Chapter 13 - The Man Dominic Trusted Most
The council assembled at eight.
Six senior men entered the Moretti dining room one by one.
Some Norah had seen around the estate.
Others were strangers.
Victor arrived last.
He was sixty-two, silver-haired, polished, wearing a navy suit and the calm expression of a man who believed the outcome had already been decided.
Matteo followed him.
Paolo did not appear.
Salvatore sat at Dominic’s right.
Norah stood farther back.
Victor noticed her immediately.
“This is a family meeting.”
Dominic did not look up.
“She stays.”
Victor smiled.
“There’s the problem.”
Dominic lifted his eyes.
“Sit down.”
Victor sat.
The other men followed.
No food was served.
Only water.
Nobody touched it.
Victor looked toward Salvatore.
“Cousin.”
Salvatore stared.
“I’m sorry to see you like this.”
Salvatore lifted his good hand and gave Victor a gesture that required no translation.
One captain coughed into his fist.
Norah looked away to hide a smile.
Victor’s pleasant expression tightened.
Dominic placed both hands on the table.
“You called this meeting.”
“I did.”
“In my house.”
“Our house.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice remained quiet.
“My house.”
The distinction mattered.
Victor leaned back.
“We are concerned.”
“Who is we?”
Victor gestured toward the table.
“Men who spent decades keeping this family alive.”
Dominic looked at each face.
Two avoided his eyes.
Four did not.
Victor continued.
“You have closed operations without consultation.”
“Yes.”
“Frozen accounts.”
“Yes.”
“Dismissed crews.”
“Yes.”
“Now we hear you plan to cooperate with federal authorities.”
A murmur moved around the table.
Dominic waited.
Then said, “Correct.”
The room exploded.
Not physically.
Voices.
Anger.
Questions.
Victor allowed it.
Then raised his hand.
Silence returned.
“You see?”
Dominic looked bored.
“I see grown men frightened of paperwork.”
One captain slammed the table.
“Men could go to prison.”
“If they committed crimes, that is usually how it works.”
Victor stared.
“This woman has poisoned you.”
Norah almost laughed.
Dominic did not.
“She has done nothing except care for my father.”
“She convinced him to betray us.”
Salvatore hit the table.
Once.
Victor looked at him.
“You don’t understand what is happening, Sal.”
Norah stepped forward before she could stop herself.
“He understands perfectly.”
Victor turned.
“I wasn’t speaking to you.”
“I know. You were speaking about my patient as if he isn’t mentally competent.”
“He had a stroke.”
“He is not cognitively impaired.”
“You’re a nurse, not a neurologist.”
“I’ve reviewed his evaluations.”
Dominic watched.
Victor’s smile became thin.
“You seem very invested.”
Norah met his gaze.
“People become invested when someone tries to kidnap their patients twice.”
The room went silent.
Victor looked at Dominic.
“Is that accusation part of your new management style?”
Dominic opened the ledger.
He slid it across the table.
Victor’s expression changed.
Tiny.
But enough.
“You recognize it.”
“No.”
Salvatore laughed.
That broken, rough sound.
Victor looked at him.
Dominic opened to the page from 1997.
“Your handwriting.”
Victor’s face remained controlled.
“Anybody could write that.”
“Correct.”
Dominic placed Elena’s tape recorder beside the ledger.
“So we also have your voice.”
Now several captains shifted.
Victor stared at the recorder.
Dominic pressed play.
The room filled with the past.
Pietro’s voice.
Victor’s.
Elena’s name.
Neutralized.
The recording ended.
No one spoke.
Victor leaned back.
“That proves nothing.”
Dominic nodded.
“I expected you to say that.”
He placed another file on the table.
“Bank records.”
Then another.
“Payments.”
Another.
“Security access logs from the day my father was taken.”
Matteo went pale.
Victor looked at him.
There.
Dominic saw it.
Victor saw him see it.
Matteo suddenly stood.
“This is insane.”
“Sit,” Victor said.
Matteo remained standing.
Dominic leaned back.
“Your uncle is telling you to sit.”
Matteo looked around.
No one supported him.
Slowly, he sat.
Dominic turned toward the captains.
“You are free to walk out.”
Nobody moved.
“If you remain, you hear everything.”
Victor laughed softly.
“And then what? You turn us all over?”
“No.”
Dominic closed the ledger.
“I turn over evidence.”
“That is the same thing.”
“No. Evidence doesn’t decide guilt.”
Victor’s face twisted.
“Your father taught you better.”
Dominic looked toward Salvatore.
“My father taught me a lot of things.”
Salvatore’s eye held his.
“Some by example.”
A pause.
“Some by regret.”
Victor leaned forward.
“Salvatore was never weak until Elena.”
The old man’s expression changed.
Victor saw it and smiled.
“She made him believe he could become something he wasn’t.”
Norah watched Dominic’s hands tighten.
Victor continued.
“Then she made you weak before you were even old enough to understand strength.”
Dominic spoke softly.
“My mother has been dead twenty-eight years and you still sound afraid of her.”
That landed.
Victor’s face hardened.
“She was naive.”
“No.”
Dominic shook his head.
“She understood you.”
Silence.
“She understood all of you.”
Dominic gestured toward the ledger.
“She knew the family would eventually consume itself because nobody knew when to stop.”
Salvatore whispered something.
Barely sound.
Everyone turned.
“Ba…”
Norah moved closer.
Salvatore tried again.
“Bas…”
His damaged mouth struggled.
Dominic’s expression changed.
Salvatore forced the word.
“Basta.”
Enough.
The room became silent.
Victor stared.
Salvatore pointed toward him.
Then toward the door.
Victor slowly stood.
“You think this ends because an old man learned one word again?”
Dominic stood too.
“No.”
He looked around the table.
“It ends because I’m done.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“You walk away, you lose everything.”
Dominic’s answer came without hesitation.
“Then I lose it.”
For the first time, Victor appeared uncertain.
Power only worked if the person threatened feared losing it.
Dominic no longer did.
The captains began standing.
One by one.
Not against Dominic.
Away from Victor.
The oldest man at the table looked toward Salvatore.
“I buried two sons because of this life.”
He turned to Dominic.
“Do what your father should’ve done thirty years ago.”
Then he left.
Two others followed.
Victor watched control disappear.
Matteo remained frozen.
Frank opened the dining-room doors.
Victor stepped toward Dominic.
“This is not over.”
Dominic did not move.
“Yes, it is.”
Victor looked at Norah.
Then Salvatore.
Then Dominic.
He left.
Matteo hurried after him.
The room emptied.
Dominic remained standing.
Salvatore looked at his son.
For the first time, pride appeared openly on his face.
But Frank did not share the relief.
He stared at his phone.
“Dom.”
“What?”
“Paolo was just found.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Where?”
“In his car near the interstate.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Frank swallowed.
“He wants to talk.”
“To me?”
“No.”
Frank looked toward Salvatore.
“He says he’ll only speak to the old man.”
And according to Paolo, Victor had one final plan.
May you like
If he could not control the Moretti empire, he intended to make sure there was nothing left for Dominic to save.
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