Chapter 8 - THE DEAD MAN WHO WASN'T DEAD
His name was Michael Vescari.
Dominic's older brother.
I stared at the photograph.
“You had a brother?”
Dominic's face had become unreadable.
“He died when I was nineteen.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
Dominic turned sharply.
“I attended his funeral.”
“You attended an empty casket.”
The room went silent.
Evelyn's memories were returning faster now.
Michael had discovered Victor's financial crimes before Anthony's death.
After the bombing, Michael became convinced Victor would kill Dominic next.
So Evelyn helped Michael disappear.
Dominic looked devastated.
“You let me believe my brother was dead?”
“I was trying to keep both of you alive.”
“For eighteen years?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I made a terrible choice.”
Dominic walked away.
For the first time since I'd met him, he didn't look frightening.
He looked abandoned.
I found him ten minutes later on the back stairwell.
“Don't.”
“I haven't said anything.”
“You were about to tell me she did it because she loved me.”
“No.”
He looked surprised.
“I was going to tell you that you're allowed to be angry.”
He stared at me.
“And after that?”
“After that, eventually, you decide what kind of man you want your anger to create.”
He sat on the step.
I sat beside him.
For nearly a minute, neither of us spoke.
Then he laughed quietly.
“What?”
“You chase thieves, shelter strangers, argue with armed men, and lecture mob bosses in stairwells.”
“I contain multitudes.”
His smile was brief but real.
Then his phone rang.
Daniel had traced Michael.
He was living under another name in Vermont.
Dominic drove there that afternoon.
I stayed with Evelyn.
Seven hours later, he returned.
Michael was alive.
And he'd agreed to testify.
But the reunion had revealed something worse.
Michael had been watching Victor for years.
He knew about tomorrow's gala.
He knew about the attempt on Dominic's life.
And he knew why Victor was suddenly desperate.
Dominic placed a folder on the table.
Inside were documents showing that Dominic had spent three years quietly transferring the family's legitimate businesses away from criminal operations.
“He knows I'm shutting everything down,” Dominic said.
I looked up.
“You're leaving the mafia?”
His jaw tightened.
“I've been trying to.”
That was the secret nobody in Boston knew.
The feared Dominic Vescari wasn't fighting to expand his empire.
May you like
He was fighting to dismantle it.
And Victor was willing to kill everyone Dominic loved to stop him.
