Chapter 5 - The Lie Beneath the Rossi Name
Leo did not believe him.
Tessa could tell because he became too calm.
The attacker was taken away.
Leo’s shoulder was stitched inside a private clinic.
He said almost nothing.
At three in the morning, Tessa found him alone on a balcony overlooking Chicago.
“You believe him.”
“No.”
“You’re standing outside in November with stitches in your shoulder because you don’t believe him?”
Leo glanced at her.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I don’t sleep much.”
“I know.”
His eyebrow lifted.
“You pace.”
Leo looked toward her.
“How do you know that?”
“The floor beside your office window is worn.”
For several seconds, he stared at her.
“You notice everything.”
“Occupational hazard.”
He laughed quietly.
It changed his face.
For one dangerous second, Tessa forgot who he was.
Then she remembered.
“My father trusted you.”
“He trusted the possibility of me.”
“What does that mean?”
“He met me once after that night. I was seventeen. He told me a man isn’t responsible for the family he’s born into. Only the family he chooses to build.”
Tessa looked out over the city.
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
“Do you now?”
Leo didn’t answer.
By morning, Marco had located Vittorio.
Leo’s uncle had been living quietly in Florida under medical supervision after a stroke.
He could barely walk.
More importantly, travel records proved he had not been in Chicago for months.
Someone had used his name.
Leo flew him north anyway.
The reunion was ugly.
Vittorio laughed when Leo accused him.
“I stole from your father,” he admitted.
Tessa stared.
Vittorio continued.
“I stole millions. Daniel caught me. That part is true.”
“Did you kill him?” Leo asked.
“No.”
“Did you threaten his daughter?”
“Yes.”
Tessa’s face went pale.
Vittorio looked at her.
“I was a cruel man.”
“Was?”
His smile disappeared.
“Fair.”
Leo leaned forward.
“Who killed Daniel?”
Vittorio looked at him for a long time.
“Your father knows.”
Carlo Rossi had supposedly died six years earlier.
Leo’s expression changed.
“What did you say?”
Vittorio laughed.
“Still keeping that secret from you?”
Leo grabbed him by the collar.
“My father is dead.”
“No.”
The room went silent.
“Carlo disappeared because someone tried to kill him. Marco knew.”
Leo slowly turned.
Marco Bellini stood near the door.
His face told the truth before his mouth could.
Leo released Vittorio.
“Marco.”
“I was ordered.”
“By whom?”
“Your father.”
Leo looked almost physically struck.
Six years earlier, Carlo’s car had exploded on Lake Shore Drive.
A body had been recovered.
Dental records confirmed his identity.
Leo inherited everything.
The funeral drew hundreds.
It had all been staged.
Carlo had survived an assassination attempt and disappeared because the person behind it was someone he could not openly accuse.
Someone close enough to Leo that exposing the truth might have gotten his son killed.
“Where is he?”
Marco remained silent.
Leo stepped toward him.
“Where is my father?”
A voice came from the doorway.
“Closer than you think.”
Everyone turned.
An elderly man entered using a cane.
Gray hair.
Scarred face.
But the eyes were unmistakable.
Leo did not move.
“Dad?”
Carlo Rossi looked at his son.
For the first time since Tessa had known Leo, the most feared man in the room looked like a child.
Carlo approached slowly.
Leo did not embrace him.
He struck him.
The punch knocked Carlo backward.
Marco moved instinctively.
Carlo raised a hand.
“No.”
Leo’s breathing was uneven.
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“I carried your coffin.”
“I know.”
“You let me think you were dead for six years.”
“I did it to keep you alive.”
“You don’t get to call that protection.”
Tessa looked away.
Some grief was private even when it exploded in front of everyone.
Eventually Carlo sat.
Then he looked at Tessa.
“You have Daniel’s eyes.”
She hated him immediately for saying it.
“Did you kill my father?”
“No.”
“Did you order it?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Carlo’s gaze moved toward Leo.
“The same person who tried to kill me.”
Leo’s face hardened.
“Who?”
Carlo answered with a name none of them expected.
“Adrian Bellini.”
Marco stopped breathing.
Tessa looked at him.
Leo looked at him.
Marco whispered, “That’s impossible.”
Adrian Bellini was Marco’s father.
And according to Marco, Adrian had been dead for twenty years.
Carlo shook his head.
“No, son.”
Marco’s face emptied.
May you like
Carlo delivered the final blow.
“Your father is alive.”
