Chapter 3 - Uncle Victor
Victor Salvatore looked exactly as Dante remembered him from a thousand ordinary mornings.
Gray suit.
Silver tie.
Perfect posture.
Calm eyes.
That was what made it worse.
He looked like family.
Dante rose slowly.
“What are you doing here?”
Victor glanced at Luca.
“I heard there was an emergency.”
“From whom?”
“Marco.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
Marco would never have called Victor without permission.
Victor corrected himself.
“One of Marco’s men.”
“Name him.”
Victor smiled faintly.
“This is not the time.”
“It became the time when you walked into my son’s room.”
Victor’s expression shifted.
“Your son?”
Dante watched carefully.
Not surprise.
Calculation.
Victor looked toward Luca again.
“Well.”
That one word told Dante everything he needed to know.
“You knew.”
Victor sighed.
“Dante.”
“You knew.”
“Keep your voice down.”
“My son has poison in his blood.”
Victor’s eyes flickered.
There.
Barely visible.
But Dante had spent his life reading men across negotiation tables.
He saw it.
“You know what happened.”
“I know nothing about poison.”
“I didn’t say poison.”
Victor became still.
Dante stepped closer.
“You’re leaving.”
“Don’t be foolish.”
“Now.”
“We need to talk privately.”
“No.”
“Elena has filled your head with old suspicions.”
Dante stared at him.
“How do you know Elena is here?”
Victor’s jaw tightened slightly.
Too late.
Dante smiled without humor.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For making this easier.”
Two Salvatore guards appeared outside.
Dante nodded toward Victor.
“Take his phone.”
Victor laughed.
Nobody moved.
Dante looked at the guards.
“I said take his phone.”
One guard hesitated.
Victor noticed.
So did Dante.
There it was.
The problem.
The Salvatore organization was not one body.
It had become two.
Victor had been building his half while Dante believed his uncle was protecting the whole.
Victor adjusted his cuff.
“Your people seem confused.”
“They won’t be for long.”
“I raised half those men.”
“And I pay all of them.”
“Money is not the same as loyalty.”
“No.”
Dante looked at Luca.
“Blood should have been.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Walk outside.”
“No.”
“Then I will.”
Dante pushed past him.
Victor followed.
Elena stood near the nurses’ station with Mia sleeping against her shoulder.
The moment she saw Victor, every bit of color left her face.
Dante saw that too.
Victor smiled at her.
“Elena.”
She stepped backward.
“Stay away from me.”
Victor spread his hands.
“Still dramatic.”
Dante moved between them.
“What did Luca mean?”
Victor looked amused.
“What?”
“He said he saw you.”
Elena’s eyes widened.
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“At school.”
Victor glanced toward the ICU.
“He’s sedated.”
“He woke up.”
“That proves nothing.”
“No one said it proved anything.”
Victor realized the mistake immediately.
Dante continued.
“You’re answering questions I haven’t asked.”
Victor’s voice lowered.
“You’re emotional.”
“My son nearly died.”
“He may still die.”
Elena gasped.
Dante hit him.
Once.
Hard.
Victor crashed into the wall.
A nurse shouted.
Security moved.
Dante’s guards stepped between hospital security and the two men.
Dante grabbed Victor by the lapels.
“You say that again and I forget who you are.”
Victor wiped blood from his mouth.
“There he is.”
“Who?”
“My brother’s son.”
Dante released him.
Victor straightened his jacket.
“You think your father built everything by being gentle?”
“My father is dead.”
“Yes.”
“And your brother is dead.”
Dante’s eyes changed.
Victor continued.
“And every time someone dies around you, you look outside the family for the knife.”
Elena watched Dante become very still.
“What are you saying?” he asked.
Victor smiled.
“Nothing.”
Dante’s phone rang.
Marco.
“Talk.”
“We found Teresa.”
“Where?”
“Dead.”
Dante looked at Victor.
“How?”
“Car in the river near Joliet. State police pulled it out an hour ago.”
“When did she die?”
“Medical examiner says sometime yesterday.”
“Phone?”
“Missing.”
“Home?”
“Cleaned out.”
Victor heard enough.
His expression did not change.
Dante ended the call.
“Teresa’s dead.”
Victor sighed.
“Tragic.”
“You knew fast.”
“You said her name earlier.”
“I said she was dead.”
“You said tragic.”
Victor smiled thinly.
“Death usually is.”
Elena approached.
“Victor told me Teresa handled everything after I left.”
Dante looked at her.
“What everything?”
“My apartment.”
Victor rolled his eyes.
“You’re going to believe this?”
Elena ignored him.
“She was the one who sent the lease papers. The deposit. The moving company.”
“I thought you refused help.”
“I refused money from Victor. Then an anonymous foundation covered six months of rent.”
Dante turned toward his uncle.
Victor shrugged.
“Perhaps someone felt guilty.”
“Was it you?”
“No.”
Dante looked at Elena.
“What foundation?”
“Caritas House.”
Dante knew the name.
His mother’s charity.
Except Caritas House had closed three years earlier.
“That foundation didn’t exist.”
“It paid my landlord.”
“Using whose money?”
“I don’t know.”
Dante dialed his accountant.
“Pull every transaction attached to Caritas House after closure.”
He listened.
“Now.”
Victor moved toward the elevator.
Dante blocked him.
“You’re staying.”
“You don’t own the hospital.”
“No. But I own the men waiting downstairs.”
Victor’s smile returned.
“Do you?”
The elevator doors opened.
Four men stepped out.
Dante recognized all four.
Salvatore soldiers.
But they looked at Victor.
Not him.
Victor walked into the elevator.
Dante could have drawn the gun under his jacket.
He didn’t.
Not inside a children’s hospital.
Not with Elena ten feet away.
Victor looked back.
“You spent two years believing Elena betrayed you. Be careful you don’t make the same mistake twice.”
The doors closed.
Dante immediately called Marco.
“Victor just walked out.”
“Stop him?”
“No.”
Marco sounded surprised.
“Track him.”
“Already done.”
Dante turned to Elena.
“You and Mia are coming with me.”
“No.”
“You’re not going home.”
“Dante—”
“Someone has been watching Luca. Victor knew you were here. Teresa is dead.”
“This is exactly why I stayed away from you.”
“This reached you anyway.”
Elena had no answer.
A doctor rushed out of Luca’s room.
They both turned.
“What?”
Dr. Warren looked relieved for the first time.
“The antidote arrived.”
Dante exhaled.
“Will it work?”
“We’ve started treatment. The next several hours are critical.”
Elena moved toward the room.
The doctor stopped her gently.
“One more thing.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What now?”
“We repeated the toxicology panel.”
“And?”
“The digoxin wasn’t the only abnormality.”
Dante approached.
“What else?”
Dr. Warren handed them a report.
Elena did not understand the numbers.
Dante understood one word.
Warfarin.
“A blood thinner?” he asked.
Dr. Warren nodded.
“At a low but significant level.”
Elena stared at him.
“Why would someone give a child both?”
“That’s what concerns me.”
Dante’s gaze sharpened.
“Explain.”
“Neither amount alone necessarily would have caused what we saw.”
“But together?”
“They could create a confusing clinical picture. Weakness. nausea. cardiac problems. bleeding risk.”
Elena whispered, “Someone wanted doctors to think he was sick.”
Dr. Warren paused.
“Possibly.”
Dante looked toward Luca.
Someone had not simply tried to hurt his son.
Someone had planned for the poisoning to resemble natural illness.
That required knowledge.
Access.
Patience.
A message arrived from his accountant.
Dante opened it.
CARITAS HOUSE POST-CLOSURE ACCOUNT ACTIVITY FOUND.
He clicked the attachment.
Thirty-seven payments over two years.
Elena’s rent.
Luca’s school tuition.
Medical insurance.
Groceries.
Even Mia’s pediatric care.
Elena stared at the screen.
“I thought those came from assistance programs.”
“They came from one account.”
“Whose?”
Dante scrolled to the authorization line.
His hands stopped.
Every payment had been approved by the same person.
Dante Salvatore.
Elena looked at him.
“You paid for us?”
“No.”
“Your name is there.”
“I didn’t authorize any of this.”
They stared at each other.
Someone had used Dante’s identity to secretly support Elena and her children.
Someone had wanted them alive.
Hidden.
Close enough to watch.
A second message arrived.
Marco.
WE FOUND THE CAR THAT FOLLOWED LUCA FROM SCHOOL.
Dante called immediately.
“Who owns it?”
Marco hesitated.
“Boss…”
“Say it.”
“It’s registered to Salvatore Holdings.”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“Which division?”
“Private security.”
“Whose authorization?”
Another pause.
May you like
Then Marco answered.
“Yours.”
