Chapter 13 - Gianna Finally Told the Truth
Leora thought she had misheard him.
“From me?”
Elias explained.
The LV Foundation was not criminal.
It was restitution.
When Elias discovered the network, he quietly diverted a portion of its money into a protected trust intended for victims.
He named Leora as future trustee.
If the network discovered that, she would become leverage.
So Elias erased himself from her life.
It had protected her.
It had also broken something between them.
“You should have trusted Mom and me,” Leora said.
“I know.”
“You missed seventeen years.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know how to forgive that.”
“I know.”
His willingness to accept the pain made it harder.
Leora ended the call.
Renzo stood nearby.
He did not tell her to forgive.
He did not tell her Elias had meant well.
He simply stayed.
Days passed.
The federal case expanded.
Isabella was indicted.
Pierce was indicted.
Several officials resigned or were arrested.
Salvatore negotiated cooperation while accepting responsibility for his earlier crimes.
Conrad faced charges for obstruction and illegal surveillance, though his decades of cooperation would matter.
Tarquin accepted a plea deal.
Gianna faced conspiracy charges.
Her attorney believed she could avoid prison because she had cooperated early and had not known the full scope.
Before her hearing, Gianna asked Leora to meet.
They sat alone in the courthouse cafeteria.
Gianna pushed a folder across the table.
“What is it?”
“My trust.”
Leora opened it.
Gianna had transferred a large portion of her inheritance into the victims’ restitution foundation.
“Why?”
“Because some of that money came from Dad’s businesses while he was pretending to work with them. Maybe it’s clean. Maybe it isn’t.”
“You don’t have to give everything away to prove you’ve changed.”
“I know.”
That answer surprised Leora.
Gianna looked at her.
“I’m doing it because I spent my whole life thinking being chosen meant winning.”
Leora said nothing.
“I wanted Dad to choose me over you. Men to choose me over other women. Rooms to look at me first.”
Her eyes filled.
“Then Renzo said your name.”
Leora remembered.
Her name is Leora.
“And I realized,” Gianna continued, “you weren’t taking anything from me. I had spent years taking from you.”
Leora closed the folder.
“I can’t give you eleven years back.”
“I know.”
“But maybe we can stop losing more.”
Gianna cried quietly.
Leora reached across the table.
Not forgiveness completed.
Forgiveness begun.
Outside the courthouse, Renzo waited.
“You didn’t need to come.”
“I know.”
“Do you have businesses to terrorize?”
“Several.”
She smiled.
Their relationship had developed in spaces between disasters.
Coffee.
Late-night spreadsheets.
Hospital corridors.
Silences that felt safe.
Renzo took her hand.
“Come somewhere with me.”
He drove her to the ballroom where the engagement gala had occurred.
Empty now.
No guests.
No music.
Leora stopped at the table where she had sat in the black dress.
“Why here?”
“Because I dislike leaving bad accounting unreconciled.”
She laughed.
Renzo faced her.
“I was engaged to a woman I barely knew because our families considered it sensible.”
“Romantic.”
“I’m improving.”
“Slowly.”
He stepped closer.
“I don’t want you because you saved me.”
Leora’s smile faded.
“I don’t want you because Gianna didn’t.”
Closer.
“I don’t want you because five hundred people ignored you.”
His hand touched hers.
“I want you because when everyone else was terrified of what the truth would cost, you told it anyway.”
Leora’s breath caught.
Then the ballroom doors opened.
Elias entered.
But he was not alone.
Beside him stood a woman carrying a sealed evidence box.
Leora recognized the necklace around the woman’s throat.
It had belonged to Marisol.
Leora whispered, “Where did you get that?”
The woman placed the box on the table.
Then she looked at Leora and said, “Your mother gave it to me the night she died.”
She opened the box.
Inside was Marisol Vance’s final recording.
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And the first words were:
“Leora, if you hear this, Gianna must finally know who her mother really was...”
