Chapter 14
Carmela asked to see Paolo alone.
He refused.
They met with attorneys present at the Westchester estate.
The terrace doors remained closed.
Carmela noticed.
“You’re afraid of me now?”
“No.”
Paolo sat across from her.
“I don’t trust myself around you.”
The answer hurt her more.
Daniel explained that the evidence would be turned over in full.
Carmela listened without interruption.
Then she looked at Paolo.
“Your father would never have done this.”
“Probably not.”
“He would have handled it inside the family.”
“Yes.”
“And you think that made him weak?”
“No.”
Paolo paused.
“I think it made all of us believe family was something you could use to avoid consequences.”
Carmela removed one pearl earring and placed it on the table.
A nervous habit Paolo remembered from childhood.
“I was trying to save Talia.”
“You chose one child by trying to bury another.”
“You would have sent your sister to prison.”
“I hadn’t reported her.”
“You would have.”
“Maybe.”
Carmela looked toward the window.
“And Elise?”
“What about her?”
“She’ll leave you eventually.”
Paolo’s expression barely changed.
“Maybe.”
Carmela looked surprised.
“You’re willing to lose your mother and sister for a woman who might walk away?”
“No.”
Paolo leaned forward.
“I’m willing to lose anyone who thinks loving them requires me to let them hurt my wife or daughter.”
Carmela's face tightened.
For once, she could not turn motherhood into authority.
Talia arrived twenty minutes later to sign her final cooperation statement.
She did not look at Carmela.
Carmela whispered her name.
Talia stopped.
“Tell them Gavin lied.”
Talia closed her eyes.
“Mom.”
“For the family.”
Talia finally turned.
“This is what you keep calling family.”
Carmela said nothing.
Talia signed.
Then Paolo signed the authorization releasing the remaining corporate records investigators had requested.
Once Daniel transmitted them, Paolo could no longer decide later that protecting the Ventresca name mattered more.
May you like
He pressed send.
Carmela watched him do it.
