Chapter 11 - The Man Behind the Glass
Victor escaped.
Arturo survived.
Police finally entered the story in force once Roman and Sadi had enough evidence to identify compromised officers.
Victor became a fugitive.
Sadi barely cared.
One sentence consumed her.
Her mother was alive.
The address Arturo gave her belonged to a small house outside Albany.
Roman offered transportation.
Sadi declined.
Then accepted thirty seconds later.
“I hate that you're useful.”
“I've been told.”
They drove without an entourage.
Mateo stayed with Marcus.
Arturo remained hospitalized under guard.
At the house, Sadi knocked.
A woman opened the door.
She was sixty.
Dark hair streaked silver.
Sadi recognized her immediately.
Not from memory.
From her own face.
“Mom?”
The woman covered her mouth.
“Sadi.”
Sadi didn't embrace her.
Not yet.
Her mother, Marisol Morales, had disappeared because Arturo threatened everyone around her.
She had believed her children were safer thinking she was dead.
Sadi was tired of people deciding which lies would protect her.
“You left us with him.”
“I didn't know what he'd become.”
“You knew enough to run.”
Marisol cried.
Sadi didn't comfort her.
Forgiveness wasn't a switch.
It was work.
Maybe someday.
Marisol gave her a locked box.
The brass key opened it.
Inside was Luca Costa's original ledger.
Roman stared.
“How?”
“Luca gave it to me three days before he died,” Marisol said.
The ledger proved Victor orchestrated the entire conspiracy.
More importantly, it contained a contingency.
A legitimate trust funded with money recovered from criminal businesses.
Beneficiaries included victims.
Families.
Employees.
People Arturo and Victor had harmed.
Sadi realized Luca hadn't merely been collecting evidence.
He had been trying to return stolen money.
Roman sat silently for a long time.
“My brother did this?”
“Yes.”
Marisol handed him a letter.
Luca had written it.
Roman read privately.
When he finished, his eyes were wet.
Sadi pretended not to notice.
On the drive back, Roman finally spoke.
“He told me not to become him.”
“Victor?”
“No.”
“Arturo?”
Roman shook his head.
“Luca told me not to become the man who hurt him.”
Sadi understood.
Revenge could reproduce the thing it claimed to destroy.
Roman had spent six years close to that edge.
“What will you do with Victor?”
“Turn him in.”
“That's disappointingly healthy.”
“I can make it dramatic if you'd prefer.”
She smiled.
Their hands rested near each other on the center console.
Neither moved.
Then Sadi slowly placed hers over his.
Roman looked at her.
No declaration.
No promise.
Just a hand.
He turned his palm upward and held hers.
Her phone rang.
Mateo.
She answered.
“Hey.”
“Sadi, don't come back to Monza.”
Her smile vanished.
“Why?”
“Victor's here.”
Roman immediately turned the car.
Mateo continued.
“He has Arturo.”
“What?”
Victor had removed Arturo from the hospital using forged transfer orders.
He brought him to Monza.
Back to where everything started.
“Mateo, leave.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
A pause.
Then Victor's voice replaced Mateo's.
“Because your brother finally understands.”
Sadi's blood went cold.
“Understands what?”
“That you have the ledger.”
Roman accelerated.
Victor laughed.
“Bring it.”
“No.”
“Then Roman loses someone else tonight.”
The call ended.
Sadi looked at Roman.
He already knew.
They arrived at Monza twenty minutes later.
The showroom was dark.
One light burned behind the cash cage.
Sadi entered first.
Her old chair sat there.
On it rested her navy cardigan.
She touched it.
Something was underneath.
Her original resignation note.
Printed.
At the bottom, someone had added:
NAME EVERY MAN WHO HURT YOU.
Sadi looked toward Roman.
Then a figure appeared behind the showroom glass.
Victor.
He wasn't alone.
May you like
Mateo stood beside him.
And Victor's gun was pressed against Mateo's neck.
