Chapter 14 - Father and Son
Lorenzo stepped from behind the hangar door.
No gun visible.
No guards.
Just him.
Vittorio smiled like a father seeing his son at Christmas.
"You've grown into me."
"That's the worst thing anyone has ever said to me."
Vittorio's smile faded.
My mother saw me and shook her head hard. "Amelia, leave."
Ethan tightened a hand on her shoulder.
I looked at him. "Take your hand off my mother."
He smirked. "Still dramatic."
"Still employed by men who don't respect you."
That hit harder than I expected.
Silas glanced at him with open contempt.
Good.
Cracks.
I held up the envelope containing copies of the ledger pages and marriage certificate.
"Mom first."
Vittorio shook his head. "Documents first."
"You spent years trying to manipulate me. You should know stubbornness is my main personality trait."
Lorenzo almost smiled.
Vittorio noticed.
His expression turned ugly.
"Women make men stupid. Your mother did the same to me."
Lorenzo's hands curled.
"Don't."
"She wanted me to stop. To become ordinary. Then she tried to take you away."
Rage moved through Lorenzo's face, but he didn't move.
Vittorio continued, enjoying it. "The boat was supposed to solve two problems. She wasn't meant to survive the first blast."
Lorenzo stopped breathing.
"My mother died three months later."
"Complications happen."
The words hung in the air.
And because arrogant men eventually talk themselves into prison, Vittorio kept going.
He admitted the sabotage. The shell companies. The pressure campaigns against Lorenzo's brides. My father's staged accident.
Natalie heard everything through my wire.
Silas suddenly realized it.
His eyes dropped to my coat.
"She's wired."
Everything exploded at once.
Ethan grabbed me.
My mother kicked backward into his knee.
Lorenzo lunged at Vittorio.
Silas ran for the plane.
Federal agents stormed the hangar.
Ethan dragged me toward a side door with one arm around my throat.
"Move!"
I drove my heel down on his foot.
He cursed.
I twisted free exactly the way a self-defense instructor at my bakery had taught me after our breakup.
Then I did something much less elegant.
I hit him in the face with my handbag.
The metal clasp split his lip.
"That bag was eighty dollars," I shouted. "You better not have broken it!"
An agent tackled him.
Across the hangar, Lorenzo had Vittorio pinned against the floor.
His fist was raised.
Vittorio smiled through blood.
"Do it. Prove you're mine."
Lorenzo's fist trembled.
Then he lowered it.
"No," he said. "I'll prove I'm not."
Behind him, Silas reached for a dropped gun.
May you like
I saw it first.
And screamed Lorenzo's name.
