Chapter 7 - THE FATHER WHO BUILT THE EMPIRE
Alessandro had buried an empty coffin.
He had not known.
The funeral twelve years earlier had been enormous.
Boston politicians attended.
Business leaders sent flowers.
Hundreds of people lined the streets.
Gianni Conti was mourned as a shipping magnate and feared as something far darker.
According to Alessandro, his father suffered a fatal stroke in Sicily.
The body was supposedly too damaged during emergency transport preparations for an open casket.
A sealed coffin returned to Boston.
Alessandro never questioned it.
“Because you trusted your family,” Elena said.
His laugh had no humor.
“I’m beginning to notice a pattern.”
Michael’s letter suggested Gianni staged his death after federal investigators began closing around several financial networks.
Carlo helped.
Alessandro didn’t.
That mattered.
Gianni let his oldest son inherit the visible empire while continuing to control part of it from the shadows.
“Why?”
Elena asked.
“To keep you as the target?”
Alessandro stared into nothing.
“Yes.”
Every law-enforcement investigation.
Every rival attack.
Every newspaper headline.
Alessandro absorbed them while Gianni remained invisible.
The feared Don may have spent twelve years acting as armor for a father who never bothered telling him he was alive.
Mila climbed into Elena’s lap.
“Is his daddy bad?”
Elena hesitated.
Alessandro answered.
“Yes.”
The simplicity surprised her.
No excuse.
No mythology.
Mila considered that.
“Daddies can be bad?”
“Sometimes.”
“My daddy wasn’t.”
“No.”
Alessandro’s voice softened.
“Your daddy was better than most men I knew.”
Then the phone rang.
Alessandro’s.
Matteo.
Everyone froze.
Alessandro answered on speaker.
“You alive?”
Matteo’s voice sounded rough.
“Barely.”
“Where is Sofia?”
“With me.”
Alessandro’s eyes closed.
Relief transformed him for one second.
Then suspicion returned.
“Prove it.”
A girl’s voice came through.
“Uncle Alex?”
Alessandro’s hand shook.
“Sofia.”
“I’m okay.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Matteo took the phone again.
“We had to disappear. There’s a leak.”
“We know.”
“It’s worse.”
“Gianni?”
Silence.
Then Matteo said:
“You know.”
Alessandro’s jaw clenched.
“Where is my father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is Carlo?”
“Same answer.”
“You’ve had Sofia for twelve hours.”
“To keep her breathing.”
“Then bring her in.”
“No.”
Every person in the room went still.
Matteo had just refused Don Alessandro Conti.
“Explain.”
“Not over the phone.”
“Then choose a location.”
“I already did.”
Matteo gave an address.
An abandoned church in Chelsea.
Father Grady frowned.
“I know it.”
Matteo continued:
“Come with Elena.”
“No.”
Elena looked at Alessandro.
Matteo said:
“She has to hear this.”
“Why?”
Another pause.
“Because Michael Carter wasn’t killed for the vault.”
Elena’s heart tightened.
“Why was he killed?”
May you like
Matteo answered:
“Because he learned why Gianni had been watching Mila since the day she was born.”
