Chapter 12 - BEFORE SHE WAS ELENA ROMANO
My mother finally spoke when we were halfway to Brooklyn.
“Victor is my half brother.”
Anthony stared at her.
I thought I had misheard.
“What?”
“My father had another family before he married your grandmother.”
“Victor’s mother was his first wife.”
“Victor is nine years older than I am.”
Every secret in my family seemed to contain another secret beneath it.
“Why didn’t Dad know?”
“He did.”
“Of course he did.”
I leaned back.
“So Victor wasn’t just an attorney.”
“No.”
“He was family.”
“Technically.”
Anthony shook his head.
“You let him sit at our tables for decades and never told us?”
“He made me promise when your father hired him.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor hated the Rossi family.”
She looked at me.
“He believed my father abandoned his mother.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“And he blamed you?”
“He blamed everyone.”
The money suddenly made more sense.
This was not just greed.
Victor had spent decades inserting himself into the family he resented.
Building dependence.
Moving money.
Controlling secrets.
Punishing people.
“Did Victor ever threaten you?”
“Not directly.”
“That means yes.”
She looked away.
“When you were seventeen, he told me he could destroy Salvatore and leave both of you with nothing.”
“What did you do?”
“I convinced your father to hire him instead.”
Anthony laughed bitterly.
“You invited him closer.”
“I thought control was safer than war.”
The sentence could have described every catastrophic decision in our family history.
My father had hidden Edward.
My mother had hidden Victor.
Anthony had hidden Cecilia’s misconduct.
Carlo had hidden Isabelle’s investigation.
Everybody believed secrecy protected the family.
Instead it gave Victor a home inside it.
We reached the waterfront.
Carlo’s teams positioned themselves several blocks away.
The original ledger pages remained safely elsewhere.
I carried a convincing duplicate.
Anthony waited in the rear vehicle.
I entered alone.
Victor stood under a hanging industrial light.
Marco sat nearby.
His hands were restrained.
Cecilia was across from him.
Victor smiled when he saw me.
“Dominic.”
I noticed the ring.
His thumb touched it.
Olivia had been right.
“You have something of mine.”
“You have two people from my family.”
Victor laughed.
“Marco stopped being yours years ago.”
Marco looked ashamed.
Cecilia stared at me.
She looked terrified.
I held up the blue ledger.
“Let them go.”
“Bring it here.”
“First answer a question.”
His hand touched the ring.
“No games.”
“Why Isabelle?”
His smile faded.
“She would not stop.”
“She discovered the money.”
“She discovered everything.”
“So you caused what happened?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Ring.
Lie.
I moved one step closer.
“You were at the preschool.”
“Yes.”
“You confronted her.”
“Yes.”
“You grabbed her.”
His jaw tightened.
“She was hysterical.”
Ring.
Lie.
“David Bennett intervened.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“You found that recording.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know David was unstable.”
Grace had told me Victor always described people who resisted him as unstable.
Classic Victor.
“What happened after the camera stopped?”
He stared at me.
“Give me the ledger.”
“Tell me.”
Cecilia suddenly spoke.
“He called Marco.”
Victor turned toward her.
“Quiet.”
She kept going.
“Victor called Marco and told him Isabelle was leaving.”
“Shut up.”
Marco lifted his head.
“He told me to delay her.”
I looked at Marco.
“How?”
His voice broke.
“I was supposed to block the exit.”
“Then?”
“I sent someone else.”
Victor shouted.
“Enough.”
I did not look away from Marco.
“Who?”
“A driver.”
“What instructions?”
“Keep her there.”
“And what happened?”
Marco closed his eyes.
“The driver panicked.”
Cecilia began crying.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Victor crossed toward her.
I stepped between them.
“You knew?”
She nodded.
“I knew afterward.”
Anthony emerged from the darkness behind me.
Cecilia stared at him.
“Anthony.”
He looked devastated.
“You knew for fourteen months.”
“I was afraid.”
“You ate dinner with my nieces.”
“I know.”
“You held Nora at Christmas.”
She looked away.
“You watched Dominic bury his wife.”
“I know.”
Anthony’s voice dropped.
“And said nothing.”
Victor moved toward the side exit.
Carlo’s men appeared.
He stopped.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Not my people.
Federal agents.
Victor’s confidence finally disappeared.
He looked at me.
“You called them?”
“No.”
Grace had.
Isabelle’s ledger had reached federal prosecutors forty minutes earlier.
Victor looked toward the doors.
Then smiled again.
“You still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“Isabelle’s death was an accident.”
He touched the ring.
“But David Bennett’s was not.”
The words froze everyone.
May you like
Then he added one final sentence.
“And neither was Salvatore Romano’s.”
