Chapter 12 - The Man Marco Trusted Like a Brother
Marco took Dominic’s disappearance harder than he admitted.
They had grown up together.
Fought together.
Buried parents together.
Dominic had stood beside Marco at Luca’s funeral.
He had become something between friend and brother.
Now he was gone.
And the evidence painted him as traitor, victim or vigilante depending on which document they examined.
Alina found Marco sitting alone inside the empty estate.
Federal investigators had released the property after completing their search, but half its contents remained boxed as evidence.
The grand hall felt abandoned.
“You came back.”
Marco did not look around.
“I needed somewhere quiet.”
Alina sat beside him on the stairs.
“Any news?”
“No.”
She handed him a letter.
“What’s this?”
“Dominic left it in my apartment.”
Marco opened it.
Marco,
If you’re reading this, then Sebastian knows I’ve been working against him.
Marco stopped.
He looked at Alina.
She nodded.
“Keep reading.”
Dominic explained that Antonio had confessed before dying.
Sebastian, not Antonio, had transformed Starlight from an identity fraud scheme into a massive laundering network.
Antonio had started it.
Sebastian had perfected it.
When Luca threatened to expose them, Antonio hesitated because Luca was his son.
Sebastian had no such attachment.
He arranged Luca’s death.
Marco’s fingers tightened around the page.
Dominic spent nineteen years collecting evidence.
He joined Marco’s security not to spy on him—
but to prevent Sebastian from reaching him.
The transmitter beneath Alina’s bed?
Dominic found it because he had secretly installed independent sensors years earlier.
The cassette tracker?
Not his.
Someone swapped the device between his storage room and the safe house.
Dominic had realized too late.
At the bottom of the letter:
I failed Luca once by believing my father when he told me to stay out of it. I will not fail you.
Marco closed his eyes.
Alina touched his arm.
“He didn’t betray you.”
“No.”
“You wanted to believe that.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His answer surprised her.
“Because betrayal is easier than grief.”
She understood.
If Dominic had betrayed him, Marco could hate him.
If Dominic had spent twenty years risking his life for him—
Marco had almost lost another brother.
His phone rang.
Dominic.
Marco answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“South freight district.”
Dominic sounded weak.
“Are you hurt?”
“Enough.”
“We’re coming.”
“No.”
Marco’s jaw tightened.
“I am finished listening to that word.”
Despite the situation, Dominic laughed painfully.
“Sebastian is here.”
Marco stood.
“Where?”
“Old Castalano warehouse twelve.”
Alina recognized the location.
The warehouse in the photograph with her father and Luca.
“Why there?”
“Because the ledger doesn’t just prove financial crimes.”
Dominic coughed.
“It proves ownership.”
“Ownership of what?”
“Everything Sebastian built using stolen identities.”
Marco frowned.
“Billions?”
“Possibly.”
“And he needs Alina because?”
“She is Diego’s legal heir. Diego secretly acquired controlling interest in Briar Holdings before he died.”
Alina stared.
“What?”
Dominic continued.
“Your father knew he might die. He used the fake-company structure against Sebastian. Half the empire Sebastian built technically belongs to Diego’s estate.”
Which meant—
Alina.
The maid who worried about rent.
The woman who bought shoes on sale.
The daughter of a washing-machine repairman.
On paper, she could control assets worth hundreds of millions.
Maybe billions.
Marco looked at her.
“No.”
She knew what he meant.
“You’re not coming.”
She smiled faintly.
“We already had this argument.”
“Alina.”
“Marco.”
Dominic’s voice interrupted.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Sebastian has Sofia.”
Alina froze.
“And Vale.”
“Why Vale?”
“Loose ends.”
A sound echoed through the call.
Dominic cursed.
Then whispered:
“He knows I called.”
The line went dead.
Marco reached for a weapon from a locked drawer.
Alina stepped in front of him.
“You go in angry, Sebastian wins.”
“He has Dominic.”
“And Sofia.”
“I know.”
“So we do this differently.”
Marco stared.
“What are you proposing?”
Alina picked up her father’s ledger.
“We give him what he thinks he wants.”
“And then?”
She looked toward the old family portrait at the far end of the hall.
Vittorio.
Marco.
Luca.
May you like
A family built on secrets.
“We make sure everyone hears the truth this time.”
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