Chapter 22 - The Wife He Could Not RescueLorenzo wanted to make calls.
Threaten people.
Move Vivian somewhere unreachable.
Every instinct from his old life returned.
Vivian saw it happen.
“No.”
“I can get you out.”
“That is exactly what they want.”
“If I run, Pike gets to call me a criminal protecting the Falcone family.”
“You did break the law helping Caruso disappear.”
“Yes.”
The honesty stopped him.
Vivian hired an independent attorney and surrendered voluntarily.
Lorenzo walked beside her into the federal building.
Cameras waited outside.
FORMER MAFIA WIFE ARRESTED.
BELLINI HOUSE FOUNDER ACCUSED OF OBSTRUCTION.
Inside, prosecutors offered a deal.
Admit she acted under Lorenzo’s direction.
Receive probation.
Vivian laughed.
“My husband didn’t know.”
They did not believe her.
That became the cruelest twist.
Every secret Vivian had kept to protect Lorenzo now looked like evidence that he had controlled her.
Vivian spent one night in federal detention before bail.
Lorenzo sat outside until dawn.
When she emerged, he did not touch her until she reached for him.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“For what?”
“For every time I thought protecting you meant making decisions for you.”
Vivian rested her forehead against his chest.
“Then don’t start again now.”
“I won’t.”
Mara arrived with new information.
Sofia’s journals contained a reference to a hidden recording Anthony made on the night before his death.
It could prove Vale and Pike engineered the conspiracy.
But Anthony had hidden it somewhere only Vivian would understand.
The clue was one sentence.
WHERE SHE LEARNED THAT BROKEN THINGS CAN STILL SING.
Vivian knew immediately.
Her childhood music school.
Abandoned for twenty years.
They arrived after dark.
May you like
Someone else was already inside.
Giancarlo Vale.
