Chapter 9 - GABRIEL'S MOTHER
Gabriel's mother, Lucia Rossi, died when he was twelve.
Cancer.
That was the story.
Unlike every other suspicious death in this family, the cancer was real.
But apparently her identity wasn't.
Her birth certificate listed Lucia Romano.
Richard's hidden files listed another name.
Lucia Conti.
Matteo Conti's younger sister.
Gabriel stared at the document.
That made Alessandro's biological father Gabriel's maternal uncle.
Their family connection was deeper than either knew.
Why hide it?
Because Lucia had also been part of Antonio's witness network.
She married Salvatore partly for love.
Partly to protect records.
Gabriel sat in silence.
I understood that kind of shock now.
Your parents becoming strangers after death.
Salvatore entered.
Gabriel held up the paper.
“Anything else you'd like to confess before someone digs it out of a wall?”
Salvatore almost smiled.
Wrong time.
He stopped.
“Lucia asked me never to tell you.”
“Of course she did.”
Everyone in this story was protecting children by depriving them of truth.
Then Richard contacted me.
Not Gabriel.
Me.
He called from a blocked number.
“I didn't know Vittorio would come back.”
“Why put me at Salvatore's table?”
“Because Antonio told me to.”
I froze.
Before he died, Antonio had contacted Richard.
If Salvatore ever returned publicly to Ilvento, Richard was supposed to arrange for me to serve him.
“Why?”
“So Salvatore would hear the dialect.”
The language itself was a signal.
Antonio believed only one person outside Sicily still spoke certain phrases exactly as his mother did.
Me.
He had taught me intentionally.
Not just memories.
A key.
Richard continued:
“When you called Salvatore ‘Your Grace,’ he knew Antonio had completed the plan.”
“What plan?”
“Force the family to reopen everything.”
Antonio had orchestrated this confrontation from beyond the grave.
Infuriating.
Very him.
“Where are you?”
Richard hesitated.
“Running.”
“From Vittorio?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Alessandro.”
My stomach dropped.
According to Richard, Alessandro wasn't simply a returning victim.
He had been working with Vittorio for years.
Not willingly at first.
But eventually they formed a partnership.
Alessandro wanted revenge on Salvatore for hiding the truth about Matteo.
Vittorio wanted control of the Rossi empire.
Richard had discovered payments between them.
“Why did Alessandro warn me not to trust the Rossis?”
“Because he wanted you to trust him.”
Then Richard said something worse.
“The bone under the restaurant wasn't found by accident.”
“Meaning?”
“Alessandro placed the spoon where Antonio knew you'd get it.”
Antonio couldn't have known what Alessandro would do decades later.
Unless the spoon had changed hands after Antonio died.
“Where is the notebook?” Richard asked.
“With me.”
“Good.”
“Why?”
“Because Alessandro needs it.”
“For evidence against Salvatore?”
“No.”
Richard's voice dropped.
“The notebook contains account codes.”
Not history.
Money.
Vittorio's old trafficking profits.
May you like
Nearly ninety million dollars.
And one of the access phrases was written in a dialect only I could interpret.
