Chapter 10 - The Truth Anel Was Never Supposed to Hear
Aldrich looked toward sleeping Anel.
“Not here.”
Riona felt anger rise.
Those words.
Again.
Secrets always needed another room.
She carefully moved Anel's head onto a pillow, covered him with a blanket, and walked into the kitchen.
Aldrich followed.
“What did you do that night?”
He didn't answer immediately.
“Aldrich.”
“I followed you.”
Riona froze.
“What?”
“After you left my office.”
“You followed me?”
“Yes.”
She searched his face.
“I went home.”
“I know.”
“Then I packed.”
“I know.”
Her anger sharpened.
“You watched?”
“From across the street.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn't know whether to believe Roland.”
Riona stared.
“You let me think you were certain.”
“I wasn't.”
“That makes it worse.”
“I know.”
She turned away.
Aldrich continued.
“I sat in my car for three hours.”
“You could have knocked.”
“Yes.”
“You could have asked me again.”
“Yes.”
“You could have stopped me from leaving.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you?”
Aldrich struggled.
Finally:
“Pride.”
Riona laughed bitterly.
“Pride.”
“I wanted you to come back.”
“I had just been accused of betraying you.”
“I know how it sounds.”
“No. You know how it sounds now.”
She turned.
“Back then you thought if I loved you enough I would return and beg you to believe me.”
“Yes.”
The honesty was brutal.
Riona's eyes filled.
“I was pregnant.”
“I didn't know.”
“I was terrified.”
“I know now.”
“You were outside.”
“Yes.”
“And you let me leave.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Riona wiped her cheek.
“That is almost harder to forgive than the accusation.”
“I know.”
She glared.
“Stop saying that.”
“Then tell me what to say.”
“I don't know!”
Her voice rose.
Both looked toward the living room.
Anel remained asleep.
Riona lowered her voice.
“I spent years wondering if one more conversation might have changed everything. And now you're telling me you were fifty yards away.”
“Forty-three.”
She stared.
Aldrich winced.
“Wrong detail.”
Despite herself, Riona released one disbelieving laugh.
Then covered her face.
Aldrich waited.
“I was a coward,” he said.
She looked at him.
“That is the truth.”
No justification.
No family politics.
No Roland.
No Serafina.
His choice.
“I thought power meant never being the person who reached first.”
Riona said nothing.
“I lost you because of it.”
“You lost more than me.”
He looked toward Anel.
“I know.”
She let the silence sit.
Then asked, “Why didn't you find me later?”
“I tried.”
Riona frowned.
“For eighteen months.”
“What?”
“Private investigators. Contacts. Airports. Financial records.”
“Cosmo?”
“Stopped me.”
She stared.
“He told me if you wanted to be found, you would be.”
“And you listened?”
“Eventually.”
Aldrich looked ashamed.
“He said chasing you would be another form of refusing to hear you.”
Riona sat.
Cosmo again.
Always placing pieces.
“Then why didn't you keep looking?”
“I did.”
She looked up.
“Quietly. Every year on the date you left, I checked.”
Her throat tightened.
“I never found you.”
“Because I changed my name.”
“I know that now.”
Riona looked at him for a long time.
“Did you marry?”
“No.”
“Anyone serious?”
“No.”
“Why?”
He answered simply.
“I compared everyone to someone I was pretending to hate.”
Riona closed her eyes.
This man.
This impossible man.
The next morning, Anel discovered Aldrich asleep sitting upright on the couch.
He poked his shoulder.
“You sleep weird.”
Aldrich opened one eye.
“So I've been told.”
“Mom makes pancakes on Sunday.”
“It's Tuesday.”
“She makes them when people are sad too.”
Aldrich looked toward the kitchen.
Riona had heard.
“Traitor,” she told Anel.
He grinned.
Breakfast felt almost normal.
Then the doorbell rang.
Riona stiffened.
A courier.
Envelope.
No return address.
Inside was a memory card.
Aldrich inserted it into the laptop.
Video.
Nathaniel Price sat in an unknown room.
He looked directly at the camera.
“Riona. Aldrich. If you're watching this, you have found enough truth to misunderstand the rest.”
Aldrich's jaw tightened.
Price continued.
“I did manipulate the Ferrantes.”
Serafina had been right.
“I did finance Roland's father.”
Roland's confession was true.
“But I did not do it for money.”
Riona leaned closer.
“Cosmo Ferrante destroyed my family in 1984.”
Price described his father.
A small business owner who refused to cooperate with early Ferrante expansion.
His business collapsed.
His marriage failed.
He died years later.
Price blamed Cosmo.
“I became his attorney because revenge from outside is visible. Revenge from inside looks like advice.”
Aldrich whispered, “Forty years.”
Price continued.
“I encouraged conflict. I fed Serafina's ambition. I protected Roland's father's secrets. I gave everyone exactly enough rope to hang their relationships.”
Riona felt cold.
Then Price said:
“But I never intended Lucas to die.”
Aldrich's hand clenched.
“Roland acted beyond instructions.”
The video continued.
“I also never intended Anel to be harmed.”
Riona stood.
“Then why watch him?”
Price answered:
“Because Anel represents the end.”
They stared.
“If Aldrich chooses his son over the Ferrante organization, Cosmo wins. If he chooses the organization over his son, I win.”
Aldrich's face hardened.
“This isn't about money anymore.”
Price almost smiled from the screen.
“It is about proving that families like yours never change.”
The video ended.
Anel stood in the hallway.
He had heard enough.
“What organization?”
Riona turned.
“Anel—”
“What does he mean Dad has to choose me?”
The word stopped everything.
Dad.
Anel had called Aldrich Dad without noticing.
Aldrich heard it.
Riona heard it.
Anel did not.
He looked frightened.
“Is Dad leaving?”
Aldrich knelt.
“No.”
“But that man said—”
“That man doesn't decide anything.”
“What organization?”
Aldrich looked at Riona.
This was the moment.
They could lie.
Protect him through omission.
Repeat the family pattern.
Riona shook her head.
“Simple truth.”
Aldrich nodded.
“My family has businesses,” he told Anel. “Some were built in ways I'm not proud of.”
“Did you do bad things?”
Aldrich swallowed.
“I made choices I wish I could change.”
Anel considered.
“Like not believing Mom?”
“Yes.”
“Can you change now?”
Aldrich looked at his son.
“Yes.”
Anel nodded.
“Then do that.”
Simple.
Seven years old.
No empire.
No politics.
No legacy.
Just the answer every adult had made complicated.
Change.
Aldrich looked at Riona.
And in that moment, he made the decision Cosmo, Serafina, Price, and Roland had all spent years trying to predict.
“I am.”
He stood.
He called Marc.
“Start preparing every remaining Ferrante operation for legitimate transfer or closure.”
Marc went silent.
“All of them?”
“All.”
“What about the families?”
“Settle obligations. Protect employees. Shut down anything we can't defend in daylight.”
“Aldrich, that could take years.”
“Then start today.”
He ended the call.
Riona stared.
“You mean it.”
“Yes.”
“You're giving it up.”
“No.”
He looked at Anel.
“I'm choosing what it becomes.”
A notification appeared on Aldrich's phone.
Marc.
We have Price's location.
A second message.
He's back in Montreal. At Cosmo's grave.
Aldrich stared at the screen.
Price wasn't running anymore.
He was waiting.
May you like
And Aldrich knew exactly why.
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