He Fired Me. Now His Empire Is Burning Chapter 05
Listening to Henry’s near-hysterical screaming on the other end of the line, I stood on a sun-drenched terrace in Sicily and let a smirk play across my lips.
“Henry, I think you’ve got two things wrong.”
“First, the intel I gave you was perfect. The Colombians’ bottom lines, their deal-breakers-I wrote it all down in the handover file. Second, my handover is complete. Whether the Corleone family lives or dies is no longer my problem.”
“The deal falling apart is Lucy’s problem. You should be calling her, not bothering me,” I said with a cold laugh.
“Her? That damn bitch!” Henry’s voice filled with murderous rage at the mention of Lucy. “The second the deal went south and the guns came out, she vanished! I can’t find her anywhere! Madeline, you listen to me. You will get your ass back to New York and clean up this mess, right now! That’s an order!”
“An order?” I let out a low laugh, as if I’d just heard the funniest joke in the world. “Henry, are you still half asleep? Let me say it again: I, Madeline, am no longer part of the Corleone family. Your orders aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.”
“You…” My attitude infuriated him, but he was clearly aware of his desperate situation. He took a few deep breaths, forcing his anger down, and tried to tempt me with a deal. “Fine, Madeline. I know you’re holding a grudge. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have listened to Lucy’s bullshit. Just come back and handle the Colombians, and I’ll immediately restore you as Chief Advisor! No, I’ll even give you fifty percent of the family’s shares! How about that?”
The condescending way he offered it, like some act of charity, made my stomach turn.
In my past life, I’d bled for this family, only to end up with a price on my head, left to die in a gutter. And now, he thought he could buy my loyalty back with a position that was already rotten to the core?
“Fifty percent? Chief Advisor?” I gave a mocking smile and said, word by word, “Henry, keep your pathetic shares and use them to buy yourself a nice coffin.”
Without another word, I hung up and blocked his number.
But the death rattle of the Corleone family was just beginning.
For the next hour, my phone nearly vibrated itself off the table. The family’s old guard started calling, one after
another.
“Madeline, it’s Albert. You’ve been with the Corleones for so many years. You can’t just stand by and watch the family burn!”
“Madeline, Henry is young and impulsive. We old men apologize to you. If you come back, we promise Henry will listen to everything you say from now on!”
Listening to their earnest, almost pleading words, all I could see was the image of my own death.
Back then, Henry had framed me, and I was being hunted by assassins all over the city.
I had called these same men, full of hope, begging for help. And what did they do?
Albert hung up on me. Thomas had just laughed coldly and said it was a “changing of the guard, and not for old men like him to get in the way.”
To save their own skins, to suck up to Henry, they watched coldly as I was cornered and killed.
And now that disaster was at their door, they remembered how useful I was?
“Albert,” I said calmly. “Back when Henry announced in the boardroom, in front of all of you, that he was going to have me searched, did a single one of you speak up for me?”
The other end of the line went dead silent.
“The moment you all stood by and watched Henry force me out, you should have known this day would come for the Corleone family,” I sneered. “So keep watching. The show is just getting started.”.
With that, I hung up and blocked the numbers of every last member of the Corleone family.
I turned back to the bright Sicilian sun, elegantly picked up my glass of red wine from the table, and took a smal sip.
The fall of the Corleone family was just a matter of time.
And I would have a front-row seat to watch them, nice and slow, as they choked on what they’d sown.
