Chapter 12
Then I found a list.
Payments.
Dates.
Names.
One name stopped me.
Luca Rossi.
A payment had been made to him every month for eleven years.
Not huge.
Enough to live.
The sender?
Northstar Trust.
Authorized by Mateo Bell.
I sat slowly.
Mateo had funded Luca’s new life.
The story changed again.
If Mateo had wanted Luca dead, why finance him for eleven years?
Unless the payments were something else.
Hush money.
Protection.
An agreement.
Viktor lifted another folder.
“Boss.”
Inside were copies of old medical bills.
Rachel.
Gabriel.
Birth records.
School fees.
Mateo had paid those too.
I felt a pressure growing behind my ribs.
For four months, I had wanted Mateo to be simple.
Traitor.
Enemy.
The man who took Sophia from me.
But simple stories were exactly what had fooled me.
Viktor opened the bottom drawer of the desk.
There was a digital recorder inside.
Old.
Battery powered.
A label had been taped to the back.
FOR DOMINIC.
I pressed play.
Static.
Then my father’s voice filled the office.
My father had been dead seven years.
Hearing him again nearly knocked me backward.
“Dominic, if you ever hear this recording, something went wrong.”
Viktor and I looked at each other.
My father continued.
“Northstar was my mistake. Mateo told me not to begin it. Carlo told me it would make us legitimate. I wanted to believe him.”
A pause.
Paper shuffled in the recording.
“Money disappeared. Carlo blamed Mateo. Mateo blamed Carlo. I believed my brother.”
My skin went cold.
The resemblance was impossible to miss.
My father had chosen family over Mateo.
I had chosen Mateo over family.
Maybe all of us had spent years choosing sides without understanding the game.
My father’s voice continued.
“Then Luca found the ledger.”
I leaned closer.
“He was twenty-six and thought truth was enough protection. It never is.”
Another pause.
“If Luca is alive when you hear this, it is because Mateo kept a promise to me.”
I stopped the recording.
Viktor stared at me.
“Boss.”
I pressed play again.
“Mateo was supposed to get Luca out. New name. New life. No contact. Not even with you.”
My heart pounded.
“He was protecting him,” Viktor whispered.
The recording continued.
“The less Dominic knows, the safer both my sons are.”
I gripped the recorder.
My father had known.
My father had helped fake Luca’s death.
A decision made for me.