Chapter 4 - HER FATHER HAD BEEN PROTECTING LORENZO
Lorenzo destroyed three glasses before noon.
Not because Vivian had left.
He refused to admit that part.
Because every road led back to secrets other men had kept from him.
Matteo stood across the study.
“Boss, you need to sit down.”
“I need Russo found.”
“We found the farmhouse.”
Lorenzo looked up.
“And?”
“She’s still there.”
“Is she safe?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Matteo hesitated.
“You’re not sending men?”
“No.”
The answer surprised both of them.
Twenty-four hours earlier, Lorenzo would have surrounded the property.
Forced Vivian back into the estate.
Called it protection.
Now he remembered the way she had looked at him after he said he never loved her.
I believed you.
His stomach twisted.
“Keep eyes on the roads. Nobody approaches.”
“Not even us?”
“Especially us.”
Matteo nodded.
Then placed an old folder on the desk.
“Found what your father gave you after Nathan died.”
Lorenzo stared at it.
Antonio Russo — Internal Investigation.
Seven years earlier, Vittorio had shown Lorenzo bank transfers linking Antonio to a contract killer named Mikhail Petrov.
Petrov’s car had been near the road where Nathan died.
Lorenzo had believed the implication.
Antonio paid Petrov.
Petrov killed Nathan.
But today Matteo had found something wrong.
“The transfer originated from Falcone Reserve Bank.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“So?”
“That account was controlled by your father.”
Silence.
Lorenzo looked down.
“Could Russo access it?”
“No.”
“Anyone else?”
“Your uncle Matteo Senior. Your father. And you.”
Lorenzo’s gaze sharpened.
“I was in Philadelphia.”
“I know.”
Which left Vittorio.
Or his brother.
The entire accusation against Antonio might have been manufactured.
Lorenzo sat down.
Then Matteo slid forward another paper.
“Nathan Bellini met you the night he died.”
Lorenzo stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I found traffic-camera archives.”
Lorenzo remembered.
Nathan’s white-knuckled hands.
The envelope on his lap.
His voice.
If anything happens to me, do not let your father near Vivian.
Lorenzo had been twenty-six.
He believed Nathan had lost his mind.
He dropped him at the safe house.
Then called Vittorio.
That phone call had haunted him for seven years.
He had given his father Nathan’s location.
Nathan died the next night.
Lorenzo whispered:
“I killed him.”
“No.”
“I gave my father the address.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
Matteo did not argue.
Good.
Then Lorenzo remembered the final conversation.
Nathan had tried to give him something.
A small black key.
Lorenzo refused.
Too angry.
Too frightened.
Nathan put it back inside his coat.
“He had a key.”
Matteo frowned.
“What kind?”
“Deposit box.”
They searched old property records.
One safe-deposit box remained open under Nathan Bellini’s name.
Location: First Hudson Private Bank.
Beneficiary authorized after Nathan’s death:
Vivian Bellini Falcone.
Lorenzo immediately stopped.
“It’s hers.”
“You don’t want to open it?”
“No.”
That answer surprised him too.
Vivian had spent three years living in his house while men decided what she should know.
He would not become another.
Then a security officer entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Your father is here.”
Lorenzo went still.
Vittorio rarely visited without warning.
He entered seconds later.
Seventy-one.
Silver hair.
Perfect suit.
Still carrying the quiet authority Lorenzo had feared since childhood.
“You let your wife run.”
Lorenzo stood.
“She left.”
“She belongs here.”
“No.”
Vittorio stared at him.
That word had never been used against him lightly.
“She controls assets this family needs.”
There it was.
Not concern.
Assets.
Lorenzo’s voice became cold.
“What did you do to Nathan Bellini?”
Vittorio smiled faintly.
“So Russo found her.”
“Answer.”
“Be careful, son.”
“I’m done being careful.”
Vittorio’s expression changed.
Then he said:
“Nathan Bellini was going to destroy us.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
Lorenzo did not believe him.
Vittorio continued.
“But I know who did.”
“Who?”
His father walked toward the window.
“Vivian’s mother.”
Lorenzo stared.
“Her mother died when Vivian was thirteen.”
Vittorio turned.
“No.”
May you like
“She disappeared.”
And according to Vittorio, she had been alive this entire time.
