Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT THE ROMANO FAMILY BROKE
Victor had feared his father.
He had admired him.
He had spent half his life trying to become everything Anthony Romano demanded.
But until that night, Victor had never imagined the man might have ordered his own child's murder.
He stood before the windows while Nora reread the affidavit.
“Why would a father do that?” she whispered.
“Money,” Victor answered. “Power. Fear of losing either.”
Leo's phone rang.
He listened, then approached.
“We found a man who worked security at the old estate in 2004. His name is Gabriel Shaw.”
Victor turned.
“Bring him in.”
Twenty minutes later, Gabriel entered the penthouse.
He was sixty-eight, with gray hair and a scar beneath his left ear.
He looked at Victor and lowered his eyes.
“You have your father's face.”
“Tell me about Adrian.”
Gabriel swallowed.
“Your brother discovered something he wasn't supposed to see.”
“What?”
“A meeting between your father, Senator Davenport, and a man named Capotosti.”
Nora stepped closer.
“Matteo?”
“His uncle. Carlo Capotosti.”
Gabriel explained that the men had been using medical charities to conceal illegal payments and fraudulent construction proceeds.
Adrian overheard them discussing a witness who needed to disappear.
The witness was Evelyn Hastings.
Victor's hands curled.
“My father ordered her killed?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Adrian threatened to tell the police. Your father decided the boy had become a liability.”
Nora felt sick.
“What happened?”
“Evelyn found out. She took Adrian before the security team could reach him.”
Victor stared.
“She saved him.”
“Yes.”
“Where did she take him?”
Gabriel hesitated.
“That's the part nobody knew.”
Victor moved closer.
“Tell me.”
Gabriel's voice lowered.
“Your mother helped Evelyn.”
Victor froze.
“My mother?”
“She discovered what Anthony planned. She forged documents, arranged transport, and made sure Adrian vanished.”
Victor sank into a chair.
His mother had died believing one son hated her for failing to save the other.
All those years, she'd carried the truth alone.
Nora touched his shoulder.
He didn't pull away.
Gabriel continued.
“Evelyn intended to testify, but she was killed before the hearing.”
Nora's throat tightened.
“Who killed her?”
Gabriel looked at her with painful regret.
“That's why I came. I finally found the original police report.”
He removed a sealed envelope from his jacket.
Inside was a photograph of the vehicle recovered after Evelyn's death.
Nora recognized the wreckage from the few pictures her father had kept.
But there was another image.
A surveillance photograph taken near the accident site.
A younger Camilla Davenport stood beside a man in a dark coat.
Nora stared.
“Camilla was a teenager.”
Gabriel nodded.
“She wasn't the person who arranged the crash.”
“Then who was?”
Gabriel turned over the photograph.
On the back was a name.
JULIAN ROMANO.
Victor went pale.
Nora looked up.
“Who is Julian?”
Victor's answer came barely above a whisper.
“My uncle.”
Then Leo entered with an urgent message.
May you like
Julian Romano had just been found murdered.
And the police believed Nora Hastings was the last person to see him alive.
