Chapter 3 - The Engagement That Should Never Have Happened

Valentina stepped backward.

“No.”

Daniel Russo looked at her.

“I was going to tell you.”

“When?”

She shouted it.

“When?”

He couldn’t answer.

Marco looked at him.

“You knew.”

Daniel nodded.

“Since the engagement.”

Marco stared.

“Since the engagement?”

“Yes.”

“And you said nothing.”

“I needed time.”

Marco laughed once.

“You needed time to tell me I was engaged to my cousin?”

Valentina began crying.

“I didn’t know.”

Marco looked at her.

For once, he believed her immediately.

Her shock was too clean.

Too ugly.

Too real.

Elena spoke.

“Anthony Russo was born Anthony Santoro.”

Marco turned.

“What?”

She opened another file.

Birth certificate.

Anthony Santoro.

Adopted at age nine by the Russo family.

Daniel Russo was his adoptive brother.

Valentina was not Marco’s blood cousin.

Everyone stopped.

Marco closed his eyes.

Valentina whispered:

“So we’re not related?”

“No.”

Elena nodded.

“Not biologically.”

Daniel exhaled.

Marco looked at him.

“You still knew enough to let us think it.”

Daniel looked ashamed.

“I was trying to explain.”

“You were trying to control when truth became convenient.”

Arthur whispered:

“That sounds familiar.”

Marco ignored him.

He looked at Elena.

“Why was my father adopted?”

“Because your grandfather sent him away.”

“Why?”

Elena glanced toward Marco’s uncle.

He wasn’t in the room.

Yet every answer kept returning to him.

“Your grandfather had two sons.”

“Anthony.”

“And your uncle?”

“Yes.”

“Anthony was older.”

Marco’s face changed.

“Then my father should have inherited the family.”

“Yes.”

“But he didn’t.”

“No.”

“Why?”

Elena pushed a document toward him.

A psychiatric report.

Childhood.

Fabricated.

It described Anthony as unstable.

Violent.

Dangerous.

Marco read the signature.

Doctor deceased.

Witness.

His uncle.

Marco looked up.

“He had my father declared unstable?”

“At nine.”

“Then sent him away?”

“Yes.”

“To the Russo family?”

Daniel nodded.

“My parents were told he had no relatives.”

Marco stared.

“So my father grew up thinking he was Russo.”

“Until he was twenty-six.”

Elena continued.

“That’s when Arthur found the original birth records.”

Marco looked at Arthur.

“You knew my father before you worked for me.”

Arthur nodded.

“I worked for your grandfather.”

Marco sat down.

The pieces were becoming too large.

Elena continued.

“Anthony came back.”

“Claimed his identity.”

“Married me.”

“Had you.”

“And your uncle realized everything he had inherited could be challenged.”

Marco stared.

“The company.”

“The estate.”

“The trusts.”

“Yes.”

Arthur added:

“And the criminal alliances.”

Marco’s jaw tightened.

“So my uncle needed my father gone.”

“Yes.”

“And when my mother tried to expose police corruption, he needed her gone too.”

“Yes.”

Valentina looked at her father.

“And you?”

Daniel rubbed his face.

“I was a young detective.”

“Anthony was my brother in every way that mattered.”

“He came to me.”

“Asked for help.”

“I helped them disappear.”

Elena looked at him.

“At first.”

Daniel nodded.

Then Marco asked:

“What changed?”

Daniel’s silence answered before he did.

“Your daughter.”

Marco looked at Valentina.

Daniel said:

“Your uncle knew where Valentina went to school.”

“Knew my wife’s route to work.”

“He told me if I kept helping Anthony, my family would pay.”

Valentina stared.

“You chose us.”

“Yes.”

Marco looked at Elena.

“And you lost yours.”

She nodded.

The symmetry was cruel.

Daniel continued.

“But I never killed Anthony.”

Marco pointed at the laptop.

“Then play the rest.”

Elena pressed play.

The garage video resumed.

Anthony stood between the men.

His uncle demanded documents.

Daniel begged him to leave.

Victor Hale remained silent.

Then Anthony said:

“If anything happens to me, the station locker opens.”

Marco leaned forward.

Locker 318.

His uncle laughed.

“You still think the station matters?”

Anthony answered:

“It will when Marco is old enough.”

Then Victor raised a gun.

Daniel shouted.

The camera shook.

A gunshot.

Anthony fell.

Valentina screamed softly.

Marco didn’t move.

Victor fired again.

Anthony stopped moving.

Marco’s uncle said:

“Search him.”

Daniel turned toward Victor.

“You said no one would die.”

Victor answered:

“You believed me?”

Then something unexpected happened.

Daniel attacked Victor.

The camera shifted.

His uncle ran.

Daniel dragged Anthony behind a car.

More gunfire.

The video ended.

Marco stared at the black screen.

“You tried to save him.”

Daniel nodded.

“He died in my arms.”

Valentina looked at her father differently.

Not forgiven.

But changed.

Marco asked:

“Why fake the boating accident?”

Daniel answered:

“Because if your uncle knew Anthony was dead in that garage, he would know I had seen everything.”

“So you helped create a false death.”

“Yes.”

“And then years later you helped declare my mother dead too.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Daniel looked at Elena.

“Because by then I knew Victor worked inside law enforcement.”

Marco frowned.

“Victor was police?”

“Federal.”

Arthur answered.

“Internal investigations.”

Marco looked stunned.

“He was supposed to investigate corrupt police.”

Daniel nodded.

“He built the corruption.”

Elena closed the laptop.

Marco asked:

“Where is Victor now?”

Arthur and Elena exchanged a look.

Marco saw it.

“What?”

Arthur spoke.

“Victor came to Toronto.”

“When?”

“Ten months ago.”

“Before you disappeared?”

“Yes.”

“He found my mother?”

“Yes.”

Marco stood.

“Where is he now?”

Elena whispered:

“I don’t know.”

A knock came from the hotel door.

Three slow taps.

Arthur went pale.

Elena stopped breathing.

Marco noticed.

“You know that knock.”

Elena nodded.

Arthur whispered:

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“Victor always knocks three times.”

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