Chapter 8 - The Uncle at the Head of the Table
We returned the next morning.
The estate gates were open.
Too open.
No guards.
No cars at the entrance.
Inside, the engagement dinner had been cleared.
Except for one table.
The head family table.
Marco’s uncle sat there alone.
Sebastian Santoro.
Sixty-eight.
Pale.
Thin.
Still wearing a tailored suit.
An oxygen machine stood beside him.
He smiled when Marco entered.
“Nephew.”
Marco stopped.
Anthony entered behind him.
Sebastian’s smile disappeared.
“You.”
Anthony nodded.
“Me.”
Sebastian looked at Elena.
Then Arthur.
Then Daniel.
Then Valentina.
Finally me.
“So everyone came home.”
Marco walked to the table.
“You’re dying.”
Sebastian shrugged.
“Eventually.”
“Pancreatic cancer.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Anthony always did talk too much.”
Marco sat across from him.
“Why leave me the companies?”
Sebastian smiled.
“Because they’re yours.”
“No.”
“They were your father’s.”
“And before that, our father’s.”
Marco looked at Anthony.
Anthony didn’t interrupt.
Sebastian continued.
“I spent forty years keeping this family alive.”
“You spent forty years stealing it.”
“Same skill.”
“No.”
Sebastian laughed.
“You think morality built this house?”
“No.”
Marco looked around.
“Fear did.”
Sebastian’s smile faded slightly.
Marco placed the ledger on the table.
Then the locker key.
Then the hotel key.
Then Anthony’s letter.
“You lost.”
Sebastian looked at the items.
“No.”
“I’m dying.”
“That isn’t losing.”
“What is?”
Sebastian looked at Valentina.
Then at Marco.
“You still don’t know why her father signed the wrong locker number.”
Daniel stiffened.
Marco turned.
Arthur frowned.
Daniel whispered:
“Sebastian.”
Marco looked at him.
“What is he talking about?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Sebastian smiled.
“Locker 381 was not a clerical error.”
Silence.
Marco’s face hardened.
“You reversed it on purpose.”
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect 318.”
Marco stared.
Arthur stopped.
Elena looked at Daniel.
“You never told me.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I couldn’t.”
Marco asked:
“Protect it from who?”
Daniel looked at Sebastian.
“Everyone.”
Sebastian laughed.
Daniel continued.
“I knew evidence was in 318.”
“So I changed the report to 381.”
“The department searched the wrong locker.”
“Victor searched the wrong locker.”
“Sebastian searched the wrong locker.”
Marco looked at Valentina.
“Your father protected the letters.”
Daniel nodded.
“And the evidence.”
Arthur looked stunned.
“You let us think you betrayed Elena.”
Daniel answered quietly.
“I did betray her.”
“I stopped helping.”
“I chose my family.”
“But I didn’t give them 318.”
Elena looked at him.
“Why?”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“Because Anthony was still my brother.”
Anthony stared at him.
For decades, one false number had kept the evidence hidden.
Marco looked at Sebastian.
“So that’s why you never found it.”
Sebastian’s face was colder now.
“You think a locker matters?”
“It mattered enough for Victor to kill.”
Sebastian looked at Anthony.
“He always was impatient.”
Anthony answered:
“You hired him.”
“I used him.”
“You ordered him to kill me.”
Sebastian shrugged.
“I ordered him to stop you.”
Marco leaned forward.
“And my mother?”
Sebastian stared at Elena.
“She was supposed to disappear.”
“She did.”
“You ordered her killed?”
Sebastian didn’t answer.
Marco’s voice dropped.
“Did you?”
“No.”
Everyone stopped.
Elena stared.
Sebastian continued.
“I ordered Victor to frighten her.”
“Victor decided witnesses were cleaner when dead.”
Anthony laughed bitterly.
“So now you blame the weapon.”
“I blame bad employees.”
Arthur whispered:
“You’re unbelievable.”
Sebastian looked at him.
“And yet you served this house for thirty years.”
Arthur didn’t answer.
That hurt because it was true.
Marco looked at Sebastian.
“Why frame Arthur as a thief?”
Sebastian frowned.
“I didn’t.”
Everyone turned toward Valentina.
She looked confused.
Marco stared at her.
“You told me Arthur stole documents.”
She nodded.
“Because I received proof.”
“From who?”
She stopped.
A message.
Again.
A number she thought belonged to her father.
Daniel’s old number.
Victor.
Valentina closed her eyes.
“Victor.”
Sebastian smiled.
“He wanted Arthur gone because Arthur remembered too much.”
Arthur looked at Sebastian.
“You knew I was innocent.”
“Yes.”
“And said nothing.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because useful lies shouldn’t be interrupted.”
Marco stood.
“No more.”
Sebastian looked at him.
“No more what?”
“No more useful lies.”
Marco pulled a folder from his coat.
Legal papers.
Sebastian stared.
“What is that?”
“Renunciation.”
Anthony frowned.
Marco continued.
“I’m refusing every entity you transferred to me.”
Sebastian laughed.
“You can’t.”
“My attorneys say I can.”
“You’ll destroy the companies.”
“The legitimate companies stay.”
“The shell companies go to investigators.”
Sebastian’s face changed.
“You would dismantle your own family.”
Marco looked at Anthony.
Then Elena.
Then Arthur.
Then Valentina.
Then Daniel.
“My family is standing in this room.”
Sebastian stared.
“And me?”
Marco answered:
“You made that choice years ago.”
Sebastian leaned back.
Suddenly older.
Sicker.
Smaller.
He looked at Anthony.
“I should have killed you myself.”
Anthony replied:
“That’s the first honest thing you’ve said.”
Sebastian laughed.
Then coughed.
Blood on his handkerchief.
The room went silent.
Marco did not celebrate.
He only asked:
“Is there anything else?”
Sebastian looked at him.
One last secret.
Of course.
“There is.”
Marco waited.
Sebastian smiled weakly.
“Your mother didn’t leave the first time because of corruption.”
Elena’s face changed.
Marco noticed.
“What?”
Sebastian looked at her.
“Tell him.”
Elena whispered:
“Not here.”
Marco’s expression hardened.
“Here.”
She looked at Anthony.
Anthony lowered his eyes.
Marco’s stomach tightened.
“What happened?”
Elena spoke.
“The night I disappeared…”
She swallowed.
“I was not running only from Sebastian.”
“Then who?”
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