Chapter 12 - What Mateo Chose
Mateo showed me the message himself.
I read it twice.
“What does he have?”
“Records of debt collections I approved.”
“You said you wanted to change.”
“I do.”
“After you protect yourself?”
He looked down at his hands.
“No.”
He called his attorney while I sat across the room.
I heard only his side.
“I want to disclose it.
All of it.
And I want the current records preserved before Carlo moves anything else.”
When the call ended, he didn’t ask whether that made him good.
It didn’t.
It made him a man finally choosing a consequence.
Two days later, investigators recovered a sealed pouch from Paul’s safe.
Inside were printed payment confirmations, an old phone, and a handwritten timeline.
Paul had kept them as insurance against the man he served.
For once, his cowardice had preserved something useful.
Detective Harris interviewed me again.
He asked about my mother’s schedule, the car, the last week of her life.
I told him everything I remembered, even the ordinary things.
The grocery list on the fridge.
The argument over a broken taillight.
Her telling me we’d be okay soon.
He didn’t promise an arrest.
He said the old crash file had been reopened and specialists would review the new evidence.
Rachel also hired a forensic accountant for the trust claim.
The account trail showed regular payments into companies controlled by Carlo, supported by forged family receipts.
One company had paid Paul the week my mother died.
Another paid Bellori’s payroll expenses.
My stolen inheritance had helped fund the place where I begged for extra shifts.
I was still trying to absorb that when Rachel’s phone rang.
Carlo wanted a meeting.
He claimed to have a signed agreement proving my mother had accepted a settlement.
He would show it only to me, at Bellori, with Salvatore present.
“Why there?” I asked.
May you like
Mateo looked toward the rain-dark window.
“Because he still thinks that’s where you take orders.”
