Chapter 19 - THE LAST DEBT
The Bellandi convoy stopped outside the ruined gates.
Six men stepped out.
Then Salvatore Bellandi himself emerged from the lead SUV wearing a charcoal overcoat.
Marco raised his weapon.
Massimo lifted a hand. “Wait.”
Bellandi walked through drifting ash as if arriving for dinner.
His eyes landed on Dean bleeding beside the greenhouse.
“Well,” Bellandi said. “There’s my missing investment.”
Dean’s face tightened. “Sal—”
“Don’t call me that.”
Massimo looked between them. “Why are you here?”
Bellandi smiled. “Dean promised me forty percent of your port business once you were legally incompetent. Then he tried to move the offshore money without paying me.”
Dean laughed. “You came to collect?”
“I came to watch.”
“Watch what?”
Bellandi looked toward the approaching sirens. “You get arrested.”
Dean’s smile vanished.
“Why help me?” Massimo asked.
“I’m not helping you. I’m hurting him.”
Fair enough.
Detective vehicles and federal units poured onto the property minutes later. Massimo had Marco send Hale’s documents, Dean’s flash drive, the trust papers, and Bellandi’s files to the authorities before anyone could change their mind.
Anthony grabbed Massimo’s arm. “Do you understand what you’re doing? Those files implicate us too.”
“Yes.”
“You’ll lose everything.”
Massimo looked at the burning mansion.
“Maybe everything needs losing.”
Anthony stared at him.
Camille was brought out under guard, crying silently. When she saw Massimo, she stopped.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He believed she was.
It did not change anything.
“Tell the truth,” he said. “All of it.”
She nodded.
Dean was loaded onto a stretcher in handcuffs.
As paramedics lifted him, he grabbed Massimo’s sleeve.
“You think walking makes you clean?”
Massimo looked down at him.
“No.”
Dean smiled.
“You’re still your father’s son.”
Massimo pulled his sleeve free.
“That’s what I’m trying to fix.”
Hours later, after statements and ambulances and fire crews, dawn touched the sky.
Carla sat on the back of an ambulance with Nina asleep against her chest.
Massimo walked toward them using his cane.
Slowly.
Painfully.
But on his own.
Nina woke and saw him.
Her whole face lit up.
“I told you!”
Massimo laughed.
Then Marco approached with one final envelope recovered from Dean’s coat.
Inside was a photograph of Nina.
May you like
On the back, someone had written:
SHE SAW TOO MUCH.
