Chapter 12
The Relief Trust became Vincent’s first responsibility.
Not Helena.
Not Dominic.
The people who had actually been harmed.
Independent auditors calculated the missing funds, lost investment growth, and unpaid obligations.
Vincent sold two personal properties and a minority interest in a legitimate logistics company to cover the immediate deficit while civil recovery actions proceeded.
Dominic’s construction company was sold under court supervision.
Most employees kept their jobs under the acquiring company.
The proceeds went first to secured creditors, injured-worker obligations, and restitution.
Dominic lost nearly everything he had built.
He signed the documents anyway.
Vincent attended no signing.
Their relationship had become something neither man knew how to name.
Dominic was still the cousin who grew up beside him.
Still the man who had once protected Vincent during a shooting twenty years earlier.
Still the man who had knowingly prepared Vincent’s funeral before Vincent was dead.
All three facts existed at once.
Helena finally requested a private meeting with Vincent.
Her attorney allowed it under strict conditions.
They sat across from each other in a monitored conference room.
She looked older.
“You destroyed the family to prove you were right.”
Vincent studied her.
“No.”
“You opened everything.”
“Yes.”
“You let them take Dominic’s company.”
“It wasn’t mine to save.”
Her eyes hardened.
“You sound righteous now.”
“I’m not.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“I spent thirty years teaching everyone around me that protecting the family came before telling outsiders the truth. You used the rule better than I did.”
Helena looked away.
“That isn’t an apology.”
“No.”
He stood.
May you like
“It’s responsibility.”
For once, Helena had nothing to say.
