Chapter 6 - THE UNCLE WHO RAISED HIM
Salvatore Valkcari had raised Tiberio after Vittorio became ill.
He taught him to shoot.
To negotiate.
To recognize lies.
To never sit with his back to a door.
Tiberio trusted him more than almost anyone alive.
Which was exactly why Alio had stayed dead.
“If Salvatore knew you survived,” Alio said, “he would have finished it.”
The farmhouse kitchen became a courtroom without a judge.
Tiberio stood across from his brother.
Marco remained near the door.
Brena listened.
Alio explained everything.
He had discovered Vittorio’s scheme shortly before the retrofit company collapsed.
Vittorio had used Grant Walsh to maneuver Alio into financing agreements so Valkcari interests could eventually absorb the vibration-control patent.
But Vittorio died before the plan finished.
Salvatore inherited the cleanup.
Grant panicked.
Alio threatened to expose everyone.
Three months later, his car exploded.
Marco had followed him that night because he suspected Salvatore.
He pulled Alio from the wreckage before the second explosion.
The body later identified as Alio belonged to another man.
A mechanic who had been in the passenger seat.
Tiberio closed his eyes.
“And you let me bury him under Alio’s name.”
Marco looked ashamed.
“If Salvatore believed Alio lived, everyone helping him would die.”
“Including me?”
“Especially you.”
Tiberio’s eyes opened.
“Why?”
Alio answered.
“Because Dad left something behind.”
“What?”
“A succession document.”
Tiberio laughed bitterly.
“Marco?”
“No.”
Alio shook his head.
“You.”
Brena frowned.
“But Elaine’s letter said Marco should have inherited.”
“She was right legally.”
Marco spoke quietly.
“Vittorio knew I was his first son. But he never acknowledged me publicly. He created a private trust instead.”
Tiberio looked at him.
“Then what succession document?”
Alio walked to a cabinet and removed a sealed envelope.
Inside was Vittorio’s handwritten directive.
If Tiberio assumes leadership, Salvatore must never obtain controlling authority over Valkcari Seismic.
Tiberio read it.
“Why?”
“Because Dad discovered Salvatore had been siphoning contracts.”
“How much?”
“More than twenty million.”
Brena felt the room shift.
The revenge against Grant.
Alio’s death.
Marco’s hidden identity.
All roads now pointed toward Salvatore.
Tiberio immediately called the corporate office.
No answer.
Then his head of security.
No answer.
Then the penthouse.
Nothing.
His face changed.
“Brena.”
She knew before he said it.
“My studio.”
He called.
One of her employees answered, crying.
Smoke alarms screamed in the background.
“Tiberio?”
He put the phone on speaker.
“Mrs. Valkcari, someone threw something through the front window. The curtains caught fire. We’re outside. Fire department is here.”
Brena went cold.
“My building?”
“Everyone is safe.”
Tiberio was already moving.
But Alio grabbed his arm.
“That’s what he wants.”
Tiberio turned.
“What?”
“You to run toward one problem while he takes something else.”
Brena understood.
“The company.”
Marco pulled up internal corporate filings.
A board meeting had been scheduled for 8:00 the next morning.
Emergency vote.
Transfer of temporary executive control.
To Salvatore.
Tiberio stared at the screen.
“He can’t do that.”
Marco looked at him.
“He can if the board believes you’re compromised.”
“By what?”
Then Brena’s phone buzzed.
News alert.
Photos from their wedding.
Headline:
VALKCARI PRESIDENT’S NEW WIFE LINKED TO FATHER’S MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR FRAUD SCHEME.
Grant’s crimes.
Her name.
Her studio.
The marriage.
Everything had been packaged to make Tiberio look compromised by the Walsh family.
Brena looked at him.
“This isn’t about destroying your company.”
“No.”
Tiberio’s voice became cold.
“He wants the board to remove me.”
Alio shook his head.
“Not just remove you.”
He opened another file.
A transfer document.
If Salvatore gained temporary control and Tiberio became incapacitated, voting authority would pass to the senior family trustee.
Salvatore.
Brena swallowed.
“Incapacitated how?”
May you like
Alio looked at his brother.
“Dead works.”
