Chapter 10 - THE MAN WHO NEVER LEFTDante drove through Chicago at a hundred miles per hour.
Vincenzo called the estate repeatedly.
No answer.
Elena remained on speaker.
“I’m upstairs with Matteo.”
“Lock the door.”
“I did.”
“Furniture against it.”
“Already.”
Dante looked at Vincenzo.
“She always did plan ahead.”
“Focus.”
They reached the estate.
Front gates open.
No guards.
Dante’s stomach dropped.
He entered through the kitchen.
A body lay near the pantry.
Alive.
Unconscious.
Vincenzo checked.
“Drugged.”
Dante heard voices from the ballroom.
They moved quietly.
Renzo stood near the fireplace with a pistol aimed at Isabella.
Vittorio sat in a chair beside him.
Marco stood near the opposite wall.
Dante stopped in the doorway.
Every major liar in his life had assembled.
Renzo turned.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
Dante raised his gun.
“Yet here I am.”
Vincenzo aimed at Marco.
Marco looked offended.
“I’m not the villain tonight.”
Vincenzo replied, “Statistically, you’re still competitive.”
Isabella glared at Renzo.
“Tell him.”
Renzo’s face looked exhausted.
Dante held up the ledger page.
“Five million dollars.”
Renzo saw it.
His expression changed.
“Vale gave you that.”
“Yes.”
“It’s forged.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because if I wanted you dead, you would have died in prison.”
The words landed.
Dante lowered the gun one inch.
“Explain.”
Renzo slowly lowered his pistol from Isabella.
“She was about to run.”
“I was going to retrieve evidence.”
“You were going to Vale.”
Isabella shook her head.
“No.”
Vittorio shouted, “Enough lies!”
The old man stood.
“I am tired of watching this family destroy itself through secrets.”
Dante laughed bitterly.
“Interesting timing.”
Vittorio ignored him.
“Renzo. Tell him about the payment.”
Renzo looked at Dante.
“Vale paid me five million to arrange your murder in prison.”
Elena gasped from the upstairs landing.
Dante looked up.
She stood there without Matteo.
Good.
Renzo continued.
“I accepted.”
Dante’s face became cold.
Vincenzo raised his gun again.
Renzo held up a hand.
“I accepted so Vale would believe it.”
Dante said nothing.
“The money funded protection around you.”
Dante frowned.
“What protection?”
“Cell assignments. Guards. Informants. Medical staff. Every time someone tried to move you to another wing, I paid someone to stop it.”
Dante remembered.
Transfers canceled without explanation.
Men who threatened him suddenly moved.
A guard once warned him not to eat dinner because the kitchen had made a mistake.
He had assumed prison politics.
It had been Renzo.
“Why not tell me?”
“Because men behave differently when they know they’re protected.”
Dante almost laughed.
“I spent six years believing you forgot me.”
Renzo’s voice broke.
“I visited the parking lot every month.”
Dante stared.
“What?”
“I couldn’t go inside. Vale watched visitors. So I sat outside.”
For six years.
Dante lowered the gun.
Vincenzo did not.
“What about Elena’s pregnancy?”
Renzo looked ashamed.
“I knew.”
Dante’s anger returned.
“And said nothing.”
“Lucia’s instructions.”
Dante froze.
“My dead mother’s instructions?”
Renzo nodded.
“She left contingency letters before she died.”
Dante laughed with disbelief.
“Apparently dead people run this family.”
“Lucia wrote that if anyone ever used a child of yours as leverage, the child’s identity had to be concealed until the threat was gone.”
Dante looked at Elena.
“She never knew she was speaking about Matteo.”
“No.”
Dante rubbed his face.
“So Isabella followed my mother’s order?”
“Partly.”
Isabella looked away.
Renzo added, “Then she took it too far.”
“There it is.”
Vittorio stepped forward.
“Vale is the threat.”
Marco nodded.
“For once, my brother and I agree.”
Dante looked around.
“How convenient that every liar now points at the absent man.”
A voice came from behind him.
“Then perhaps I should join you.”
Thomas Vale stood in the doorway.
Four armed men behind him.
Everyone raised weapons.
Vale smiled.
“Put them down.”
Dante laughed.
“You walked into my house.”
“No.”
Vale looked around.
“I built this house.”
Vittorio’s face darkened.
“You financed one renovation.”
“I financed your first union contract. Your first alderman. Your first riverfront purchase. Your police relationships. Your judges.”
Vittorio whispered, “You used us.”
“I professionalized you.”
Marco laughed.
“You always did enjoy euphemisms.”
Vale looked at him.
“And you always confused recklessness with courage.”
Dante stepped between them.
“What do you want?”
Vale’s eyes settled on him.
“The Bellandi trust.”
“Why?”
“Because your grandfather built a financial empire without understanding politics. Your mother inherited it without understanding power. I understood both.”
“So you killed her.”
Vale did not deny it.
The room changed.
Dante’s face became empty.
Elena whispered his name.
Vale continued.
“She was going to remove me as trustee.”
“You killed my mother.”
“She made a choice.”
Dante raised his gun.
Vale’s guards aimed.
Elena screamed.
“Dante!”
Matteo appeared at the top of the staircase.
Everyone froze.
He rubbed his eyes.
“Mommy?”
Dante lowered his gun instantly.
Vale looked up.
For the first time, something resembling genuine emotion entered his face.
“So that is the boy.”
Dante moved in front of the staircase.
“Don’t look at him.”
Vale smiled.
“You cannot protect children by hiding the world from them.”
“No. But I can protect him from you.”
Vale’s eyes moved to Isabella.
“You tried that once.”
Isabella stood straighter.
“And I failed.”
“Yes.”
She slowly reached into her pocket.
Vale’s guards reacted.
“Careful.”
Isabella removed a small recorder.
“I learned.”
Vale’s face changed.
Isabella smiled.
“Everything you just said was transmitted to federal investigators.”
Silence.
Vale laughed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
Blue and red lights appeared beyond the windows.
Sirens approached.
Vale’s smile vanished.
Renzo lifted his gun.
“Believe them.”
Vale’s men panicked.
One fired.
Chaos erupted.
Dante pushed Elena toward the stairs.
“Matteo!”
Vincenzo tackled one gunman.
Marco fired at another.
Vittorio dragged Isabella behind the table.
Vale ran.
Dante followed.
Through the kitchen.
Across the rain-soaked terrace.
Vale reached a waiting car.
Dante tackled him into the mud.
The older man struck surprisingly hard.
Dante hit him once.
Twice.
Vale laughed through blood.
“You think this changes what you are?”
Dante raised his fist.
Vale smiled.
“A mafia heir.”
Dante looked toward the house.
Through the glass, Matteo stood in Elena’s arms.
Watching.
Dante lowered his fist.
“No.”
Police poured onto the terrace.
He stood.
“I’m his father.”
Agents dragged Vale away.
May you like
Dante remained in the rain.
For the first time in his life, he understood that those were not the same thing.
