Chapter 5 - The Man Who Gave the Order
Luca's gun never fired.
Nico disarmed him in seconds.
Viviana slapped her brother immediately afterward.
Nora decided it was the healthiest sibling interaction she had witnessed all week.
Then Luca talked.
He had spent months following Meridian’s money.
Salvatore had killed Daniel.
But he had not ordered it.
The command had come from someone whose identity Luca had discovered only days earlier.
“Who?” Nora demanded.
Luca looked at Vittorio.
“Tell her.”
Vittorio seemed to age ten years.
“My wife.”
Nico went motionless.
“My mother?”
“Isabella.”
Nico had been told his mother died when he was nine.
Vittorio confessed that Isabella had been deeply involved with Meridian.
After Daniel discovered the trafficking operation, she authorized his murder to protect the organization.
When Vittorio learned the truth, he helped Caroline disappear and forced Isabella out.
She supposedly died abroad.
“She didn't,” Luca said.
Nora felt the room tilt.
“Where is she?”
“Here.”
Not in the hospital.
In New York.
Watching.
Planning.
Nico stared at his father.
“You knew she was alive?”
“For six months.”
Six months.
The exact period during which Nico had disappeared from Nora’s life.
Vittorio explained that Isabella had returned after discovering Nico was dating Nora.
Nico's relationship with Daniel Ellis’s daughter threatened to combine their ownership stakes.
If they married—or if they had a child—the balance of Bellandi Holdings could shift permanently.
Nora touched her stomach.
“She tried to kill me because of shares?”
“She tried to frighten Nico away from you,” Vittorio said.
“And you helped her.”
“I tried to contain her.”
“You threatened Nico.”
“To make the separation convincing.”
Nora stared at him.
“You destroyed both our lives to protect us.”
“Yes.”
“That seems to run in this family.”
Nico looked ashamed.
Vittorio did too.
For once, Nora felt like the only person in the room who understood that good intentions could become another form of cruelty.
Luca produced records connecting Isabella to shell companies.
The FBI could use them.
But they needed the original Meridian ledger.
Vittorio knew where it was.
Bellandi House.
A mansion outside the city.
They traveled there under federal surveillance.
Nora objected until she learned federal agents were already surrounding the estate.
Inside Vittorio’s study, he opened a hidden compartment.
Empty.
Someone had beaten them to it.
Then the lights died.
A woman’s voice came through the darkness.
“Nico.”
Nico went rigid.
The lights returned.
A woman in her early sixties stood at the study entrance.
Elegant.
Silver-haired.
Nico whispered, “Mother.”
Isabella Bellandi smiled.
Then her eyes moved to Nora.
“So this is Daniel’s daughter.”
Nora instinctively protected her stomach.
Isabella noticed.
“And Daniel’s grandchild.”
Nico moved between them.
“You stay away from her.”
Isabella laughed softly.
“You disappeared from that poor girl for eight months and now you're her protector?”
Nico flinched.
Isabella knew exactly where to cut.
She offered a deal.
Nora could keep her shares.
Nico could keep his child.
Meridian would disappear from their lives.
All they had to do was destroy Daniel’s evidence.
“No,” Nora said.
Isabella smiled.
“You should think carefully.”
“I've had eight months to think carefully about men and women making decisions for me.”
“Nora.”
“No.”
She looked around the room.
“Everyone keeps deciding what I should know. Where I should go. Who I should fear. I'm done.”
Isabella’s smile vanished.
Nora continued.
“My father died trying to expose you.”
“Yes.”
“My mother spent her life hiding because of you.”
“Yes.”
“And you expect me to protect you?”
“I expect you to protect your child.”
Nora stepped closer.
“I am.”
Isabella’s eyes hardened.
A phone rang.
Not Nora’s.
Not Nico’s.
Vittorio’s.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
He slowly lowered the phone.
Nico demanded, “What happened?”
Vittorio looked at Nora.
“The federal prosecutor carrying Daniel’s evidence was just found unconscious.”
Nora's blood went cold.
“Where's the card?”
Vittorio didn't answer.
Nico checked his pocket.
Empty.
Then every phone in the room received the same message.
A photograph.
Marco, Belladonna’s manager, sat tied to a chair.
Behind him stood someone holding Daniel’s microSD card.
The face was hidden.
But Nora recognized the hand.
May you like
There was a wedding ring on it.
Her mother’s wedding ring.
