Chapter 10 - The Man Luciano Trusted Most
Luciano wanted Vittorio arrested immediately.
Vittorio expected that.
“Do it,” he said.
“You think you're protected.”
“I think you want the truth.”
Kate watched from several feet away.
Matteo stood beside her.
Marco had already alerted security.
Vittorio had minutes.
Perhaps seconds.
“Talk,” Luciano said.
Vittorio smiled.
“Your father discovered Elena planned to leave him.”
Matteo shook his head.
“Lie.”
“Your adoptive mother wasn't there.”
“Neither were you?”
“I was.”
Vittorio claimed Elena wanted both sons removed from the Aruri world.
Alessandro refused.
An argument followed.
Elena fled with Evelyn Ward.
There was an accident.
Elena died.
Alessandro blamed Evelyn.
Three weeks later, Alessandro confronted her.
According to Vittorio, Evelyn shot him.
Kate went pale.
“My mother never killed anyone.”
“Your mother had secrets.”
“Show me proof.”
Vittorio produced an old police report.
Evelyn Ward had been questioned.
No charges.
The weapon was never found.
Luciano read the report.
Then noticed the investigating officer.
A young detective.
Marco Bellini Sr.
Marco's father.
Luciano looked at Marco.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Your father investigated my father's death.”
“I didn't know.”
Vittorio smiled.
“Everyone has secrets, Luciano.”
Luciano finally understood what his uncle was doing.
Same strategy.
Turn them against each other.
He folded the report.
“No.”
Vittorio’s smile faded.
“No?”
“I spent seven months believing lies because people showed me pieces of truth arranged in the wrong order.”
He handed the report back.
“You don't get another seven minutes.”
Hospital security arrived with federal agents.
Vittorio was arrested.
As they led him away, he called over his shoulder.
“Ask Marco what his father left him!”
Luciano did not react.
Not until Vittorio disappeared.
Then he looked at Marco.
“Did he leave you something?”
Marco was silent.
Kate closed her eyes.
“Marco.”
“Yes.”
Luciano stared.
“What?”
“A box.”
“Where?”
“My apartment.”
“Did you open it?”
“Once.”
“What was inside?”
“Evidence.”
Luciano laughed once.
Without humor.
“Of course.”
Marco explained.
His father had believed Alessandro Aruri's death was ordered from inside the family.
He had never proved it.
Before dying, he gave Marco the case files and made him promise to keep Luciano alive.
“That is why you came to work for me.”
“Yes.”
Luciano looked wounded.
“Our friendship?”
“Real.”
“But it began as an assignment.”
“Yes.”
Luciano walked away.
Kate followed.
“Don't do it.”
“Do what?”
“Turn another incomplete truth into betrayal.”
He looked at her.
“You've become irritatingly wise.”
“I've had seven months alone to practice.”
They retrieved the box.
Inside were photographs, witness statements, ballistics reports.
One item mattered most.
A cassette recording.
Alessandro's voice.
If anything happens to me, Vittorio is responsible.
Luciano closed his eyes.
There it was.
Not speculation.
His father's own fear.
The recording continued.
But another name appeared.
Evelyn Ward.
Not as killer.
As witness.
Alessandro had entrusted Matteo to her because Vittorio wanted control of both heirs.
Luciano finally understood.
Vittorio had lied at the hospital because he wanted to destroy Kate's trust in her mother.
Again.
Separation.
Always separation.
But the final seconds of the tape contained something stranger.
Alessandro said:
“Marco Bellini knows where the original trust is hidden.”
Marco stared.
“My father never told me.”
They searched the box.
Nothing.
Then Kate noticed the wooden base.
Double bottom.
Inside was a key.
Hawthorne Ridge.
Luciano recognized the engraving.
Library archive.
They returned to the mansion while Nico remained under hospital care.
The key opened a compartment behind the library fireplace.
Inside was the original Aruri trust.
And a sealed letter.
Luciano read it.
His father had anticipated Vittorio’s attempt to seize control.
The true trust contained a clause omitted from later copies.
No heir was required to continue the organization.
The assets could be dissolved.
Sold.
Converted into a legitimate family foundation.
Luciano stared.
For his entire adult life, he had believed preserving the Aruri empire was his duty.
It had never been.
Kate touched his arm.
“You can leave.”
He looked at her.
“So can Nico.”
“Yes.”
Matteo laughed softly.
“Looks like our father gave us an exit thirty-three years ago.”
Luciano looked toward Marco.
“And Vittorio hid it.”
Marco nodded.
A sound came from inside the wall.
Click.
Everyone stopped.
Matteo found another compartment.
Inside was a ledger.
Recent.
Not thirty-three years old.
Someone had used the hiding place within the past year.
Luciano opened it.
Payments.
Dates.
Names.
One entry corresponded to the day Kate's medication was replaced.
The recipient was not Celia.
It was someone else.
Someone who had been standing beside Kate since the pregnancy began.
Luciano read the name twice.
Then looked up.
May you like
“Dr. Bennett.”
And behind them, the library door quietly locked from the outside.
