Cast Out as Old-Fashioned, I Watched the Mafia Fall Apart Chapter 09
He stepped closer, triumph filling his eyes, as though he had already branded me a thief.
“Well, Iris. I thought you were above it all, but it turns out you’re a common thief. All those trips back to headquarters, and you were after the Family’s secrets?”
I froze for a second, then understood.
So that was his game: frame me with his own crime and lure me into a trap.
He meant to destroy my reputation throughout the underworld so I could never compete with him for business again.
Watching his smug certainty, I laughed out loud.
A second later the triumph froze on his face.
The person standing in that office was not me.
A courier in gray work clothes looked in bewilderment at the men who had burst in.
“What is all this? I’m running an errand and delivering something. How does that make me a corporate spy?
“Whatever secret list of channels your Family has, I wouldn’t take it even for free. It would only take up space.
From the shadows of the corridor outside, I laughed again.
It had felt wrong from the start.
What kind of man was Vincent?
He was an old fox who had survived the infighting. There was no chance he had kindly invited me back to collect a keepsake.
If I had actually walked into his office alone and fallen for a trap that clumsy, all those years would have taught me nothing.
Before coming, I hired a neutral courier, had him keep his recorder running the entire time, and instructed him to follow the route I gave him step by step. I even talked him through opening the drawer over the phone.
At a moment like this, I was not stupid enough to walk into a trap.
If he had actually caught me, I would have been finished.
This time, his own scheme had blown up in his face,
Vincent stood rooted in place, his face flushing and then paling.
Only then did I step in from the corridor, holding up the recording as I met his gaze coldly.
“Vincent, you fed me when I had nothing, and I have never forgotten it.
“But what you did today burned through every last trace of loyalty between us.
