Chapter 12 - EVELYN WAS THE FINAL SCAPEGOAT
The forged succession documents were not meant to make Evelyn powerful.
They were meant to make her guilty.
If Antonio died and Luca was framed, the temporary transfer to Evelyn would appear suspicious.
Then investigators would discover her father’s Vitelli connection.
Her photographed surveillance.
The forged signature.
Her presence on the plane.
Her handling of Antonio’s emergency medication.
Everything would point toward a long-planned takeover by an unknown branch of the family.
Meanwhile Paolo would empty the real accounts.
Brilliant.
Cruel.
Simple enough for newspapers to understand.
Flight attendant secretly related to mafia dynasty poisons boss and inherits fortune.
Evelyn could already see the headline.
Antonio could too.
“No one will believe it now.”
“Because you survived,” she said.
“Because you saved me.”
She looked away.
Thomas gave them Paolo’s location.
An old coastal property outside Palermo owned through a church foundation.
Italian authorities were notified.
So were American federal agents.
Antonio wanted to go.
This time the doctors discharged him—with conditions, medication, and an escort.
Evelyn intended to return to New York.
Then Thomas called again.
“He wants to speak with you.”
“Who?”
“Paolo.”
“No.”
Antonio agreed.
“No.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You don’t get to decide.”
“No, but I can tell you it is a trap.”
“Everything has been a trap.”
She thought for several seconds.
Then made her choice.
She would go to Palermo under law-enforcement coordination.
Not secretly.
Not alone.
Not because Paolo ordered her.
Because her father was there.
Antonio disliked the decision.
He respected it.
That mattered.
They arrived in Sicily the following evening.
The property sat above black water and jagged stone.
Police surrounded the road.
Thomas Foster emerged first.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Evelyn stepped from the vehicle.
Twenty-one years disappeared.
She crossed the distance between them and slapped him.
Hard.
Antonio looked away.
Thomas touched his cheek.
“I deserved that.”
Then Evelyn hugged him.
She cried against his coat.
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“Twice.”
“I know.”
When she finally stepped back, Thomas told them Paolo was inside.
But something had changed.
Paolo knew police were coming.
He was not running.
Antonio understood.
“He wants me to enter.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Thomas looked toward the house.
“Because there’s one more person inside.”
Luca’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face drained of color.
Marco had disappeared from police protection thirty minutes earlier.
His tracking device had been found beside the road.
Thomas looked at Antonio.
Then revealed the secret.
May you like
“Paolo has Marco.”
“And he says Marco is his son too.”
