Chapter 20
Ava stopped going to school for three days.
Not because Matteo ordered it.
Because she asked.
“I don’t want everyone staring at me.”
The photograph of the crest had spread before maintenance removed it.
Parents searched the Bellini name.
Children heard adults talking.
By lunch, Ava had received messages asking whether her father was really a gangster.
Another child asked whether she had bodyguards hidden in the trees.
One asked whether Dominic was secretly her second father.
That question hurt most.
Helena’s rehearsal had survived long enough to become gossip.
Teresa met with the school.
Matteo attended.
He did not demand names of every child involved.
He asked what the school could realistically control.
The principal answered carefully.
“We can stop harassment. We cannot prevent students from knowing public information about your conviction.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
Ava sat beside him.
“What about the thing on the sidewalk?”
“We are increasing exterior cameras and limiting access during school hours.”
“Do I need security?”
Matteo looked at the principal.
Then at Teresa.
Then back at Ava.
“What do you want?”
“I want someone there if Carlo comes.”
“That’s reasonable.”
“I don’t want three men following me.”
“Also reasonable.”
They hired one licensed security professional approved by the school.
Plain clothes.
No Bellini connections.
No instructions to obey Matteo above school policy.
Ava returned Monday.
The staring lasted most of the morning.
At lunch, a boy named Tyler sat across from her.
“My dad says your family killed people.”
Ava froze.
Her therapist had prepared her for questions.
Preparation felt very different when mashed potatoes were involved.
“My dad did bad things and went to prison.”
Tyler looked disappointed by the lack of mystery.
“Did he kill people?”
“I don’t talk about his case at lunch.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m eating.”
The girl beside Ava laughed.
Tyler eventually changed the subject to soccer.
The world did not end.
After school, however, the security professional stopped a man near the parent pickup lane.
He carried identification issued under the name Vincent Costa.
His real name was Joseph Ventresca.
Carlo’s nephew.
Joseph claimed Teresa had authorized him to collect Ava because Matteo had become “temporarily unavailable.”
The language hit like ice.
Temporarily unavailable.
The same phrase Helena had used in the forged preschool form seven years earlier.
The school called Teresa directly.
She denied everything.
Police questioned Joseph outside the building while Ava remained inside.
No one allowed him near her.
The system worked because this time someone verified.
Joseph insisted he had only been asked to drive Ava to see Dominic.
Dominic was furious when Matteo called.
“I didn’t know.”
“Carlo is using your name.”
“I know.”
“You need to decide what you’re going to do about that.”
Dominic went silent.
Matteo continued.
“Six years ago you kept saying Helena told you things and you believed her. You don’t get to stand beside another person’s plan and wait until it becomes too real.”
The phrase landed exactly where Matteo intended.
Dominic understood.
“What do you want?”
“I want every person from those continuity meetings. Every name. Every company. Every place they gather.”
“So you can destroy them?”
“No.”
Matteo surprised himself.
“So I can make sure none of them has access to Ava.”
Dominic gave him seventeen names.
Carlo’s was first.
Then Dominic added an eighteenth.
“My own.”
Matteo stared at the phone.
“You’re not part of them anymore.”
“I helped create the expectation that I would be.”
“That isn’t the same.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“But leave it there anyway.”
For the first time, Matteo understood what Dominic was doing.
May you like
Not asking to be declared good.
Refusing to disappear himself from the history that made the danger possible.
