Chapter 13 - THE TRUTH ABOUT ARTHUR’S FATHER
Arthur disappeared for six hours.
Nico didn’t chase him.
Neither did I.
Some truths need room before they need conversation.
The old records finally provided an answer.
Vincent had told the truth.
And lied at the same time.
Lorenzo had ordered Samuel Kane removed from the construction site.
Not killed.
Removed.
Samuel had discovered Carlo DeLuca planned to sabotage the company’s scaffolding to create an insurance loss large enough to hide missing money.
Lorenzo told Samuel to leave immediately and bring evidence to the district attorney.
Samuel refused.
He wanted to photograph the damaged structure first.
The scaffolding collapsed while he was still there.
Lorenzo spent years blaming himself.
Carlo spent years letting Arthur believe it had been a random accident.
Vincent inherited the truth and weaponized only the part that sounded worst.
Arthur returned just before midnight.
Nico handed him every document.
No excuses.
No defense of his father.
Arthur read them.
Then he cried.
Quietly.
I walked out and gave the two men privacy.
The next morning, Arthur stayed.
That told me enough.
Vincent’s network unraveled quickly after our recorded meeting.
Daniel Cross was located.
He agreed to cooperate once confronted with the financial records.
Several compromised employees were removed.
The stolen business funds were frozen.
Evidence connected Vincent to extortion, fraud, unlawful surveillance, and the plot involving me.
Nico turned everything over through his attorneys.
Including records that could create problems for his own organization.
Arthur stared at him when he signed the authorization.
“You know where this leads.”
“Yes.”
“You could lose half of what your father built.”
Nico looked toward the window.
“My father built something where nobody told him the truth until people died.”
Then he looked at me.
“I’m done inheriting that.”
For the first time, I believed him.
Not because he promised me anything.
Because the decision cost him something.
Vincent was arrested three days later while attempting to leave New York through a private airfield.
I expected relief.
Instead, I felt tired.
The danger was ending.
My relationship with Nico was not magically repaired.
So I packed again.
This time in daylight.
Nico watched from the doorway.
No guards blocked me.
No driver waited unless I wanted one.
No black card appeared.
“Where are you going?”
“I rented an apartment.”
Pain crossed his face.
He nodded.
“Do you want security?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
That one word almost undid me.
I lifted my bag.
Nico stepped aside.
Then he handed me an envelope.
“What’s this?”
“Nothing you owe me for.”
Inside was proof that my mother’s medical expenses had been legally converted years earlier into a charitable grant.
No debt.
No strings.
No repayment.
Nothing connecting me financially to him.
At the bottom was another document.
A formal statement removing my name from every security file, property record, account authorization, and private database his organization maintained.
May you like
He had finally given me something I never knew I needed.
A life that belonged only to me.
