Chapter 9
Alessio canceled the council invite.
Then changed his mind.
“Restore it.”
Mateo looked up.
“Boss?”
“Same time.”
Gabriele understood first.
“You want everyone there.”
“Yes.”
Trent’s expression sharpened.
“You think you're going to expose me.”
Alessio looked at him.
“No.”
A pause.
“I’m giving you the room you wanted.”
Trent smiled.
Confident again.
That was useful.
For the next day, nobody left the estate without security oversight.
Sylvia moved into Alessio’s guest wing.
Her doctor replaced the sling and documented the bruising.
For the first time in months, she slept behind a door she could lock from the inside.
Alessio sat outside the room for almost an hour.
He did not enter.
Eventually Sylvia opened the door.
“You can stop guarding it.”
Alessio looked up.
Her voice was soft.
“I know he can't come in.”
He stood.
She studied him.
“You're angry.”
“Yes.”
“At him?”
“Yes.”
“At yourself?”
That took longer.
“Yes.”
Sylvia leaned against the doorframe.
“You didn't know.”
Alessio looked at her injured arm.
“I knew you stopped coming to Sunday dinner.”
Her eyes dropped.
“I knew you stopped laughing around him.”
Silence.
“I knew he answered questions for you.”
Sylvia’s fingers tightened around the doorframe.
Alessio’s voice became quieter.
“I decided marriage was private.”
She looked at him.
“You decided I would tell you if it was serious.”
“Yes.”
“I tried.”
His face changed.
Sylvia reminded him.
Three months earlier she had asked whether she could stay at his home for a while.
Alessio had asked if she and Trent were fighting.
She said yes.
He told her married people needed to learn how to argue without running back to family.
The memory hit him.
He closed his eyes.
Sylvia continued.
“I never asked again.”
Alessio said nothing.
There was no defense worth offering.
Then she reached into her cardigan pocket.
A small flash drive.
“I took this from Trent before he broke my arm.”
Alessio looked at her.
“You had it all night?”
“I was scared to tell you until I knew what was on it.”
Her hand shook.
He did not take it immediately.
“What do you think is on it?”
“Names.”
“Whose?”
“People he said would stand with him.”
The drive contained a list of capos.
Payments.
Promises.
Private grievances against Alessio.
Four names were familiar.
One hurt.
Gabriele Costa.
Alessio looked up.
Gabriele stared at the screen.
“I never agreed to this.”
But beside his name was a transfer.
$640,000.
From Helen.
To a private account associated with Gabriele.
Helen’s face turned white.
Gabriele looked at her.
“What did you do?”
She could barely speak.
“That money wasn't for you.”
Alessio’s eyes narrowed.
“Then who?”
Helen looked toward Trent.
He smiled.
The $640,000 was not a payoff to Gabriele.
May you like
It was money Helen had quietly set aside for Trent.
And Trent had routed it through his biological father’s account to make Gabriele look like a conspirator.
