Chapter 12
The outside agreement destroyed Marcus’s remaining support.
Not because the capos suddenly became moral.
Because betrayal of internal power was one thing.
Selling operational routes to outsiders was another.
Men who tolerated forged orders now stopped answering his calls.
One removed Marcus’s capo pin personally.
Marcus stared at it in the man’s hand.
“You were promoted because of me.”
The capo’s eyes remained still.
“No.”
A pause.
“I was promoted because your mother told Lorenzo I was ready.”
That sentence made Marcus look toward Victoria.
Another invisible debt.
Another reminder that even his authority had been partly built through her.
He laughed.
Bitterly.
“So none of it was mine.”
Victoria’s face tightened.
“That isn't true.”
He turned on her.
“Which part?”
She had no answer fast enough.
Marcus walked away.
Not free.
Just out of that room.
Formal restrictions remained.
Attorneys were already involved.
The evidence had left family hands.
Lorenzo then called Joseph Marino.
This time, he asked him to come in person.
Joseph entered the estate after three years away.
He stopped beneath the same portrait that had hidden Isabella.
His eyes moved toward the exposed panel.
“Looks different.”
Lorenzo stood several feet away.
“It was.”
Joseph looked at him.
Lorenzo’s breathing slowed.
“I believed an order because it sounded like me.”
Joseph said nothing.
“I removed you without letting you speak.”
Still nothing.
“I was wrong.”
Joseph’s eyes narrowed.
“You want forgiveness?”
“No.”
That answer surprised him.
Lorenzo continued.
“I want the record corrected.”
Joseph’s mouth tightened.
“You think a record gives me three years back?”
“No.”
Silence.
Lorenzo did not fill it.
Finally Joseph asked:
“What happens to Victoria?”
Lorenzo looked toward the staircase.
“She answers for what she did.”
“And Marcus?”
“The same.”
Joseph studied him.
“And you?”
Lorenzo’s face changed.
That was the harder question.
Joseph continued.
“You didn't build the voice machine.”
“No.”
“You didn't lock your daughter away.”
“No.”
“You did build a family where nobody wanted to tell you your own aunt was becoming another boss.”
Lorenzo’s hands went still.
Joseph stepped closer.
“You want to fix the record?”
His voice lowered.
“Start there.”
He left.
Lorenzo remained beneath the portrait.
Then Isabella’s small footsteps approached.
She was carrying the black collar inside a paper bag.
Lorenzo crouched.
“What are you doing with that?”
She looked toward the hidden passage.
“Can we throw it away?”
“Yes.”
She hesitated.
“After I show Mommy?”
Lorenzo’s face changed.
Isabella’s mother had been dead six years.
The child was too young to remember Amelia.
Lorenzo stared.
“What did you say?”
Isabella frowned.
“The lady in the picture.”
She pointed toward the passage.
“She’s in there too.”
May you like
Lorenzo’s blood went cold.
There was another image of Amelia hidden behind the wall.
