Chapter 10
I removed every Castellano emblem from the collection letters.
In front of the business owners.
One by one.
Not because paper mattered.
Because symbols do.
Dominic used my crest to make theft look like command.
So I made sure everybody watched me strip it away.
Then I returned every original deed and agreement I could identify.
Daniel’s bakery first.
He stared at the document.
“What do I owe?”
“Nothing.”
He frowned.
“I’m not asking for charity.”
“Good.”
I looked at him.
“Because this isn’t charity.”
It was restitution.
Different thing.
The businesses had paid money under false authority. I could not undo years of fear with a speech, but I could stop pretending the loss belonged to them.
Dominic watched from the far side of the lobby.
His anger had changed.
No longer fear.
Resentment.
“You’re paying strangers with family money.”
I turned.
“That money came from strangers.”
He said nothing.
Maeve was sitting on the floor near the lobby desk drawing an airplane on club stationery.
She looked up.
“Daddy gets oven?”
Daniel laughed despite himself.
“Yes.”
I told Antonio to return it that afternoon.
Maeve nodded as if justice had been completed.
Maybe in her world, it had.
Then she walked toward me and held out one coin.
The same coin.
I recognized it.
“I thought I told you to keep that.”
She nodded.
“I did.”
“Then why are you giving it back?”
“For bread.”
I almost smiled.
“You’re selling me bread now?”
She looked serious.
“Yes.”
Daniel covered his face.
The lobby laughed softly.
Not at her.
With her.
That difference mattered.
I took the coin.
Then gave it to Daniel.
“One roll.”
He played along.
“Expensive.”
Maeve shook her head.
“Good bread.”
For the first time since I entered the club in that wheelchair, the place felt less like a monument to Castellano power and more like a room with actual people inside it.
Then Antonio approached quietly.
“We found Victor’s old marina box.”
My attention shifted.
Inside were two things.
Sofia’s bracelet.
And a cassette recorder.
Victor had kept whatever happened that night.
Maybe guilt.
Maybe insurance.
May you like
Maybe both.
The past had just decided it was not finished with us yet.
