Chapter 13 - The Deal That Destroyed Two Families|
Nathaniel was taken to a private medical facility under a false name.
Matteo arranged for a trusted physician to treat his injuries, but Norah refused to leave his side until the doctor assured her that he would survive the night.
She sat beside the hospital bed, staring at the man who had been a ghost for most of her life.
Nathaniel slept uneasily.
Every few minutes, his fingers tightened around the blanket, as though he were still trying to escape the restraints that had held him in the abandoned hospital.
Norah wanted to hate him.
It would have been easier.
But she could see the years in his face. She could see the fear that had followed him from one hiding place to another. She could also see the terrible cost of the choices he had made.
None of it erased her childhood.
None of it gave her back the years she had spent believing she was alone.
Matteo entered quietly.
“The doctor says he'll recover.”
Norah nodded.
“Thank you.”
He pulled a chair beside her but did not sit until she gestured toward it.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then Matteo said, “My father made a deal with Adrian.”
“So Vincent claims.”
“Nathaniel confirmed it.”
“Your father ordered Adrian's death, then arranged his rescue?”
“That's what we're being told.”
Norah turned toward him.
“You're still looking for a reason not to believe it.”
Matteo did not deny it.
“My father was many things. Cruel, controlling, ruthless. But I spent my life believing he had one line he would never cross.”
“Which line?”
“Family.”
Norah looked at Nathaniel.
“Perhaps that's why people like your father and mine were so useful to him. They were outside the family, so he could sacrifice them without feeling he had betrayed his own blood.”
Matteo absorbed the words.
“I don't want to become him.”
“Then stop making his excuses.”
The sentence was harsh, but Matteo accepted it.
He leaned forward.
“I need to know what Adrian agreed to.”
Norah looked at her father.
“Then we ask him when he wakes up.”
Nathaniel opened his eyes before either of them could speak again.
“I can hear you.”
Norah stood.
“Good. Then you can explain.”
Nathaniel attempted to sit up, grimaced, and settled back against the pillows.
“I owe you the truth.”
“You owe me twenty-four years of answers.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
“Start with Adrian.”
Nathaniel stared at the ceiling.
“Your father discovered that Salvatore and Vincent were stealing from the family trust. He planned to expose them, but your father's own advisers convinced him that the evidence would destroy the organization. Adrian offered to help him recover the stolen money and remove Salvatore quietly.”
“And what did my father demand?”
“That you would never be involved.”
Norah frowned.
“I was a baby.”
“You were the legal heir to the trust. If the records became public, you would inherit assets that several powerful men had spent years stealing.”
“So Adrian agreed to disappear to protect me?”
“Yes. Your father arranged for him to be taken out of the warehouse before the fire reached the lower level. In exchange, Adrian would remain officially dead and never challenge the family's leadership.”
Matteo's expression hardened.
“My father let me grieve my brother for eleven years.”
“He believed you were safer not knowing.”
“Everyone seems to believe that lying to me was a form of love.”
Nathaniel looked at him.
“Sometimes people make terrible choices because they are afraid of what the truth will cost.”
“That's not an excuse.”
“No,” Nathaniel agreed. “It isn't.”
Norah folded her arms.
“And my mother?”
Nathaniel's expression changed.
“Elizabeth helped Adrian escape. She stayed behind to make sure the evidence was hidden. Vincent found her and threatened to kill you if she didn't disappear.”
“Did she know you were alive?”
“For a while, yes. We were supposed to meet after I secured the remaining records. But the meeting was ambushed. I was taken, and Elizabeth believed I had been killed.”
Norah's voice grew quiet.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because she wanted you to have a life that didn't belong to this war.”
“I didn't have that life. I had eleven years of grief.”
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“No, you don't. You can regret it, but you can't know what it was like.”
He nodded, accepting the judgment.
After a long silence, Norah reached for his hand.
It was not forgiveness.
It was simply the first small decision she had made since discovering that her father was alive.
“I need time,” she said.
“You deserve all the time you need.”
Matteo's phone vibrated.
Gabriel had sent an encrypted message.
Salvatore has contacted three captains. He's claiming Matteo is mentally unfit to lead and intends to call an emergency council.
Matteo read the message twice.
“He's moving against me.”
Nathaniel pushed himself upright.
“Then you have to understand what he wants.”
“The trust?”
“Not just the trust. Salvatore wants control of the legitimate businesses because they are the only part of the empire that can survive a federal investigation. He intends to sacrifice the criminal operations and present himself as the man who saved the family's future.”
Norah looked at the ledger.
“He needs the original records destroyed.”
Nathaniel nodded.
“And he needs you discredited before you can expose him.”
Matteo stood.
“Then we expose him first.”
Nathaniel caught his wrist.
“You can't.”
Matteo looked down.
“Why not?”
“Because the evidence isn't enough. The ledger proves the payments, but it doesn't prove who ordered the fire. That evidence is in the original memorandum.”
“The Serrano memorandum,” Norah whispered.
Nathaniel nodded.
“That's why Camila tried to force you to confess. She believed you had found it.”
Matteo looked at Norah.
“You told me you didn't take the document.”
“I didn't.”
“Then who did?”
Nathaniel answered.
“Elizabeth.”
Norah stared at him.
“She has the original?”
“She took it from Salvatore's office the night Adrian died. She hid it somewhere only she and Adrian knew.”
Matteo's jaw tightened.
“Then we need Adrian.”
Before Nathaniel could answer, the hospital lights flickered.
A nurse hurried past the open door.
Then Gabriel appeared, breathing hard.
“Boss, we have a security breach.”
Matteo drew his weapon.
“Where?”
“Someone accessed the patient records. They know Nathaniel is here.”
A crash sounded at the far end of the corridor.
The hospital's emergency alarm began to ring.
Matteo moved toward the door, but Norah caught his arm.
“Wait.”
She pointed to the bedside monitor.
The machine had been unplugged.
The line connecting Nathaniel to the monitor lay on the floor, neatly cut.
And beneath the pillow was a folded note.
Norah opened it.
Bring the original memorandum to the old courthouse by midnight. Come alone. If you fail, Elizabeth dies.
A second sentence had been written underneath.
Ask Matteo why his father chose you over his own brother.
Norah looked up.
Matteo's face had gone pale.
May you like
He knew something about the agreement that Nathaniel had not told them.
And for the first time since their partnership began, Norah wondered whether Matteo was keeping a secret of his own.
