Chapter 7
Dante turned to Elena.
“What does he mean?”
Carlo answered.
“Marco had a son.”
The room froze.
Dante stared at Elena.
She nodded slowly.
“Not with me. His mother was Lucia Alvarez. She worked in Bello accounting.”
Dante remembered Lucia. She had died in a car crash months after Marco.
“The boy?”
“Mateo. He was two when Marco died.”
“Where is he?”
“Safe.”
Dante’s voice rose. “Where?”
“I promised Lucia.”
Carlo chuckled. “Still protecting ghosts.”
Dante ignored him.
Elena explained that Lucia had discovered the Bello transfers first. Marco created a private trust for Mateo and authenticated it with the Moretti seal.
The original disappeared after Marco’s murder.
Dante understood.
If Mateo was legally Marco’s son, Marco’s shares were never dormant.
They belonged to him.
Thirty-eight million dollars.
Carlo leaned back.
“Now you see why everyone wanted that seal.”
Dante looked at his uncle.
“You killed Marco for money.”
“No.”
Carlo’s smile vanished.
“I helped kill him because he was going to expose all of us.”
“All of us?”
“Your father knew about Bello.”
Dante stopped breathing.
Carlo continued.
“Lorenzo told Marco to stop digging.”
“Did my father order his death?”
“No.”
“Did he know you were moving against him?”
Carlo looked away.
That was answer enough.
Sirens sounded outside.
Carlo stood.
“You called federal agents into a Moretti house?”
“I called consequences.”
Carlo lunged for the fireplace poker.
Rocco slammed him across the desk before he touched it.
As agents cuffed him, Carlo shouted, “You think the boy will thank you for destroying everything?”
Dante stepped close.
“What boy?”
Carlo smiled.
“Ask Elena why she took a job here.”
After he was taken away, Dante faced her.
“You came because of Mateo.”
“Yes.”
“To watch me?”
“To decide if Marco was right to trust you.”
Before Dante could answer, Rocco entered with a message.
May you like
Vanessa had been found alive.
And Vincent Bellini had taken Mateo.
