Chapter 7 - VICTORIA’S FATHER
Victoria’s father was Lorenzo Bellacorte.
Adriano remembered the funeral.
Closed coffin.
Lorenzo had supposedly died after a heart attack while traveling overseas.
His widow wore black for a year.
Victoria wore black longer.
Now Gabriel claimed Lorenzo lived.
Adriano began to understand Bellacorte tradition differently.
Death was not always an ending.
Sometimes it was a relocation.
“Where is Lorenzo?” Adriano asked.
Gabriel sat on the edge of the old bed.
“If I knew, I would not be hiding beneath a chapel.”
“Are you hiding?”
“Yes.”
“From him?”
“Partly.”
“Custodian?”
Gabriel smiled.
“You still think one man explains everything.”
Adriano felt irritation rising.
He controlled it.
“Then teach.”
Gabriel studied him.
Maybe looking for Adriano’s father.
Maybe measuring whether he was worth the truth.
“The Custodian was once a position. Mariano held it. Then Lorenzo.”
Lucian went still.
“Victoria never knew.”
Gabriel laughed softly.
“Victoria knew enough.”
Adriano looked at Lucian.
His face suggested genuine surprise.
Interesting.
Gabriel continued.
“Lorenzo became Custodian after Mariano died. Unlike Mariano, he stopped pretending the position served the boss.”
“What did he want?”
“The Bellacorte family without the Bellacorte boss.”
Adriano smiled coldly.
“A contradiction.”
“No. A corporation can lose its president and remain alive. Lorenzo thought family power should work the same.”
“Then why fake his death?”
“Because your father discovered him.”
Adriano’s father had died twelve years earlier.
Lorenzo supposedly died fifteen.
Timeline.
Three years hidden.
“What happened to Nico?”
Gabriel’s expression softened.
“Nico found Lorenzo’s circle first.”
“Was Nico Custodian?”
“No.”
“Then why did my father imprison him?”
“Because Nico refused to say who helped him.”
“Who?”
Gabriel looked toward the wall.
“Margaret.”
The seamstress.
Invisible.
Always near bedrooms, clothes, conversations.
“She helped him escape?”
“Yes.”
“Where did Nico go?”
“With me.”
Adriano took a step closer.
“Where is my brother?”
Gabriel’s eyes met his.
“Dead.”
The word landed differently after so many false deaths.
Adriano did not believe it immediately.
“Body?”
Gabriel nodded.
“I buried him myself.”
“When?”
“Nineteen years ago.”
“Why?”
“He went back for Lorenzo.”
Adriano’s fists tightened.
“And?”
“Lorenzo was waiting.”
“Nico died fighting him?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Nico was betrayed before he reached him.”
“By who?”
Gabriel looked toward Lucian.
Lucian’s face hardened.
“I wasn’t even in the inner circle nineteen years ago.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Not you.”
“Then?”
“Salvatore.”
Adriano closed his eyes.
His uncle again.
“Why?”
“Because your father promised Salvatore he would become consigliere.”
Adriano stared.
Power.
Always power.
Gabriel continued.
“But Salvatore regretted it.”
“Convenient.”
“He helped me bury Nico.”
“Where?”
“Saint Orsin cemetery.”
Adriano laughed bitterly.
“There is no Nico grave.”
“Wrong name.”
“Which?”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Antonio Vale.”
Margaret’s family name.
She had hidden Nico even after death.
Adriano felt something break quietly inside him.
For twenty-seven years, his brother had existed as a traitor.
For nineteen, he had actually been dead under another man’s name.
“What did Elena discover?”
“That Nico was not the end.”
Gabriel stood.
“She found Lorenzo.”
Adriano’s breathing changed.
“When?”
“Before her ambush.”
“Where?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“Why?”
“Because she finally understood that everyone she told created another leak.”
Lucian looked down.
He knew that accusation included him.
Gabriel continued.
“Elena stopped trusting Victoria because Victoria kept speaking to her father.”
Adriano looked toward Lucian.
“You knew Lorenzo lived?”
Lucian shook his head.
“I knew Victoria spoke to someone she called Father Michael.”
Gabriel laughed.
“There was never a Father Michael.”
Lucian looked sick.
Adriano’s voice lowered.
“Your wife has been talking to her supposedly dead father for how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“That answer may destroy your marriage.”
Lucian stared at the floor.
“I understand.”
Gabriel moved toward the tunnel.
Adriano blocked him.
“Where are you going?”
“Away from you.”
“No.”
Gabriel smiled.
“You cannot hold me here.”
Adriano’s expression turned dark.
“You overestimate age.”
Gabriel’s smile faded.
“You want Lorenzo?”
“Yes.”
“You want Elena?”
“Yes.”
“You cannot have both the way you want.”
“What does that mean?”
“Lorenzo knows where Elena is.”
Adriano went still.
“And if I move against him?”
“He moves her.”
“Kill?”
“Maybe.”
Adriano’s jaw tightened.
Gabriel leaned closer.
“This is where you decide whether you are your father.”
Adriano stared.
“Explain.”
“Your father would avenge Nico first.”
“And Elena?”
“He would call her acceptable loss.”
Silence.
Gabriel stepped past him.
This time Adriano allowed it.
At the tunnel entrance Gabriel stopped.
“One more thing.”
Adriano turned.
“Your daughter’s doll was not supposed to reach you yet.”
“What?”
“Elena told Margaret to give Sophia that doll when Sophia turned five.”
“She’s three.”
“Yes.”
Adriano’s expression darkened.
“Then someone moved the timetable.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Someone wanted you to find the key now.”
“Lorenzo?”
“Maybe.”
“Why?”
May you like
Gabriel disappeared into the darkness after saying:
“Because someone is more afraid of Elena coming home than they are of you finding her.”
