Chapter 10
Vittorio had been told his entire life that his mother knew nothing about business.
Evelyn Romano died when he was twenty-two.
She was remembered in photographs.
Charity dinners.
Family holidays.
Church events.
His father described her as gentle, private, uninterested in money.
The records told a different story.
Evelyn had personally financed nearly forty percent of the earliest Romano Freight expansion.
The money had come from a trust established before her marriage.
Michael located old bank records confirming it.
But that was not the twist.
The twist was where the trust came from.
Moretti family money.
Rachel placed the genealogy and financial documents together.
Evelyn Romano had been born Evelyn Moretti.
Not related to Dominic as a sister.
As his first cousin.
Vittorio stared at the page.
“That’s impossible.”
“It isn’t.”
“Why was her name Romano before she married my father?”
“It wasn’t.”
Rachel slid an old marriage certificate toward him.
Evelyn Moretti married Antonio Romano in 1988.
Vittorio had never seen the original.
His father had erased the Moretti connection from every family story.
Dominic had not been merely a rival.
He had been extended family.
And the old secret partnership had been funded partly through Evelyn.
Michael continued.
“Antonio and Dominic started with Evelyn’s money.”
“What happened?”
“Still working on it.”
Then Daniel arrived.
“We found Dominic.”
Vittorio stood.
“Where?”
“He checked into a private medical facility outside Milwaukee.”
“Medical?”
Daniel nodded.
“He has late-stage pancreatic cancer.”
Vittorio stopped.
Dominic had not returned because he had decades to rebuild an empire.
He was dying.
Rachel looked toward the records.
“That explains the timing.”
The old building was being sold.
Dominic’s health was failing.
The last chance to recover whatever Antonio had hidden was disappearing.
Then another call came.
From the Milwaukee clinic.
Dominic Moretti wanted to meet Vittorio.
Alone.
Rachel refused immediately.
Vittorio ignored her.
He went with security outside the room.
Dominic looked nothing like the dark-coated man in Emma’s video now.
Hospital clothing.
Gray skin.
Thin wrists.
But the Moretti lion ring remained on his finger.
Vittorio stood at the foot of the bed.
“Where’s the box?”
Dominic laughed weakly.
“Straight to business. Antonio did raise you.”
“You locked my daughter outside.”
“No.”
“You ordered Marcus to move her.”
Dominic looked away.
“That wasn’t my order.”
Vittorio stared.
“Marcus lied?”
“Marcus does that.”
“What did you tell him?”
“To get the box out without anyone seeing.”
“And Lucy?”
“I didn’t know she was there until later.”
Vittorio did not know whether to believe him.
Dominic reached toward a bedside drawer.
Vittorio’s bodyguard moved.
Dominic smiled.
“Relax.”
He pulled out a key.
“Storage locker. Milwaukee station.”
Vittorio did not take it yet.
“What’s inside?”
“The box.”
“Why give it to me?”
“Because I already found what I needed.”
“What?”
Dominic looked directly at him.
“Proof your father spent thirty years lying to both our families.”
Vittorio took the key.
Dominic continued.
“But if you’re expecting to discover that Antonio stole Romano Freight from me, you’re going to be disappointed.”
“Why?”
May you like
The old man smiled faintly.
“Because I helped him do it.”
