Chapter 6 - The Money Daniel Never Touched
The amount was $2.4 million.
I read it three times.
Two million four hundred thousand dollars.
Anthony Romano had placed it in trust in 1999.
Beneficiary: Claire Bennett.
Trustee: Daniel Bennett.
My father.
My mechanic father who packed peanut-butter sandwiches for work because deli meat was “highway robbery.”
My father who drove the same Ford pickup for seventeen years.
My father who once spent an entire Saturday repairing our washing machine because we couldn't afford a new one.
Two point four million dollars.
“Where is it?” I asked.
Victor looked through the records.
“The account was transferred.”
“To where?”
“Daniel moved it.”
“When?”
“2001.”
Mom arrived at Rosie’s just after sunrise with Dr. Levin’s permission and Alessandro’s driver.
She saw the document.
Then she sat down.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
I didn't shout.
That was somehow worse.
“Explain.”
“Daniel refused the money.”
“The records say he moved it.”
“He did.”
“Where?”
Mom looked at Alessandro.
“To a foundation.”
Alessandro frowned.
“What foundation?”
“The Thomas Romano Community Fund.”
Victor stared.
“That fund built the Southside clinic.”
Mom nodded.
“And the scholarship program,” she said. “And the women’s shelter.”
Alessandro sat down slowly.
I remembered that clinic.
Everyone in our neighborhood knew it.
My mother had received treatment there years ago.
“You gave away $2.4 million?”
“Daniel did.”
“Why?”
Mom smiled through tears.
“Because he said no amount of money could purchase the right to be your father.”
That broke me.
All night I had been afraid that another secret would somehow make Daniel Bennett less important.
Instead, it made him larger.
Mom continued.
“Anthony wanted silence. Daniel told him we would stay silent because we wanted you safe, not because we could be bought.”
I wiped my eyes.
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Daniel wanted you to choose your own life.”
She touched my hand.
“He said if you ever learned you were connected to the Romanos, people would tell you that blood determined who you were.”
Mom looked toward Alessandro.
“He wanted you to know better first.”
I laughed softly.
“That sounds like Dad.”
“Yes.”
Alessandro was staring at the foundation records.
“My brother wanted to open a restaurant.”
I remembered what he had told me.
“On the coast.”
He nodded.
“Instead, his money helped thousands of people.”
“No,” Mom said.
“Daniel’s choice did.”
Alessandro looked at her.
“Thomas would have respected him.”
“He did.”
“What?”
Mom smiled.
“They met.”
I stared.
“When?”
“Once. Before Thomas died.”
She looked at me.
“Daniel already knew I was pregnant. Thomas came to tell him the truth.”
I couldn't imagine that conversation.
“What happened?”
“Thomas told Daniel he wanted to take responsibility. Daniel told Thomas that responsibility wasn't ownership.”
Victor laughed softly.
“That sounds like Daniel.”
“You knew him?”
“A little.”
Of course he did.
Apparently everyone had known everyone except me.
Mom continued.
“Thomas and Daniel agreed that whatever happened, you would grow up away from the Romano world.”
“And then Thomas died.”
“Yes.”
“And Dad kept the promise.”
“Every day.”
I looked at Alessandro.
He understood what I was thinking.
Thomas gave me blood.
Daniel gave me a life.
Neither canceled the other.
At 9:00 that morning, Alessandro called Salvatore.
He put the phone on speaker.
An old man answered.
“Alessandro.”
“Uncle.”
A pause.
“I wondered when you'd call.”
“You know why?”
“I heard Margaret’s daughter finally found you.”
My skin prickled.
“How did you know about Claire?” Alessandro asked.
Salvatore laughed.
“Your father wasn't as good at keeping secrets as he believed.”
“Did you kill Thomas?”
Silence.
Then:
“Your father made the decision.”
“That's not what I asked.”
“No.”
Another pause.
“You carried it out.”
Salvatore sighed.
“Thomas was going to destroy everything Anthony built.”
“So you killed him.”
“We protected the family.”
Alessandro’s expression went cold.
“You killed my brother.”
“Your father understood sacrifice.”
“No. My father understood cowardice.”
Salvatore laughed.
“You sound like Thomas.”
“Good.”
Then Sofia leaned toward the phone.
“What about my mother?”
Silence.
“Who is that?”
“Elena’s daughter.”
For the first time, Salvatore sounded frightened.
“Elena is dead.”
“But her records aren't.”
The line went dead.
Victor immediately started making calls.
“What happens now?” I asked.
“We send everything to federal investigators,” Alessandro said.
I looked at him.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“What about what it exposes about your family?”
“All of it.”
Victor looked surprised.
Alessandro met my eyes.
“You told me something two nights ago.”
“What?”
“That fear and surrender aren't the same thing.”
I hadn't actually said it aloud.
Maybe he had simply understood.
“Thomas spent his life trying to leave this behind,” Alessandro continued. “If I hide the truth to protect the Romano name, then I become the reason he died.”
By afternoon, copies of every record were with attorneys and federal investigators.
Salvatore couldn't erase them.
For the first time in twenty-eight years, Thomas's secret no longer belonged to frightened people hiding in separate rooms.
That should have been the end.
It wasn't.
At 6:20, I returned to Alessandro’s house.
Mom was resting.
Sofia had gone home with Victor accompanying her.
Alessandro was in his study.
I found him holding another envelope.
“What now?”
He looked at me.
“This was in Thomas’s bank box.”
“Mom missed it?”
“It was beneath the interior lining.”
He handed it to me.
My name was written across the front.
For Claire, when she is old enough to decide for herself.
My hands trembled.
Inside was a letter.
Thomas had written it four days before his death.
I read slowly.
He said he didn't know whether he deserved to call himself my father.
He said Daniel Bennett was a good man.
He said he hoped my mother chose peace.
And then the final paragraph:
Claire, if Alessandro is ever standing beside you when you read this, tell my little brother something I was too proud to tell him enough.
I looked at Alessandro.
“What?”
I continued.
Tell him none of this was his fault.
Alessandro turned away.
For a long time, he said nothing.
Then his shoulders shook once.
The most feared man in the city was crying.
Silently.
I placed the letter on the desk.
And without thinking, I hugged him.
He froze exactly as he had with Sofia.
Then his arms came around me.
Not like a boss.
Not like a stranger.
Like family.
After a while, he whispered, “There’s another page.”
I pulled away.
“What?”
He pointed toward the envelope.
A smaller sheet remained inside.
Thomas had written only three lines.
The diner.
Ask Rosa about the wall behind the jukebox.
That is where I left the thing Anthony could never find.
I stared at Alessandro.
Rosie’s Diner.
The place where all of this had begun.
Thomas Romano had hidden something there twenty-eight years ago.
May you like
And Rosa had known about it the entire time.
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