Chapter 4
Joseph Marino answered Lorenzo’s call on the third ring.
Silence first.
Then:
“What do you want?”
Lorenzo sat alone in his study.
His breathing was slow.
“I owe you an answer.”
Joseph laughed once.
No warmth.
“You owed me one three years ago.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
“What did you find?”
Another silence.
Longer.
Then Joseph explained.
Marcus had created duplicate vendor invoices connected to estate protection.
Not huge thefts.
Not at first.
A few thousand dollars.
Then tens of thousands.
Joseph confronted Victoria because she supervised household accounts.
Victoria told him to stop digging.
He refused.
One week later, an audio order carrying Lorenzo’s voice removed him.
Joseph lost everything.
Lorenzo’s hand tightened against the desk.
“Why didn't you come to me?”
Joseph’s answer cut cleanly.
“I thought I had.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
Joseph continued.
“That’s what made the trick work.”
The call ended ten minutes later.
Lorenzo remained seated.
Anthony stood near the window.
“You all right?”
“No.”
Anthony waited.
Lorenzo looked at him.
“But I’m listening.”
That was new.
Downstairs, Victoria began working the room.
Quiet conversations.
Old loyalties.
Reminders.
She had spent years comforting widows, arranging medical payments, attending funerals and solving problems Lorenzo often delegated.
Her power was social.
Marcus’s was operational.
Lorenzo’s was absolute only when people still believed his authority reached everything.
Now they knew it had been impersonated.
Several capos began asking whether Lorenzo’s recent orders were real.
That uncertainty was poison.
Victoria knew it.
At the emergency council, she sat opposite Lorenzo.
Confident again.
“You want to expose this?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll destroy confidence in every Bellandi order from the last four years.”
Lorenzo’s jaw tightened.
She leaned forward.
“Businesses will challenge contracts. Men will challenge removals. Enemies will question whether you control your own house.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“No.”
Her eyes remained steady.
“I’m explaining what truth costs.”
For a moment, Victoria had the room.
Then Isabella appeared in the doorway holding Anthony’s hand.
Lorenzo immediately stood.
“She should be upstairs.”
Anthony looked uncomfortable.
“She wouldn’t sleep.”
Isabella’s eyes found Victoria.
Her small shoulders tightened.
Lorenzo saw.
He walked over.
Before he could speak, Isabella held something out.
A folded piece of paper.
“I took it.”
Victoria’s face changed.
“What?”
Isabella pointed toward the hidden passage.
“From the box.”
Lorenzo opened the paper.
It was not a financial document.
Not a security order.
A list of names.
Fourteen senior family members.
Beside each:
LOYAL.
UNCERTAIN.
REMOVE.
Joseph’s name had been marked REMOVE.
Three others were already dead from natural causes or accidents.
Lorenzo’s name appeared at the bottom.
Beside it—
UNSTABLE.
May you like
And underneath, in Victoria’s handwriting:
IF HE REFUSES TRANSITION, MOVE TO PHASE TWO.
