Chapter 17 - Vanessa Comes Back
Luca did not welcome Vanessa warmly.
“Why are you here?”
“I asked permission.”
“Not mine.”
“Federal permission.”
She handed him the envelope.
Inside was an invitation.
Sofia Bellini was getting married.
Small ceremony.
Lake Como.
One month later.
Luca looked confused.
“Why would I care?”
“Because the groom’s name is Daniel Caldwell.”
Rachel’s brother.
The families were connecting again.
Bellini.
Caldwell.
Perhaps innocently.
Perhaps not.
Vanessa suspected Sofia was being manipulated.
We investigated.
Daniel was clean.
But his business partner was not.
Samuel Price.
Peter Russo’s false identity.
Except Peter was standing beside us.
Someone else had used his alias.
Identity theft within identity theft.
The trail led to a shell corporation.
Then to one person.
Judge Edward Hanley.
The judge who had authorized Anthony Russo’s transfer shortly before Anthony was murdered.
Hanley had spent twenty years protecting Carlo.
He was the final institutional shield.
And now he controlled millions in frozen Bellini assets.
He also had access to the restitution trust.
The contract on Luca had not come from Thomas.
Thomas had admitted writing the letter.
But he denied paying the assassin.
Hanley had.
The judge planned to kill Luca, frame Thomas, then move the remaining funds offshore.
Federal investigators prepared a case.
Hanley discovered it.
Then Ryan vanished.
My brother’s phone was found near campus.
A message followed.
BRING LUCA.
NO POLICE.
I stared at Luca.
“No.”
He knew exactly what I meant.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“That’s my brother.”
“And mine now.”
The words stopped me.
He had never called Ryan that.
But there was no time.
The meeting location was an unfinished skyscraper downtown.
Hanley waited on the forty-third floor.
Ryan was alive.
Tied to a chair.
Hanley stood near the open concrete edge.
He smiled at Luca.
“Your father ruined everything.”
“No.”
Luca moved slowly.
“My father finally understood what he had built.”
Hanley raised a gun.
“He became weak.”
I stepped from behind a column.
“So did mine?”
Hanley looked at me.
“Michael Sullivan was a maintenance worker who forgot his place.”
That sentence destroyed any last doubt.
He had known my father.
Personally.
“You ordered his death.”
Hanley smiled.
“I signed the warrant that kept the investigation quiet.”
My phone was recording.
Federal agents below heard every word.
Hanley realized too late.
He grabbed Ryan.
Luca moved.
Ryan dropped to the floor.
The gun fired.
Luca fell.
I screamed.
Agents stormed the floor.
Hanley was arrested.
I crawled toward Luca.
Blood spread across his shirt.
His eyes opened.
“Emma.”
“Don’t talk.”
He almost smiled.
“You still sound like staff.”
“Shut up.”
May you like
His eyes closed.
And for one terrifying second, I thought Bruno had found me a brother only for me to lose him four months later.
