Chapter 13 - THE LAST BELLANDI COUNCIL
At 11:58 p.m., Marco Bellandi believed he had won.
Every senior captain sat inside the old council chamber.
Nicholas controlled the lower tunnel.
Theo was tied near the service entrance.
Elena waited outside with federal agents.
Adrian walked through the front doors alone.
Or appeared to.
I entered beneath the building through the old architectural passage.
The same narrow corridor I had designed fourteen years earlier for emergency evacuation.
Marco stood at the head of the council table.
“Cousin.”
Adrian looked around.
“You always wanted the chair.”
“I wanted someone competent in it.”
“You murdered Claire’s parents.”
Marco shrugged.
“Nicholas did the driving.”
Nicholas’s face tightened.
There it was.
A crack.
Marco continued.
“You told me to handle them.”
Adrian looked at the men seated around the table.
“Yes.”
A murmur moved through the room.
Marco smiled.
Adrian continued:
“And I was wrong.”
The room went silent.
“I spent half my life believing power excused the things done in my name.”
Marco’s smile faded.
“It doesn’t.”
He placed his gun on the table.
Then his phone.
Then the Bellandi account codes.
“I’m done pretending otherwise.”
Marco stared.
“You’ve become weak.”
“No.”
Adrian looked toward the hidden camera federal agents were recording through Continuity.
“I finally know what weakness cost me.”
Marco’s tablet chimed.
LIVE VOICE VERIFICATION REQUIRED.
He smiled again.
“Claire.”
I stepped from the side corridor.
Every head turned.
Adrian’s face tightened even though he knew the plan.
Marco pointed a gun toward me.
“Authorize the transfer.”
I stood at the terminal.
The random challenge appeared.
STATE THE NAME OF THE FIRST STREET YOU CALLED HOME WITH ADRIAN.
Marco looked pleased.
He couldn’t fake that.
I answered:
“Wellington Avenue.”
The system processed.
Marco smiled.
Then the screen turned red.
AUTHORIZATION REVOKED.
CONTINUITY TRUST ACTIVATED.
ALL EXECUTIVE CONTROL TRANSFERRED TO INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT.
Marco stared.
“What did you do?”
“I answered correctly.”
He didn’t understand.
“The system isn’t asking whether I authorize you.”
I looked at Adrian.
“It’s asking whether I authorize anyone.”
And I had chosen no.
Every legitimate Bellandi asset moved beyond Marco’s reach.
Beyond Adrian’s too.
Marco fired toward the ceiling and charged.
Adrian moved between us.
Marco swung.
Adrian blocked him and drove him onto the table.
Marco fell, rolled, came up furious, and charged a second time.
This time Adrian sidestepped, caught him, and drove him hard to the floor.
The gun skidded away.
Nicholas raised his weapon.
Theo kicked the back of his knee from the floor.
Elena rushed in with agents.
Nicholas was disarmed.
Marco struggled beneath Adrian.
“Kill me.”
Adrian’s breathing was heavy.
Fifteen years earlier, he might have.
Five years earlier, he certainly would have.
Tonight he stood.
“No.”
Marco laughed bitterly.
“You think prison makes you clean?”
“No.”
Adrian looked at me.
“Nothing makes me clean.”
Federal agents handcuffed Marco.
Nicholas too.
As they dragged Marco toward the door, he looked at me.
“Ask your husband why he never told you about the second recording.”
Adrian went still.
I turned.
“What second recording?”
An investigator searched the Continuity files.
One final audio file appeared.
Carlo Bellandi speaking to Adrian only six months before our wedding.
Carlo said:
“If you marry Claire, someday she may learn what happened to her parents.”
Then Adrian answered.
“I know.”
My blood went cold.
May you like
Marco smiled from the doorway.
Adrian had known there was more to my parents’ deaths before he married me.
