Chapter 10
Lydia arrived the next afternoon.
Alive.
Thinner than I remembered.
She walked into the Rinaldi estate and stopped when she saw Erin.
Her face collapsed.
“Daniel’s girl.”
Erin stood.
“You knew my father?”
Lydia started crying.
That answered enough.
I gave them time.
Then we sat together.
Charles was not in the room.
Lydia requested that.
I respected it.
“What happened eight years ago?”
She looked at the black ledger.
“Daniel found the ghost accounts.”
“Ghost accounts?”
“Support accounts attached to families who no longer received support.”
I understood.
Money continued moving under their names.
Families saw nothing.
Rocco and Charles used the accounts as private channels.
“How much?”
She shook her head.
“Enough.”
Not important.
“What did Daniel do?”
“He confronted Rocco.”
“We heard part of it.”
Lydia’s face changed.
“You have the recording?”
“Yes.”
She closed her eyes.
“Then Daniel protected the truth better than I did.”
Erin leaned forward.
“What happened to him?”
Lydia looked at her.
Not me.
“Your father was supposed to drive Vittorio Rinaldi that night.”
My father.
“Yes.”
“But Rocco changed the route.”
My chest tightened.
“Why?”
“To put Daniel near the rival crew.”
Erin went pale.
“He set Dad up?”
Lydia nodded.
“Rocco expected Daniel to die looking guilty.”
Silence.
Everything fit.
An ambush on a compromised route.
Daniel protects my father.
Dies.
Rocco later says Daniel leaked information.
The dead man cannot defend himself.
Then his support account becomes free to exploit.
I felt sick.
“What about Charles?”
Lydia looked toward the door.
“He knew the route was changed.”
“Before?”
“Yes.”
That mattered.
Not mastermind.
Complicit.
“Did he know Daniel would die?”
“I don’t know.”
Honest.
Good.
Erin started crying quietly.
“My dad died protecting the man who believed he betrayed him.”
I closed my eyes.
My father had mourned Daniel.
But accepted Rocco’s explanation afterward.
Another wound built from hierarchy.
Lydia reached across the table.
“Your father never betrayed anyone.”
May you like
Erin nodded through tears.
For eight years, that was the truth she deserved first.
