Falling for My Ex’s Mafia Dad — Episode 44
The photograph changed Ivan from suspected rival to a documented participant. Kent wanted him seized before sunset. Fay argued that kidnapping a man connected to federal agents would give every investigator in the country a reason to examine the Lippert estate.
Daniel supported her. If Ivan worked with law enforcement, violence would turn suspicion into a case. If he only impersonated federal contacts, following him could reveal the network that had watched Daniel for years.
Kent hated patience when his family was threatened, but he accepted surveillance instead of capture. Two teams began tracing Ivan’s vehicles, accounts, and meetings. Fay requested access to their reports, invoking the agreement that prevented Kent from deciding what danger she was permitted to understand.
The Elise file arrived in a locked case. It contained photographs, witness statements, and letters Kent had never sent. Fay read them in her room until dawn, discovering a younger man whose confidence had cost two women their lives and whose remorse had hardened into domination. In the earliest letters, Kent promised to change the system. In later drafts, he promised only that no one would ever escape his control again.
One unsent letter named an officer who had pressured Elise to testify: Special Agent Michael Grant. The federal pin in the photograph belonged to Grant’s old task force. Official records said he retired seven years ago and disappeared from public life.
Fay brought the name to Daniel. He remembered Grant visiting Kent when he was a child, always entering through the office and leaving after arguments. Kent had never explained why a federal agent received private access to a Mafia home.
Before they could confront him, the clinic board assembled for its first formal meeting. Lorenzo attended in person. Ivan appeared by video, offering financial disclosures and inviting auditors to examine his medical foundation.
Kent sat beside Fay as a security adviser rather than donor. He objected to Ivan’s participation on the ground that his organization might be connected to the attack. Ivan calmly suggested that Kent disclose every investigation ever attached to Lippert money under the same standard.
The board counsel agreed that both donations required enhanced review. Fay approved the recommendation. Kent’s jaw tightened, but he did not ask her to exempt him. Lorenzo objected that excessive scrutiny would delay permits and hiring, while two community representatives argued that speed purchased with compromised money would poison the center before it opened. The clinic’s independence survived its first test because neither man received special treatment.
Ivan requested five minutes to address the board. He described clinics he had funded in immigrant neighborhoods and spoke persuasively about patients afraid to seek care because of legal status. He proposed mobile units, multilingual counseling, and a firewall preventing patient records from reaching police without a warrant. Those were precisely the safeguards Fay had hoped to build. The compassion in his proposal might have been real, strategic, or both, and that ambiguity made him more dangerous than a simple villain.
Fay asked whether Special Agent Grant advised those projects. Ivan’s expression did not change, but his video feed froze for half a second before he answered. He claimed not to recognize the name.
Kent leaned toward the camera. “You always were a poor liar when surprised.” Ivan smiled and asked whether Kent had improved at telling the truth to women under his protection. The board members shifted, sensing personal warfare beneath financial language.
Fay ended the exchange. She suspended both major donations until the audits were complete and instructed counsel to seek smaller community funding. The decision delayed construction but prevented the center from becoming collateral in their feud.
After the meeting, Lorenzo accused her of humiliating him before Ivan. Fay answered that he had introduced a suspected criminal as a benefactor without warning. If his pride mattered more than the clinic’s integrity, he did not belong on its board.
Lorenzo’s paternal warmth vanished. He reminded her that the Alden name had restored her social position and could protect David and Janeen. The threat remained indirect, but Fay heard it clearly.
Kent rose, ready to answer with violence. Fay stopped him. She told Lorenzo that any threat to her parents would end their relationship permanently and turn every document she possessed over to prosecutors. She did not know whether the bluff could destroy him, only that he believed she might try.
Her father left with murder in his eyes. Kent waited until the door closed before saying she should never make a threat without the power to enforce it. Fay replied that power began when other people believed consequences existed. She had also created encrypted copies of every Alden document Lorenzo’s lawyers had given her, so the threat was becoming less of a bluff with each passing day.
He looked almost proud. Then his phone vibrated with the first surveillance update. Ivan had left his hotel and driven to a federal office under diplomatic plates. Agents waved him through without inspection.
Fay understood the warning immediately. Ivan was either protected by the government or working for it. Kent ordered every illegal operation tied to his name shut down, but old evidence could not be erased by one night of caution.
The second update arrived seconds later: Special Agent Grant was not retired. He had been operating under sealed authority—and Ivan Kozlov was listed in one classified memo as his confidential asset.