let her go, Marie."

We both freeze.