Chapter 15 - The Woman Who Signed.
Vincent spoke for nearly two hours.
He admitted moving money.
He admitted hiding Andrew Halloran.
He admitted using Daniel Price to watch Hunter and paying Tommy for information.
But every confession returned to the same claim.
Marco designed the plan.
“Why?” Lorenzo asked.
Vincent’s answer was simple.
“Succession.”
Lorenzo laughed once without humor.
“I was thirty-four.”
“Your father’s old structure was collapsing.”
“Marco believed you would move too much of the family business into legitimate companies.”
Hunter watched Lorenzo absorb the strange truth that a decision to become less criminal had made him more dangerous to the people closest to him.
Vincent continued.
“Sophia discovered the transfers.”
“She confronted me.”
“Then she confronted Marco.”
Lorenzo’s voice became thin.
“And the bomb?”
“Marco arranged the meeting that placed Moretti men near the gala.”
“He wanted you dead.”
“Sophia was not supposed to be in the car.”
Lorenzo stood so quickly the chair fell backward.
Hunter expected violence.
Instead, he walked to the window.
That restraint frightened her more.
“What about Leo?”
Vincent looked down.
“Leo became the next obstacle.”
Hunter’s arms tightened around herself.
“Then why recruit me?”
“Insurance.”
Vincent’s voice was barely audible.
“Marco wanted control of the child, not necessarily his death at first.”
“He believed a dependent infant could make Lorenzo easier to manipulate.”
Lorenzo turned around.
“And when that failed?”
Vincent did not answer.
He did not need to.
Gabriel entered carrying a folder recovered from Vincent’s office.
Inside were contracts linked to the domestic staffing agency that hired Hunter.
Someone had paid the agency to place her specifically at the Rossi estate.
Hunter looked at Vincent.
“You watched me bury my daughter and decided I was convenient.”
Vincent’s face tightened.
“I did not know Tommy would hurt you.”
“You still used me.”
“Yes.”
Hunter wanted to hate him cleanly.
Instead, she saw something worse than a monster.
A man who had done unforgivable things while convincing himself he was only moving pieces on someone else’s board.
Isabella entered the library.
She had been listening from the hall.
“Tell him the rest,” she said.
Vincent looked at her.
Lorenzo turned.
“What rest?”
Isabella placed an old bank authorization on the table.
Her signature appeared at the bottom.
Hunter stared at her.
Lorenzo’s face went blank.
“Mother?”
Isabella’s eyes filled.
“I signed the transfer that funded the foundation account.”
Lorenzo stepped back.
“You knew?”
“I knew Marco said the money was for political protection.”
“I did not know what he would use it for.”
Vincent looked at her.
“That is not completely true.”
Isabella’s face changed.
Lorenzo turned slowly toward Vincent.
“What does that mean?”
Vincent took a breath.
“Your mother knew Marco wanted Sophia investigated.”
Isabella whispered, “Not killed.”
Isabella tried to explain that Marco had shown her photographs suggesting Sophia was secretly meeting attorneys to separate Leo’s future assets from the Rossi businesses.
She admitted fear had done the rest.
She signed the authorization because she believed money would be used to investigate Sophia and pressure her into staying quiet.
She never asked why a family that owned security companies needed an untraceable foundation account to investigate one pregnant woman.
Hunter saw the answer on Isabella’s face before she said it.
Some questions are avoided because a person already suspects the answer.
May you like
Lorenzo understood that too.
But Lorenzo had already stopped looking at her like his mother.
