Chapter 12
The confrontation happened in the estate library.
Not at a gala.
Not before capos.
Only the people who needed to be there.
Raffaele.
Vanessa.
Grant.
Adrian.
Caroline and the separate attorneys.
Lily remained upstairs with Denise.
Grant looked at Adrian first.
“This should never have involved you.”
Adrian laughed once.
“You had guys waiting to jump me.”
“They were supposed to restrain you.”
“You knew what Vanessa was going to do to Lily.”
Grant’s eyes shifted.
“That got out of hand.”
Vanessa turned toward him.
“You told me to make him react.”
“I didn’t tell you to put the kid on her knees.”
“No. I thought of that.”
She swallowed.
“But you laughed when I told you.”
Grant looked away.
Raffaele asked the question that mattered.
“Why didn’t you stop after Matteo died?”
Grant looked almost offended.
“Because I was drowning.”
He explained without drama.
Business loans.
Bad leases.
Employees he refused to fire.
A failed expansion.
Debt he hid because men in the Moretti world were supposed to look successful even while collapsing.
“Matteo showed me there was room in the invoices,” Grant said.
“Matteo showed you mercy,” Raffaele replied.
“And mercy kept me alive.”
“So you turned it into permission.”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
“Easy for you to say. Nobody ever lets you fail.”
Raffaele almost laughed.
“Everybody lets me fail. They’re just afraid to tell me.”
That quieted the room.
Adrian watched him.
Vanessa rubbed her wedding ring.
Then she removed it.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
Raffaele looked at her.
“I know.”
“I want supervised access to Lily someday.”
“No.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“Ever?”
“I said someday is not mine to promise.”
That answer hurt her.
It was supposed to.
Lily was not a reward for confession.
Grant leaned back.
“So what do you want?”
Raffaele placed the settlement offer on the table.
“I want you to stop thinking repayment buys silence.”
May you like
Grant looked toward his lawyer.
For the first time, the man who had built every defense around family loyalty understood that the family itself was no longer protecting him.
