Chapter 12 - The Night Lydia Went Back
Lorenzo didn't defend himself.
That frightened Lydia.
They returned to the estate after Carlo's surgery.
He survived.
Barely.
Mateo waited in the study.
Lydia placed the question directly.
“Who knew where you were the night of the ambush?”
Mateo typed three names.
LORENZO.
CARLO.
ANTHONY.
Lorenzo sat down.
“I told Anthony.”
Mateo's eyes narrowed.
“Why?” Lydia asked.
“He called me. Said he needed to know Mateo's route so he could warn him.”
“And you gave it to him.”
“Yes.”
Mateo stared at his brother.
The pain between twins was almost physical.
Lorenzo looked broken.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Mateo typed:
YOU.
TRUSTED.
WRONG.
PERSON.
“I know.”
Then:
SO.
DID.
I.
Lorenzo looked up.
Mateo wasn't absolving him.
He was reminding him they had both been deceived.
Anthony was summoned.
He denied giving away the route.
But this time denial wasn't enough.
Lydia watched his hands.
Steady.
His eyes.
Too careful.
“You knew where Frank hid the ledger,” she said.
“No.”
“You knew about Box 118.”
“No.”
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Vane burned the shop.”
“Yes.”
“And you somehow survived every stage of this.”
Anthony's expression changed.
Tiny.
There.
Lydia recognized it.
She'd seen it in patients lying about pills.
“You didn't work for Vane,” she said.
Anthony relaxed slightly.
“Correct.”
“You worked with him.”
Silence.
Lorenzo stood.
“Uncle?”
Anthony sighed.
“I built the original arrangement.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Blackwood hadn't created the network.
Vane hadn't either.
Anthony had.
Years ago, he used political contacts to protect Moretti businesses.
Then those arrangements grew.
Vane became ambitious.
Blackwood became violent.
Anthony lost control of the machine he'd created.
“Mateo discovered it,” Anthony said.
“So you had him shot?” Lorenzo asked.
“No.”
“You gave them his route.”
“I thought they would frighten him.”
Mateo's eyes burned.
“You thought wrong,” Lydia said.
Anthony looked ashamed.
For the first time, Lydia believed the shame.
But shame didn't undo bullets.
“Frank wanted to expose everything,” Anthony continued. “I begged him not to.”
“And when he refused?”
“I did nothing.”
“That was enough.”
Anthony nodded.
“Yes.”
Lorenzo walked toward him.
Lydia didn't stop him this time.
But Lorenzo stopped himself.
“Get out.”
Anthony stared.
“Lorenzo—”
“Before I become the man you taught me to be.”
Anthony left under guard.
Later, Lorenzo stood alone in the surveillance room.
Lydia found him deleting camera files.
“What are you doing?”
“Mateo asked me to remove every camera from his private rooms.”
“And?”
“I am.”
One screen after another went black.
“Progress,” Lydia said.
“I hate when you're right.”
“You must hate me often.”
He smiled.
Then turned serious.
“I gave Anthony Mateo's route.”
“You did.”
“He almost died because of me.”
“You made a mistake.”
“A mistake?”
“You trusted family.”
“That doesn't excuse it.”
“No.”
Lydia stepped closer.
“But guilt isn't the same as responsibility. Responsibility is what you do next.”
He looked at her.
“What do I do next?”
“Tell the truth.”
“All of it?”
“All of it.”
He knew what she meant.
Release the files.
Destroy Vane.
Destroy Blackwood.
And expose Moretti crimes.
Lorenzo nodded slowly.
“Tomorrow.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Blackwood.
“I have Anthony.”
Lorenzo's expression changed.
Blackwood continued.
“And I have something else you might want.”
A sound came through the speaker.
A woman crying.
Lydia froze.
She recognized the voice.
Dr. Cole's daughter.
Blackwood said, “Midnight. The old dock warehouse. Bring the evidence.”
Then another voice came onto the call.
Charles Vane.
“And bring Lydia.”
The call ended.
A message arrived immediately afterward.
A live photograph.
Anthony and the young woman were bound inside the warehouse.
But Lydia noticed something reflected in a window behind them.
A wheelchair.
Mateo's wheelchair.
May you like
She spun toward the study door.
Mateo was no longer there.
