Chapter 10 - Patrick's Last Night
Maeve stared at Marco.
"He already admitted ordering it."
"Not directly," Marco said.
"He practically bragged."
Gabriel shook his head.
"Vittorio loves half-truths."
Kathleen entered.
"What happened?"
Maeve told her.
Kathleen's face changed.
"No."
"What?"
Kathleen sat.
"There was someone else there the night Patrick died."
Maeve's heart pounded.
"Who?"
"Samuel."
Luca frowned.
"The house manager?"
Kathleen nodded.
"Patrick trusted him."
Maeve remembered Samuel handing her Elena's files.
His guilt.
His betrayal.
His decision at the warehouse.
"Could Samuel have killed Dad?"
Kathleen whispered, "I don't know."
Dante traced Vittorio's call.
Abandoned courthouse downtown.
They had thirty-eight minutes.
Gabriel stood.
"I'll go."
Marco said, "No."
"He wants me."
"Exactly."
Gabriel looked at his brothers.
"If my life buys time—"
Luca snapped, "Stop acting like dying is noble."
Gabriel stared.
Luca continued.
"You spent forty years angry because you weren't part of this family. Congratulations. You're part of it now. That means you don't get to martyr yourself without being annoying to at least three people."
Dante nodded.
"Four."
Everyone looked at Maeve.
She shrugged.
"He's growing on me."
Gabriel laughed despite himself.
Marco formed a plan.
Dante would leak evidence first.
If Vittorio released recordings, their context would already be public.
Luca coordinated police loyal to the new prosecutor.
Marco, Gabriel, and Maeve would enter.
Marco objected to Maeve.
She refused to stay.
At the courthouse, Vittorio waited in an old courtroom.
The black case sat beside him.
Samuel sat in the witness chair.
Bruised.
Alive.
Maeve froze.
Vittorio smiled.
"Perfect audience."
Marco said, "Release Samuel."
Vittorio laughed.
"He's here to testify."
Maeve looked at Samuel.
"Did you kill my father?"
Samuel's eyes filled.
"No."
"Then who did?"
Samuel looked at Vittorio.
"Tell her."
Vittorio smiled.
"Patrick O'Connell killed himself."
Maeve stared.
"No."
Samuel shook his head.
"Not exactly."
Vittorio sighed.
"Always sentimental."
Samuel spoke quickly.
"Patrick was captured. Vittorio wanted the archive password. Patrick refused."
Maeve's chest hurt.
"They tortured him?"
Samuel closed his eyes.
"Yes."
Maeve looked at Vittorio with pure hatred.
Samuel continued.
"Patrick knew he would eventually break. So he took poison."
Maeve stopped breathing.
"He chose death rather than give them something that would put me in danger."
Samuel nodded.
"He made me promise to tell Kathleen."
Kathleen had never known.
Vittorio's technical truth.
He ordered Patrick's death.
But Patrick controlled the final moment.
Maeve's eyes burned.
"Why didn't you tell my mother?"
Samuel looked ashamed.
"Vittorio threatened my children."
"You helped him after that."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Fear."
Maeve remembered Antonio's journal.
Fear must never decide Maeve's life.
She understood.
Samuel let fear decide his.
Patrick refused.
Vittorio glanced at the clock.
"Touching. Gabriel."
Gabriel stepped forward.
"Here."
"Come closer."
Marco blocked him.
Vittorio sighed.
"Midnight approaches."
Dante's voice sounded through Marco's earpiece.
"Uploads complete."
Marco smiled.
Vittorio noticed.
"What did you do?"
"Removed your leverage."
Vittorio's phone began buzzing.
Then another.
Then another.
News alerts.
The entire archive had been delivered to multiple journalists and prosecutors.
Not sensitive victims' information.
Only evidence showing Vittorio's crimes and manipulations.
The blackmail network had no value now.
Vittorio's face finally broke.
"You stupid—"
Gabriel moved.
Vittorio reached for a gun.
Samuel knocked his arm aside.
Marco tackled him.
The weapon slid across the floor.
Maeve kicked it away.
Police entered seconds later.
Vittorio was arrested.
Not dramatically.
No final speech.
Handcuffs.
Charges.
Evidence.
The ordinary machinery of accountability.
Maeve watched him led away.
For the first time, he looked old.
Small.
Samuel remained.
He would face charges too.
Before police took him, he looked at Maeve.
"I'm sorry."
Maeve didn't forgive him.
But she said, "Tell the truth."
He nodded.
"I will."
Outside the courthouse, dawn was beginning.
Marco stood beside Maeve.
"It's over."
She looked at him.
"Not yet."
There were trials.
Burials.
Truth.
Family.
Rebuilding.
But for the first time, danger no longer controlled the next minute.
Marco took her hand.
She held it.
Then Gabriel's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
"What?"
Everyone stopped.
Gabriel looked at Marco.
"Isabella escaped."
Silence.
Maeve's stomach dropped.
Marco whispered, "How?"
Gabriel lowered the phone.
"Someone signed her out of protective custody."
"Who?"
Gabriel stared at the screen.
Then turned it toward them.
The signature read:
May you like
ANTONIO FALCONE.
Their dead father's name.
