Chapter 11 - THE ROMANO EMPIRE STARTED WITH A MURDER
Sebastian had grown up hearing his grandfather died in a hunting accident.
He hadn’t.
Salvatore poisoned him.
Slowly.
Over months.
Then inherited control.
Maria knew.
She fled after realizing her son would kill her too if she spoke.
Elena found her years later.
That was when Elena truly understood the man she married.
The first ledger documented the original crime network.
Judges paid.
Unions pressured.
Shipping contracts manipulated.
Two deaths.
Then three.
Then more.
Everything Salvatore later expanded.
Norah watched Sebastian read the copied entries.
“Are you going to turn this over?”
Everyone looked at him.
Carlo.
Matteo.
Luca.
Julian.
Isabella.
Even Vivian.
The old family instinct filled the room.
Protect.
Contain.
Control.
Sebastian felt it.
Norah saw.
Then he said:
“Yes.”
Carlo closed his eyes.
Matteo exhaled.
Luca asked:
“All of it?”
“All.”
That was the moment Sebastian chose which man he wanted to be.
Not Salvatore.
Not the heir.
Himself.
But before federal authorities could receive the archive, Maria Romano’s caregiver called.
Someone had reached the Lake Como villa.
Two men.
American.
They took Maria.
Sebastian’s entire body changed.
Not rage this time.
Fear.
“Who?”
The caregiver recognized one.
Adrian Moretti.
Vivian’s father.
But Adrian had supposedly been under surveillance in Chicago.
He wasn’t.
He had escaped.
And he had taken Maria.
Why?
The first ledger.
Adrian knew it could implicate him in Elena’s death and decades of medical cover-ups.
He wanted it.
Maria had hidden the original somewhere in Italy.
Then Vivian received a call.
Her father.
She answered on speaker.
“Dad.”
“Vivian.”
She started crying.
“Where are you?”
“With someone who remembers too much.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened.
“Put Maria on.”
Adrian heard him.
“Sebastian.”
“You killed my mother.”
Silence.
Then Adrian said:
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No denial.
Vivian covered her mouth.
Adrian continued:
“Salvatore ordered it.”
“You still did it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He had evidence that would put my wife in prison.”
Vivian looked confused.
“My mother?”
Adrian said nothing.
Then Vivian understood.
Her mother, Claire Moretti, had not been an innocent spouse.
She handled offshore accounts.
Salvatore owned her with evidence.
Adrian changed Elena’s medication to save Claire.
Then spent seventeen years living with it.
“Where is Maria?” Sebastian asked.
“Safe.”
“For now?”
Adrian’s silence answered.
He wanted the microfilm and the first ledger exchanged.
Norah whispered:
“He doesn’t know you don’t have Maria’s ledger.”
Sebastian understood.
Good.
They could use that.
Adrian set the meeting.
An abandoned lakeside villa outside Como.
Sebastian agreed.
But after the call, Norah looked at Vivian.
“Your father said your mother would go to prison.”
Vivian nodded.
Norah asked:
“What did she do?”
Vivian searched old records.
The answer arrived from microfilm account names.
Claire Moretti had approved payments tied to the night Elena died.
Not medication.
Transportation.
A private ambulance.
Destination:
St. Anne’s Clinic.
Elena had not died at home as everyone believed.
She had been taken somewhere first.
Sebastian stared.
“Why?”
The clinic specialized in emergency toxicology.
Which meant someone had tried to save Elena after she was poisoned.
And that person was Claire Moretti.
Adrian’s wife had helped create the crime.
Then secretly tried to reverse it.
The official time of Elena’s death had been falsified by four hours.
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For four hours, Sebastian’s mother had still been alive.
And someone at St. Anne’s had spoken to her before she died.
