Chapter 12
Rocco had assumed August created the pattern.
Matteo disagreed.
“August is ambitious.”
“Yes.”
“He is cruel.”
“Yes.”
“He killed Thomas.”
“Yes.”
“He caused Black Harbor.”
“Yes.”
Rocco stared.
“Then what part am I missing?”
“He had help.”
“From?”
“Your father.”
Rocco almost laughed.
“Carlo again.”
“Not willingly.”
Matteo moved toward the dead fireplace.
“There was someone Carlo feared.”
“My father feared no one.”
“That is the story we were raised on.”
Rocco stopped.
Fair.
“Name.”
“Gabriel Bellacorte.”
Rocco frowned.
“No such person.”
“Exactly.”
Matteo looked at him.
“Carlo’s older half-brother.”
Silence.
“Our grandfather had another son?”
“Yes.”
“Why erased?”
“Because Gabriel wanted the family.”
“Didn’t everyone?”
“No.”
Matteo’s voice darkened.
“Gabriel wanted families to eat themselves.”
Rocco almost smiled.
“Poetic.”
“Accurate.”
Gabriel had never become a public Bellacorte.
He worked through drivers, fixers, advisers.
He discovered August’s resentment when August was young.
Fed it.
Later used Leonard’s father.
Thomas.
Carlo.
Everyone became an instrument.
“Is he alive?”
Matteo nodded.
Rocco stared.
“How old?”
“Eighty-one.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know he is alive?”
“Because Elena saw him.”
Rocco stopped breathing.
“When?”
“Two days before she died.”
“What did he want?”
“Noah.”
Rocco’s expression changed instantly.
“He was newborn.”
“Three months.”
“Why?”
“Not to kill him.”
“Then?”
“To know whether you had changed.”
Rocco stared.
Matteo continued.
“Gabriel believed every Bellacorte boss eventually loved one person enough to become controllable.”
“For me, Noah.”
“Before Noah, Elena.”
“And you?”
Matteo looked toward Maria.
Rocco understood.
“Maria.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you stayed away.”
“Yes.”
“And your daughter.”
“Yes.”
Rocco looked at sleeping Noah.
A family of men calling love weakness because they feared what it could cost.
“What does Gabriel want now?”
Matteo shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Then why did Bianca move Noah?”
“August wanted control of the household.”
“And Gabriel?”
“Maybe he wanted August to try.”
Rocco frowned.
“To expose him?”
“Maybe.”
“Where is Leonard?”
“Searching for Gabriel.”
“Since when?”
“Three years.”
Rocco stared.
Matteo continued.
“Elena brought him proof Gabriel existed.”
“Then why hide that from me?”
“Because Leonard thought you would go after Gabriel immediately.”
“I would have.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Gabriel wanted that.”
Rocco laughed.
Of course.
Everyone knew exactly what Rocco would do.
He hated that predictability more than insult.
“Then what do we do?”
Matteo smiled faintly.
“Something nobody expects.”
“What?”
“Go home.”
Rocco stared.
“That’s your plan?”
“Yes.”
“August disappeared.”
“Let him.”
“Leonard’s moving.”
“Let him.”
“Gabriel wants my son.”
“Keep Noah safe.”
“And sit?”
Matteo looked at him.
“You have spent your whole life proving action is power.”
“Sometimes it is.”
“Yes.”
“But sometimes staying still forces the hidden man to move.”
Rocco hated the idea.
That was why it might work.
They returned to the estate before dawn.
Noah slept in Rocco’s arms.
Maria rode with Matteo in another vehicle.
For the first time in twenty-two years, the brothers entered the Bellacorte house together.
Bianca stood in the foyer.
She saw Matteo.
Went white.
“You.”
Matteo stared.
“You look like Thomas.”
Her eyes filled.
“Did you know him?”
“Yes.”
“Was he innocent?”
Matteo answered carefully.
“Of Black Harbor.”
She closed her eyes.
“Of everything?”
“No.”
Rocco watched.
Again.
No saints.
Matteo continued.
“Your father helped Leonard’s father move against Carlo.”
Bianca opened her eyes.
“Why?”
“Because he believed Carlo was becoming dangerous.”
“Was he?”
“Yes.”
Bianca looked at Rocco.
He did not defend his father.
Matteo continued.
“Thomas made choices.”
“So did Rocco.”
“Yes.”
Rocco accepted it.
Bianca’s voice shook.
“Then who deserves revenge?”
Matteo looked at her.
“That question ruined twenty-two years of my life.”
Silence.
“You decide who deserves consequence.”
“Not who deserves your entire future.”
Bianca looked toward Noah asleep against Rocco.
For the first time, she cried.
Not for herself.
“I hurt him.”
“Yes,” Rocco said.
She looked at him.
He did not soften it.
“You did.”
Bianca removed the engagement ring from her purse.
Placed it on the hall table.
“I came to make you lose what I lost.”
Rocco looked at the ring.
“And?”
“I almost became August.”
Rocco’s voice remained cold.
“Almost?”
Her face tightened.
“You’re right.”
She nodded.
“I became him for that child.”
That was the first honest thing she had said about Noah.
Rocco looked toward Matteo.
“What now?”
Before Matteo answered, every light in the east wing went out.
One second later, a bell rang beneath the house.
The old council chamber.
Someone had opened it.
May you like
Rocco looked toward the stairs.
August was back.
