Chapter 13 - The Truth Marco Had Hidden for Nine Years
The old rail yard had been abandoned for seventeen years.
Vittorio Greco chose it because abandoned places did not ask questions.
Elena sat inside the former station office with her wrists loosely bound.
Vittorio had not hurt her.
That frightened her more.
Angry men were predictable.
Calm men who had already decided what mattered were not.
Lucas Bellini sat across from her.
Ten years old.
Thin.
Terrified.
Tomas’s son had been brought from Montreal under false pretenses.
He kept asking for his father.
Elena tried to reassure him.
“Your dad is looking for you.”
“How do you know?”
“Because parents look.”
“My dad doesn’t live with us.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
Lucas looked at Vittorio.
“He said Dad doesn’t want me.”
Vittorio continued reading documents.
Elena stared at him.
“You enjoy that?”
He looked up.
“What?”
“Making children afraid.”
“I told him the truth.”
“No. You told him the sentence that helps you.”
Vittorio smiled.
“You’re remarkably bold for a housekeeper.”
“And you’re remarkably insecure for a powerful man.”
The smile vanished.
Elena had spent years cleaning rooms after men like Vittorio.
She knew when she had touched the truth.
“You needed Adrian to believe his family betrayed him.”
“Adrian’s family did betray him.”
“You betrayed him.”
“He was weak.”
“You made him weak.”
Vittorio stood.
“Elena, do you know the difference between people like you and people like me?”
“Yes.”
He paused.
“You think cleaning somebody else’s house makes you understand power.”
“No.”
Elena leaned back.
“I think people like you talk too much when you’re finally standing in front of someone you don’t need to impress.”
Vittorio stared.
Lucas almost smiled.
Outside, a car arrived.
Vittorio checked his watch.
“Finally.”
The door opened.
Marco DeLuca walked inside.
Elena’s stomach dropped.
Vittorio smiled.
“Marco.”
Marco looked at Elena.
Then Lucas.
Then Vittorio.
“Where’s Aleandro?”
Vittorio asked.
“Coming.”
“You were supposed to bring him.”
“He doesn’t follow commands well.”
Vittorio laughed.
“He never did.”
Elena watched Marco carefully.
Something was wrong.
Marco had arrived alone.
Vittorio poured him a drink.
“After nine years, you finally made the intelligent choice.”
Elena froze.
Nine years?
Marco accepted the glass.
“I’m tired.”
“You should be. Loyalty is exhausting.”
Elena tried to catch Marco’s eye.
He would not look at her.
Vittorio continued.
“Does Aleandro know?”
“Know what?”
“That you helped me the first time?”
Elena felt cold.
Marco’s face remained unreadable.
“Not everything.”
Vittorio smiled.
“Of course not.”
The door behind them opened again.
Aleandro stood there.
He had heard.
Marco slowly turned.
For the first time in Elena’s four years at the mansion, she saw true shock on Aleandro’s face.
“What did he mean?”
Marco closed his eyes.
Vittorio looked delighted.
“The great Marco DeLuca has secrets.”
Aleandro stepped inside.
“What did you do nine years ago?”
Marco said nothing.
“Marco.”
“I helped Adrian leave.”
Aleandro stopped.
Vittorio sat down to enjoy it.
Marco continued.
“After the crash.”
“You knew he survived?”
“Not immediately.”
“How long?”
“Three days.”
Aleandro’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“And you said nothing.”
“I found him at a private clinic. Vittorio told me Adrian had tried to kill you.”
Vittorio laughed.
Marco ignored him.
“I believed him.”
“For how long?”
“Two weeks.”
“You let me bury an empty coffin?”
“The coffin wasn’t empty.”
Aleandro went pale.
“Whose body?”
Marco looked at Vittorio.
“He told me it was a driver.”
“It was,” Vittorio said.
Aleandro turned toward him.
Vittorio shrugged.
“A criminal who died in another accident. Dental records are surprisingly flexible.”
Aleandro returned to Marco.
“Why didn’t you tell me later?”
“I tried to find Adrian. He vanished.”
“For nine years?”
“I searched for two.”
“Then stopped.”
“You were rebuilding the organization. Your father had just died. Everyone expected war.”
“So you decided what I could handle.”
“I decided badly.”
Aleandro looked as if Marco had struck him.
That hurt Marco more than anger would have.
“I’m sorry.”
Aleandro said nothing.
Marco continued.
“There’s more.”
“Of course there is.”
“Four years ago, I learned Matthew Rossi contacted Adrian.”
Elena stood.
“You knew Matthew?”
“I met him once.”
“Before he died?”
“Yes.”
Elena’s face changed.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know who you were then.”
“But when I came to the mansion?”
“I recognized your name months later.”
“You knew my husband had been investigating this?”
“I suspected.”
Tears filled Elena’s eyes.
“And you said nothing.”
Marco looked ashamed.
“I thought silence protected you.”
Elena laughed through tears.
“My husband died because people kept deciding silence protected somebody.”
That sentence landed harder than anything.
Aleandro looked at Marco.
Then at Elena.
Then Lucas.
A child taken because adults had hidden truths.
A woman widowed because men had hidden truths.
A cousin erased because Vittorio controlled truths.
Aleandro suddenly understood the pattern.
The Moretti family called silence loyalty.
Vittorio had weaponized it.
“That ends tonight,” Aleandro said.
Vittorio smiled.
“Does it?”
He pressed a button beneath the desk.
Metal shutters slammed over the windows.
The exterior door locked.
Marco turned.
Vittorio lifted a small remote.
“You came exactly as expected.”
Aleandro looked at the ceiling.
“What is that?”
“Fire suppression.”
Vittorio smiled.
“Except this building no longer uses water.”
A warning alarm sounded.
Elena looked at the vents.
Gas.
Vittorio stood near a separate door.
“My father built this partnership in this room. Your grandfather took everything from him.”
Aleandro said, “Your father was paid.”
“Pennies.”
“He agreed.”
“He had no choice.”
“And now you think destroying everyone’s children fixes it?”
Vittorio’s face twisted.
For the first time, the sophisticated attorney disappeared.
“You Morettis always had choices.”
He opened the private exit.
Lucas ran toward him.
Vittorio shoved the boy back—not violently enough to injure him, but enough to stop him.
Then Vittorio disappeared through the door.
The lock engaged.
The alarm continued.
Marco grabbed a chair and attacked the shutter.
Aleandro examined the vents.
Elena crouched beside Lucas.
“Cover your mouth.”
Smoke—not lethal gas, they soon realized, but thick fire-suppression vapor—began filling the room.
Visibility disappeared.
Aleandro heard Marco.
“Door won’t move!”
Elena shouted.
“Floor!”
“What?”
“Old buildings had coal access!”
She had noticed a metal outline beneath a rug.
They pulled it away.
A trapdoor.
Rusty.
Stuck.
Marco and Aleandro lifted together.
It opened.
Cold air rose.
Elena sent Lucas first.
Then she followed.
Marco motioned for Aleandro.
“You.”
Aleandro looked at him.
Nine years of hidden betrayal stood between them.
But the room was filling.
“Go.”
“No.”
“Not again,” Marco shouted. “I am not making another decision for you. You go.”
Aleandro climbed down.
Marco followed.
They emerged into a drainage tunnel behind the rail yard.
Lucas collapsed into Elena’s arms.
Aleandro looked back.
Vittorio was gone.
But not for long.
Because inside the station office, Vittorio had left one folder behind.
Perhaps accidentally.
Perhaps because arrogance made careless men.
Inside was a complete list of every person involved.
Steven Hale.
Lydia Greco.
Tomas Bellini.
Daniel Vieri.
Several warehouse supervisors.
Two bank executives.
And one final name nobody expected.
Marco read it.
His face went blank.
“Aleandro.”
Aleandro took the page.
At the bottom:
ROSA BIANCHI – ORIGINAL CONTACT, 1998.
The woman protecting Mia inside his house appeared to have been connected to Vittorio’s operation before Mia was even born.
May you like
And suddenly Aleandro did not know whether there was anyone left he could trust.
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