Chapter 11 - The Boy In The Mansion
When they returned to New York, the mansion felt different.
Not safer.
But different.
Leo now had a room beside Salvatore’s.
He refused the enormous bedroom decorators prepared.
“I don’t need twelve chairs.”
Salvatore looked around.
“Neither do I.”
“Then why do rich people put chairs everywhere?”
Carmine laughed from his crutches.
Salvatore ignored him.
Leo chose a smaller room overlooking the gardens.
He placed only three things on the shelf.
His mother’s photograph.
The music box.
And the Saint Christopher pendant.
School tutors arrived.
Leo hated them.
A tailor arrived.
Leo hated him more.
“You can’t make me wear a tie.”
“You’re a Moretti.”
“That’s not an explanation.”
Salvatore eventually dismissed the tailor.
The guards slowly became protective of Leo.
Titan became inseparable from him.
For a few days, the mansion almost resembled a home.
Then Marco attacked where Salvatore least expected.
Publicly.
News outlets received evidence linking Salvatore to thirty years of organized crime.
Some genuine.
Some fabricated.
Federal warrants were prepared.
Politicians who had once shaken his hand now demanded his arrest.
Legitimate banks froze Moretti accounts.
“This is their endgame,” Carmine said.
Salvatore studied the news.
“They want me desperate.”
Nora, recovering in the mansion, nodded.
“Desperate men make mistakes.”
Leo entered.
“What happens if they arrest you?”
Salvatore turned off the television.
“I have lawyers.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Salvatore looked at him.
“If they arrest me, Carmine protects you.”
“No.”
“Leo.”
“I just found you.”
The words silenced the room.
Leo’s eyes burned.
“You don’t get to go to prison now.”
Salvatore almost smiled.
“I’ll include that in my legal defense.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
He crouched before Leo.
“I need you to trust me.”
Leo looked away.
“I’m not good at that.”
“I know.”
That evening, Salvatore did something nobody expected.
He contacted Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Shaw.
For fifteen years, Shaw had tried to prosecute him.
He invited her to the mansion.
She arrived expecting a trap.
Instead, Salvatore gave her copies of the Crown files.
Her face changed as she read.
“You understand these implicate you too.”
“Yes.”
“You could go to prison.”
“Yes.”
“Then why give them to me?”
Salvatore looked toward Leo playing chess with Carmine.
“Because some things matter more than winning.”
Shaw studied him.
“Who are you?”
“A man who wasted too many years.”
An agreement began.
Salvatore would cooperate against the Crown.
In return, prosecutors would distinguish between crimes tied to Marco’s hidden network and Salvatore’s legitimate companies.
No immunity was promised.
Only consideration.
Three days later, the first arrests began.
Commissioner Lowe disappeared before agents reached him.
Senator Wynn was detained.
Victor Bellini fled New York.
Barrett agreed to testify in exchange for protection.
Then the unthinkable happened.
During transport, Barrett’s convoy was attacked.
By the time police arrived, Barrett Hayes was gone.
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On the seat where he had been sitting was a photograph of Leo.
A bullet hole had been punched through the child’s face.
