The Mafia's Undoing-Chapter 79: Final Words

We turned to see Vincent’s standing there, with his weapon raised, pointed at Marie.

"What?" Marie’s voice is sharp with betrayal.

"She’s right, this is wrong." Vincent’s face is conflicted, but his weapon is steady. "Victoria wouldn’t want this."

"Don’t you dare-" Marie’s voice rises. "Don’t you dare speak about my daughter!"

"Your daughter was many things." Vincent’s voice is sad. "But she wasn’t this. She wasn’t murdered-suicided on a subway platform. This is your grief, not her revenge."

The train is so close. Ten seconds, maybe less.

"You betray me now?" Marie’s grip on me loosens as she turns to face Vincent. "After everything? After I paid you? Trusted you?"

"Your daughter’s dead," Vincent says simply. "This won’t bring her back."

For a moment, everything freezes, then Marie releases me.

I stumble away from the edge, gasping.

But Marie’s face is crumbling. The elegant mask falls away, revealing the broken mother beneath.

"If I can’t have my daughter," she whispers, "you can’t have her."

She reaches for something in her coat - a weapon.

Vincent sees it at the same moment I do.

"Marie, don’t-"

She’s pulling the gun out, aiming at me with shaking hands.

Vincent fires a single shot, and Marie jerks backward; the gun falls from her hand, clattering across the platform.

She’s fallen across the train roaring past behind her. Her blood spreading across the concrete.

Her last words are barely audible over the noise: "Victoria... I’m sorry..."

The train passes, the gunfire stops, and suddenly, there’s shocking silence.

Vincent was standing there, his weapon still raised and staring at Marie’s body.

Then Tony’s there. He’s bleeding from his side, from his shoulder, but he’s there. Pulling me away from the edge, from Marie, from everything.

His arms come around me, and I collapse into them.

"I’ve got you," he’s saying, over and over. "I’ve got you. You’re safe. You’re safe."

I’m crying in full-body sobs that I can’t control. Everything - the kidnapping, the escape, the chase, almost dying three times in one night - all of it crashing down at once.

"I love you." The words come out broken. "Tony, I love you. I thought - I thought I was going to die and-"

"You didn’t." He’s crying too, I realize. Tony Marvin, ruthless mafia boss, is crying. "You survived. You’re here. We’re here."

We’re sitting on the platform floor now, and I don’t remember sitting down, just holding each other while chaos swirls around us.

FBI agents were swarming in as the paramedics arrived. I see Vincent being taken into custody and was not resisting, his weapon already surrendered.

"I’ll testify," I hear him telling Morrison. "To everything. Marie, Margaret, all of it. The whole Commission structure."

Morrison’s taking his statement. Other agents were securing the scene, and the Paramedics were trying to approach us.

"Sir, you’re bleeding-"

"She first," Tony says roughly, not letting go of me. "Check her first."

"I’m okay." My voice is hoarse from Vincent’s choking. "Tony, you’re shot. You need-"

"I don’t care." He pulls back just enough to look at me, checking for injuries with desperate intensity. "Are you hurt? Did Vincent, did he-"

"I’m okay," I say, touching his face to make him focus. "I’m bruised, scared, but okay. You need medical attention."

"We both do." He finally lets the paramedics approach.

They check me quickly - bruised throat, cuts and scrapes, possible concussion from being thrown around. Nothing life-threatening.

Tony’s worse. He had a gunshot wound to his side and another graze across his shoulder. He’s lost blood and needs to be in the hospital.

"I’m not leaving her," he tells the paramedic firmly when they suggest separating us.

"We’ll transport you together," the paramedic compromises.

We’re being loaded onto gurneys when Elliot’s voice comes through the comms Tony’s still wearing.

"Tony! The bombs! We found seven locations!"

Relief. Seven out of eight, almost all of them.

"But there’s an eighth bomb," Elliot continues, and his voice is shaking. "It’s at the brownstone, your Grandmother’s house."

Tony goes rigid beside me.

"Thomas is there," Elliot says. "And it’s counting down. Two minutes. He can’t defuse it in time. Tony, he can’t-"

Tony’s face goes white.

"What?" I grab his arm. "What is it?"

"My father." His voice is breaking. "The bomb’s at grandmother’s house. He’s there alone."

I do the math instantly. We’re at Union Square, and the brownstone is in the West Village. Ten minutes away minimum.

The bomb detonates in two minutes.

"Go," Tony’s telling Morrison. "Send everyone to evacuate the area. Get him out-"

"There’s no time." Morrison’s face is grim. "Bomb squad is five minutes out, and the device is counting down faster than expected. Tony, I’m sorry. There’s nothing-"

"NO!" Tony’s trying to get up, but the paramedics are holding him down. "No, I have to... I have to get to him-"

"Tony." I grab his face. "Tony, you can’t. It’s too far, and you’re bleeding. You-"

"He’s my father!" The anguish in his voice breaks me. "Katherine, he’s my father. I can’t - I can’t just let him-"

Elliot’s voice, quiet now, through comms: "Sixty seconds."

Tony’s trying to get up anyway; he’s shoving the paramedics away. He’ll kill himself getting there, but he’s going to try.

I hold him, trying to pin him down with my body weight. "Tony, please. Please don’t. You can’t save him. You’ll just die too."

"Then I die!" He’s crying fully now. "He’s my father, and he chose me. Finally chose me over the empire, and I’m just supposed to let him die alone?"

"Thirty seconds," Elliot whispers.

Thomas’s voice crackles through the comms. He must have the channel open.

"Anthony." His voice is calm. "Son, I need you to listen."

"Dad, no."

"I love you." Thomas’s voice is steady. "I’ve always loved you, even when I was too afraid to show it properly. You know that, right?"

"Dad, please-"

"Twenty seconds."

"Take care of Katherine," Thomas continues. "Live the life I never could. Be free and be happy."

"Dad!" Tony’s sobbing. "Dad, please!"

"Tell Katherine I’m sorry for everything. She deserved a better father-in-law to be."

"Fifteen seconds."

"Anthony, my son. My beautiful boy." Thomas’s voice breaks slightly. "Your grandmother says hello, and your mother - I’ll finally get to tell her about the man you became."

"Ten seconds."

Tony’s stopped fighting. Just holding me, being held, listening to his father’s final words.

"Live free, Anthony. That’s all I ever wanted for you."

"Five." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"I love you, son."

"Four."

"I love you too." Tony’s voice is barely a whisper. "Dad, I love you."

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

The explosion reaches us first as sound. A deep, resonating boom that shakes the subway platform.

Then the ground trembles slightly, and then silence.

Thomas’s line goes dead.

Tony makes a sound I’ve never heard before. Inhuman. Primal with pure grief.

He collapses against me, and I hold him while he breaks completely.

The ruthless mafia boss. The cold, calculating killer. The man everyone fears.

Gone.

Just Tony. My Tony, who just lost his father.

And there’s nothing I can do but hold him while his world shatters.