Chapter 8 - The Survivor Who Never Spoke
Carmine sent Leo to the kitchen with Marco and waited until the door closed.
Then he turned on his mother.
“You were in the car.”
“For eleven minutes.”
“What happened?”
“Alessia picked me up outside the clinic. She was terrified. She said we had to reach you before Salvatore did.”
“Why did you get out?”
Teresa’s face tightened.
“A black sedan began following us. Alessia told me to switch vehicles at a pharmacy parking lot. She said one of us needed to survive with the evidence.”
“And you let her keep driving?”
“She ordered me out.”
Carmine laughed without humor.
“That sounds like her.”
Teresa’s eyes filled.
“I watched her leave.”
The room went quiet.
“Why did you never tell me?”
“Because thirty minutes later Salvatore called me and said if I mentioned the clinic, you would be next.”
“You believed him?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“I believed what you did next.”
Carmine looked away.
The war.
Three dead men in forty-eight hours.
Two families dragged into retaliation.
He had been twenty-nine and insane with grief.
Teresa continued.
“I thought if you learned the crash came from inside our family, you would burn everything down with Leo inside it.”
Carmine did not defend himself.
That was the most painful part.
He might have.
Nina entered carrying a sealed envelope.
“We found something in the trust records.”
She placed it on the desk.
Alessia’s handwriting covered the front.
FOR CARMINE ONLY AFTER LEO TURNS SEVEN.
Leo had turned seven two weeks earlier.
Carmine opened it.
Inside was a single page.
Carmine,
If you are reading this, then either I am gone or I failed to stop them.
Do not confuse revenge with protection.
Leo will need a father more than he needs a war.
The Belladonna Trust contains thirty-four percent because that number can stop a takeover without controlling the company alone.
If anyone tries to have Leo declared unstable, follow the doctors, not the money.
Money is the reward.
Control is the business.
At the bottom was one more line.
And Carmine, if Salvatore is still beside you, ask him why your father paid Dr. Ames for twenty-two years.
Carmine looked up.
“My father?”
Teresa sat down slowly.
Nina opened another ledger.
Payments from DeLuca Family Foundation to Ames Medical Consulting.
Twenty-two years.
The oldest payment had been made when Carmine was six.
Carmine stared at the date.
Then at his mother.
“What did Ames do to me?”
Teresa’s face collapsed.
For the first time in Carmine’s life, his mother looked afraid of him.
“He evaluated you,” she whispered.
“For what?”
She answered so quietly he almost missed it.
“To decide whether your father should keep you.”
---
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
May you like
If you enjoyed the story, bookmark my site: https://vibe.treeiq.biz
New stories are posted daily, so check back for updates.
