Chapter 15
Marco Bellini was found two days later.
Not dead.
Hiding.
He had rented a room under another name outside the city.
Police found him because he used Leo’s trust card to buy a train ticket.
Greed made people stupid.
Fear made them sloppy.
Marco turned on Enzo within an hour.
Then on Helena.
Then on names I had not heard since my father was alive.
The scheme was older than my marriage.
Older than Sofia’s murder.
My father had built hidden accounts under children’s trusts because courts rarely questioned old family protections.
Sofia discovered it after Leo was born.
She planned to expose it.
Helena was sent to watch her.
Enzo gave the orders.
Others moved the money.
My father died before it all came out, but the machine kept running.
And Leo became the last key.
I listened to Detective Vale explain it and felt shame settle over me.
“My family did this.”
“Some of your family,” he said.
“I wore the name.”
“You are helping dismantle it.”
“That does not erase it.”
“No,” Vale said. “It decides what happens next.”
I did something I never imagined.
I signed over cooperation.
Full access to Romano financial archives.
Old ledgers.
Offshore files.
Names.
Routes.
I gave the government enough to tear open what my father built.
My lawyer warned me it could cost me the estate.
Good.
Let it cost.
That night, I stood in the garage where Leo had knelt.
He came in quietly.
“Dad?”
I turned.
He held the cleaning cloth.
I hated seeing it in his hand.
He walked to the trash can and dropped it inside.
Then he looked at me.
“I’m done with that.”
May you like
I swallowed hard.
“So am I.”
