Chapter 9 - VIVIAN WALKED INTO THE MONASTERY ALONE
The monastery had been abandoned since 1988.
Stone walls.
Broken stained glass.
No electricity except generators Marcello’s men had brought.
Vivian entered through the center doors.
No weapon.
One leather folder.
Vittorio stood near the altar.
Older than she remembered.
Smaller.
Marcello stood opposite him.
The brothers looked almost identical from a distance.
Then Marcello smiled.
“Nathan’s daughter.”
Vivian stopped twenty feet away.
“You killed my father.”
Marcello tilted his head.
“He made choices.”
“So did you.”
“You sound like him.”
“Good.”
Vittorio stepped toward her.
“Vivian, give me the files.”
She laughed.
“You killed my child.”
His expression barely moved.
That was answer enough.
Her throat closed.
“Why?”
“The pregnancy complicated the trust.”
There it was.
Not remorse.
Accounting.
“If you had a Falcone heir, Nathan’s properties became protected under a separate inheritance structure.”
“So you killed my baby for property.”
“I prevented a problem.”
Vivian’s entire body shook.
Marcello laughed softly.
“Brother, you were always better at making evil sound administrative.”
Vittorio glared.
“You profited from half of it.”
“Yes.”
Marcello did not pretend innocence.
Then he looked at Vivian.
“Give me the microfilm.”
“It’s federal evidence now.”
His smile vanished.
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
“Then why come?”
Vivian looked between them.
“To hear you say it.”
“Say what?”
“You killed my father.”
Marcello stared.
Then smiled.
“Yes.”
The word echoed against stone.
Vittorio turned.
“You idiot.”
Too late.
Vivian touched the necklace at her throat.
A transmitter.
Federal agents listening outside.
Marcello lunged.
Vittorio shouted.
Gunfire erupted from the side corridor.
Not federal.
Marcello’s men.
Chaos broke open.
Vivian dropped behind a pew.
Stone exploded above her.
Then someone covered her body.
Lorenzo.
He had arrived through the rear entrance.
Unarmed.
He pulled her behind a pillar.
“What are you doing here?”
She almost laughed from disbelief.
“You don’t get to ask me that.”
Fair.
A bullet struck stone inches away.
Lorenzo shielded her with his body.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
He looked relieved.
Then Marcello appeared behind them.
Gun raised.
“Move, Lorenzo.”
Lorenzo stood.
No weapon.
Vivian grabbed his sleeve.
He gently removed her hand.
Marcello smiled.
“Still weak where she’s concerned.”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“Yes.”
Marcello blinked.
Lorenzo continued.
“I spent my whole life ashamed of that.”
He glanced at Vivian.
“I’m not anymore.”
Marcello aimed.
A shot fired.
Vivian screamed.
Marcello collapsed.
Not dead.
Shot through the shoulder by Matteo from the balcony.
Federal agents stormed the monastery.
Vittorio tried to run.
Vivian stopped him.
Not with a weapon.
With one sentence.
“They know about the baby.”
Vittorio froze.
For the first time, fear appeared on his face.
Agents cuffed him.
Marcello was taken alive.
Lorenzo stood beside Vivian.
Blood ran down his arm.
She looked.
“You said you weren’t hit.”
“Graze.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“Yes.”
She pressed fabric against the wound.
Old instinct.
Then stopped herself.
Lorenzo noticed.
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
That was the difference.
Outside, dawn began turning the sky gray.
Federal agents loaded Vittorio into a vehicle.
Marcello followed.
The Falcone empire had not ended with gunfire.
It ended with documents.
Recordings.
Confessions.
Evidence.
Then one agent approached Vivian.
“Mrs. Falcone?”
“Yes?”
“We found something in Marcello’s files.”
“What?”
“A birth certificate.”
Vivian frowned.
“Whose?”
The agent looked at Lorenzo.
“His.”
Lorenzo’s face changed.
May you like
The document showed Vittorio Falcone was not his biological father.
And the man listed instead was Nathan Bellini.
