Chapter 10 - THE SIN SALVATORE BURIED
Salvatore Rossi had spent his entire life making people afraid of him.
That afternoon, he looked afraid of me.
“I was twenty-eight,” he said.
Angelo corrected him.
“You were twenty-nine.”
Salvatore glared.
“You always were irritating.”
“And you always changed details when the truth embarrassed you.”
I folded my arms.
“Tell me what happened.”
Salvatore sat slowly.
Their father had discovered Vittorio stealing from the family’s legitimate shipping accounts.
The confrontation became violent.
Vittorio struck him.
He fell down a staircase and died.
Salvatore found his younger brother beside the body.
“And you covered it up.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He was twenty-one.”
“So?”
“He was my brother.”
I laughed bitterly.
“And my mother was somebody’s daughter.”
Salvatore flinched.
Angelo continued the story.
Protecting Vittorio taught him something dangerous.
That family loyalty could erase consequences.
He became bolder.
He stole.
Threatened.
Bought officials.
Years later, when my mother discovered his hidden accounts, Vittorio treated her the same way he had treated everyone else.
Disposable.
Salvatore did not order the hit-and-run.
But afterward, when Angelo demanded that Vittorio be handed over to authorities, Salvatore refused again.
“He threatened my sons,” Salvatore whispered.
Gabriel looked at him.
“You let him stay near us because he threatened us?”
“I thought keeping him close meant controlling him.”
“You were wrong.”
“Yes.”
That single word carried thirty years of damage.
Salvatore looked at me.
“I created the trust for Anna. I paid for security. I thought I could make restitution privately.”
“You thought money could replace justice.”
“Yes.”
I had expected excuses.
His honesty was somehow worse.
Angelo opened the original ledger.
“Vittorio has survived because everyone around him made compromises.”
Salvatore nodded.
“Then I stop compromising.”
Gabriel turned toward him.
“What are you saying?”
“I testify.”
Everyone went silent.
A mafia boss voluntarily giving evidence against his own organization would destroy alliances built across decades.
Salvatore knew it.
So did Gabriel.
“You’ll lose everything,” Luca’s empty absence seemed to hang in the room.
Salvatore looked at his son.
“Maybe losing everything is overdue.”
Then Gabriel’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Vittorio’s voice filled the basement.
“You finally found the prodigal brother.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“Where is Luca?”
“Alive.”
“Let me speak to him.”
“No.”
Vittorio laughed softly.
“I want the original ledger.”
Gabriel looked at Angelo.
“And if you get it?”
“You get your brother.”
A pause.
Then Vittorio added:
“And bring the waitress.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
“You misunderstand.”
Vittorio’s voice became colder.
“Tessa isn’t part of the trade.”
May you like
My blood turned cold.
“She is the trade.”
