Chapter 16 - Carmine's Promise
Salvatore had trusted Carmine with his life.
That was not a phrase.
It was literal.
Carmine had taken a bullet for him in Newark.
Driven him bleeding through a police blockade.
Slept outside hospital doors.
Buried men beside him.
Now Salvatore stood across the room from his oldest guard and wondered whether all of it had been built on deception.
"You knew Elena was alive."
Carmine nodded.
"Yes."
"You knew she had my son."
Another pause.
"Yes."
Salvatore hit him.
One punch.
Carmine fell against the table.
Leo jumped.
"Stop!"
Salvatore froze.
Blood ran from Carmine's lip.
He did not fight back.
"Why?" Salvatore asked.
Carmine straightened.
"Because Elena made me swear."
"You chose her over me?"
"I chose the child."
Salvatore's face hardened.
"Explain."
Eight years earlier, Carmine was still a mid-level security man.
Elena found him after escaping Vittorio.
She was pregnant.
Terrified.
"She knew I was loyal to you," Carmine said. "That's why she came."
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Because she had proof someone monitored your communications."
"Who?"
"Vittorio."
Salvatore closed his eyes.
Carmine helped Elena leave New York.
Paid for a bus ticket under another name.
Connected her to a friend in Illinois.
Then disappeared from her life.
Mostly.
"Once a year, she'd send one postcard."
Salvatore stared.
"No return address. Just a picture. It meant she was alive."
"And Leo?"
"I didn't know his name until the third year."
"You watched my son grow through postcards?"
Carmine's eyes filled with shame.
"Yes."
Salvatore wanted to hit him again.
Instead he sat.
Leo stood beside him.
"What happened six months ago?"
Carmine looked at Matteo.
"I saw Dominic."
"Following Elena?"
"Meeting her."
Carmine had gone to Illinois after Elena missed her annual postcard.
He found her sick.
She told him about Dominic's proposal.
"She trusted him?"
"No."
"Then why meet?"
"To find out what he knew."
Carmine followed Dominic afterward.
Then noticed another vehicle.
He believed it belonged to Matteo.
Matteo shook his head.
"It wasn't me."
"Maybe not."
Carmine continued.
"Three days later, Elena was hospitalized."
"Leukemia," Salvatore said.
Carmine looked surprised.
"That's what they said."
Salvatore caught the phrasing.
"What do you mean?"
"Her health collapsed too fast."
Silence.
Leo's face changed.
"What?"
Carmine looked immediately regretful.
Salvatore said, "Continue."
"Elena suspected someone was poisoning her."
Leo made a small sound.
Salvatore grabbed his hand.
"Who?"
"She didn't know."
Carmine took out his wallet.
Behind an old photograph was a folded paper.
"She gave me this."
Salvatore snatched it.
A lab report.
Elevated arsenic levels.
His vision blurred with rage.
Elena had not simply died of leukemia.
Someone accelerated it.
Someone murdered her slowly enough to look natural.
Leo whispered, "Mom knew?"
Salvatore crouched.
"Leo—"
"She knew she was being poisoned?"
Carmine nodded reluctantly.
"Near the end."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"She was trying to keep you away from whoever did it."
Leo pulled his hand from Salvatore.
He walked toward the windowless hallway.
Then stopped.
"Everybody keeps protecting me."
His voice cracked.
"And everybody dies."
He disappeared into his room.
Salvatore looked at Carmine.
"Who poisoned her?"
"I don't know."
Matteo spoke quietly.
"I might."
Everyone turned.
He opened the evidence drive.
One file showed payments from a medical supply company to a shell corporation.
The owner of that corporation was Rebecca Sloan.
Matteo's wife.
Or estranged wife.
His face became gray.
"Rebecca."
Salvatore stood.
"You brought her into this."
"I haven't spoken to her privately in three years."
"She filed your petition."
"At my request, before I understood Dominic's plan."
"Did she know Elena?"
Matteo looked toward the screen.
"Yes."
Salvatore's rage sharpened.
"How?"
Matteo closed his eyes.
"Rebecca was the one who first found Elena for me."
Carmine drew his gun.
Salvatore raised a hand.
"Not yet."
Matteo continued.
"I wanted the ledger. I never wanted Elena dead."
"But Rebecca did."
"Apparently."
"Why?"
The answer arrived through another file.
Rebecca had transferred money into Dominic's hidden accounts.
Dominic and Rebecca were not enemies.
They had been partners.
At least once.
Sophia pointed toward the screen.
"That's the lady."
Salvatore turned.
"What lady?"
"She came to see Daddy."
"When?"
"Lots of times."
"What did they talk about?"
Sophia thought.
"The birthday."
Leo's birthday.
Three weeks.
Rebecca and Dominic had built the inheritance plan together.
Matteo looked devastated.
"She used me."
Salvatore's sympathy was limited.
"Get in line."
They located Rebecca at a luxury hotel near Central Park.
Salvatore, Matteo, and Carmine entered her suite.
She sat by the window drinking wine.
No surprise.
No fear.
"Finally," she said.
Matteo stared.
"You poisoned Elena."
Rebecca tilted her head.
"Did I?"
Salvatore placed the arsenic report on the table.
Her smile faded.
"She was dying anyway."
Leo's mother's life reduced to five words.
Salvatore nearly crossed the room.
Carmine stopped him.
Matteo looked sick.
"Why?"
Rebecca set down her glass.
"Because Elena was going to ruin everything."
"What everything?"
"My son."
Matteo froze.
Salvatore stared.
"You have a son?"
Rebecca laughed softly.
"Had."
Her eyes turned toward Matteo.
"He died at four months old."
Matteo's face collapsed.
"You told me you miscarried."
"I lied."
"Why?"
"Because Vittorio found out."
The room became silent.
Rebecca continued.
"He had the baby taken."
Matteo grabbed the chair.
"Where?"
"I spent twenty years trying to find out."
Her voice finally broke.
"Then I learned Vittorio had done it before. Children. mothers. identities erased whenever bloodlines became inconvenient."
Salvatore understood her hatred.
Not her murders.
But the hatred.
"Elena found evidence," Rebecca said. "Records of every hidden Moretti child."
"The archive."
She nodded.
"I needed it."
"Why poison her?"
"Because she wouldn't give me the access key."
Salvatore leaned closer.
"Leo?"
"His blood."
Matteo whispered, "You were going to use the boy."
Rebecca looked at him.
"For our son."
"Our son is dead."
"Are you sure?"
Matteo went still.
Rebecca smiled through tears.
"Vittorio never killed babies."
"He hid them."
"Exactly."
She reached for her purse.
Carmine aimed.
"Slow."
Rebecca removed a photograph.
A young man.
About twenty.
Dark hair.
Moretti eyes.
On the back was a name.
Daniel Russo.
Salvatore's stomach dropped.
Russo.
Rebecca looked at Matteo.
"I found our son."
May you like
Then she looked toward the door.
"And Dominic found his brother."
