Ava Cross refused to trade herself for another hostage. She and Luca Vieri returned to a courthouse guarded by federal agents and Mafia soldiers before midnight, using the key from the ambush to enter the archive their enemy had tried to keep buried.
Inside were recordings, legal files, and a wall tracking Ava Cross's life from childhood to the previous night. Someone had planned every loss with patient precision. At the center, a line connected her to Luca Vieri, then continued toward a sealed record neither of them had seen.
Luca Vieri reached it first. The evidence proved the truth neither of them was ready to trust: Luca has been feeding Ava evidence because her own chief prosecutor runs the rival syndicate. It also showed why he had been tied to the conspiracy long before he met Ava Cross.
Footsteps filled the corridor. Luca Vieri reached for his weapon, but Ava Cross stopped him. Running had brought her here. This time she would make the person hunting them speak.
The archive door opened. The intruder removed a hood, and Ava Cross's breath caught. The face belonged to someone whose funeral she had attended—and the hostage video had been playing from an empty room.
“You finally found the truth,” the stranger said. “Now choose: expose it and destroy Luca Vieri, or bury it and become the woman who betrays him.”
Ava Cross took Luca Vieri's hand instead.
The stranger smiled and pressed a remote. Behind them, the archive began counting down from ten.