Chapter 13 - The Last Walk
I didn’t argue with Vittorio.
I didn’t promise anything.
I kept him talking while I walked into the kitchen and signaled to the officer assigned outside.
“What do you want from him?”
“What belongs to my family.”
“The records are already copied.”
“This isn’t about records anymore.”
His voice had changed.
The charm was gone.
“Tell him four o’clock. He’ll understand.”
The line went dead.
By noon, Ward had the call details, Dante had been informed, and I had made one thing clear.
“Sophia stays here.”
Nobody disagreed.
Dante called me before leaving to meet investigators.
“I’m not going in alone.”
“You’d better not.”
“There’s something else.”
I waited.
“I’ve authorized full access to the business records. Not just the foundation.”
I leaned against the kitchen counter.
“What will they find?”
“Things I should have stopped. Things I approved.”
I closed my eyes.
“Will you go to prison?”
“My lawyer says that’s possible.”
“And you’re still giving them the records?”
“Yes.”
For a long moment, I could only hear the kitchen clock.
Then I said, “That’s what telling the truth looks like.”
At 3:48, Dante entered the estate with the investigators’ knowledge and under a plan I wasn’t allowed to hear in detail.
I was glad.
I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life knowing how close he had come to dying.
What happened inside came to me later through statements, recordings, and Dante’s own careful account.
Vittorio was waiting in Carmela’s sitting room.
The curtains were open.
The photograph stood on the table.
“You brought strangers into our home,” he told Dante.
“You brought them into Rosa’s.”
Vittorio laughed without humor.
“All this because of a maid and her kid.”
“No,” Dante said. “Because of you.”
His brother stood.
For the first time, he looked older than his expensive suits had always allowed.
“Everything I did kept this family standing.”
“You stole from children.”
“I moved money.”
“You framed Marco.”
“He was weak.”
Dante took a step toward him.
Then stopped.
“And Carmela?”
Vittorio looked at the photograph.
“She should have stayed out of it.”
Outside the room, a floorboard shifted.
Vittorio heard it.
His eyes snapped toward the door.
“You didn’t come alone.”
“No.”
May you like
Vittorio reached inside his coat.
And Dante finally understood why his brother had chosen a room with only one ordinary exit.
