Chapter 7 - The Wedding That Wasn't

By eight the next morning, Casa Vitali no longer looked like a family home.

It looked like a command center.

Maps covered the dining table.

Phones rang in three rooms.

Nico's team tracked Victor's known businesses, vehicles, associates, and old church contacts.

Marello stood at the center of it all in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, issuing orders in a voice so calm it frightened everyone more than shouting would have.

I found Leo in the kitchen eating cereal.

He looked up.

"Are we still going to the wedding?"

My stomach twisted.

"No."

"Because the lady is bad?"

"Yes."

He chewed thoughtfully.

"Can bad people still look pretty?"

I sat beside him.

"Very pretty."

"That's confusing."

"Most dangerous things are confusing at first."

He pointed his spoon at me.

"You said no scary grown-up sentences at breakfast."

"I forgot."

"Penalty."

"What penalty?"

"You have to eat a marshmallow."

I smiled.

"Terrible."

He pushed one toward me.

Marello entered.

Leo looked at him.

"Papa."

Marello stopped every time Leo said it.

Only for half a second.

But I noticed.

"Morning."

"Do you want a marshmallow?"

"Why?"

"Mama broke the breakfast rule."

Marello sat across from us.

"What rule?"

"No scary grown-up sentences."

"That's a good rule."

"You break it a lot."

"I've known you less than a day."

"And already a lot."

Marello looked at me.

"He's definitely yours."

"Excuse me?"

"He argues with evidence."

"He gets that from you."

Leo smiled.

"I get everything from both of you."

The words silenced us.

Marello looked down.

I reached across the table and took his hand.

He looked at our fingers.

Not romantic.

Not yet.

Something older.

A promise we had never been allowed to finish.

Nico entered.

"Sorry."

Marello released my hand.

"What?"

"We found Victor's staging vehicle outside Saint Agnes."

"How many men?"

"Eight visible. Maybe more inside."

"Bianca?"

"Still secure downstairs."

I frowned.

"She knows Victor's plan."

"Probably."

"Then we should ask her."

Marello looked at me.

"You want to question her?"

"I want to understand why Victor chose the church."

Nico nodded.

"That's bothering me too."

Marello stood.

"Bring her to the library."

Bianca entered ten minutes later with her wrists restrained.

She had changed into plain gray clothes.

Without makeup and wedding perfection, she looked younger.

More tired.

More human.

I disliked that.

It was easier to hate monsters when they looked like monsters.

Marello remained standing.

"Saint Agnes."

Bianca's face changed.

"So he called."

"Why the church?"

She looked at Antonio, who sat near the fireplace.

"Ask him."

Marello turned.

Antonio said nothing.

Bianca smiled bitterly.

"Still protecting the mythology."

"Speak," Marello said.

"Saint Agnes is where the first Vitali trust was signed."

I looked at Antonio.

"Inside a church?"

"Under the old rectory," Antonio said.

"Why?"

"The family used church property to hide meetings from law enforcement seventy years ago."

Leo was upstairs, but I still lowered my voice.

"And Victor needs Leo there because of the covenant clause?"

Bianca nodded.

"The original documents remain in the archive beneath the chapel."

Nico frowned.

"I thought the ledger was the key."

"The ledger proves Victor's lineage. The archive proves the trust terms."

Marello's eyes narrowed.

"So he needs both."

"And a living descendant to authenticate the dispute."

I looked at Bianca.

"Can he force Leo to do that?"

"No."

Relief barely began before she continued.

"But he can use Leo's blood sample and a corrupt notary."

Marello's expression turned murderous.

Bianca added quickly, "Which means he doesn't need Leo alive afterward."

The room went cold.

I stepped closer.

"Why tell us?"

Bianca looked at me.

"Because Victor changed the plan."

"What plan?"

"He was supposed to take the legal holdings. Marello would be forced out, not killed."

Marello laughed without humor.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"I knew there would be violence."

"You arranged a wedding assassination."

"After Victor threatened me."

"You expect sympathy again."

"No."

She looked exhausted.

"I expect you to understand that he has become unstable."

Antonio muttered, "He was always unstable."

Bianca turned on him.

"You erased his father, erased his claim, erased his name, and then spent decades acting surprised that he became obsessed."

Antonio said nothing.

She looked at Marello.

"Victor doesn't want the empire anymore."

"What does he want?"

"He wants the Vitali name destroyed."

Marello leaned against the desk.

"Then why the legal ritual?"

"Because he wants to expose everything publicly."

Nico frowned.

"How?"

"Press. investigators. prosecutors. financial regulators. He scheduled files to release at one."

Antonio stood.

"What files?"

Bianca looked at him.

"Every hidden payment. every bribed official. every body you buried under shell companies."

Antonio's face went pale.

Marello stayed calm.

"Good."

Everyone looked at him.

Antonio said, "Good?"

Marello nodded.

"If the evidence is real, release it."

"You don't know what it contains."

"I know enough."

"It could destroy the family."

Marello looked toward the ceiling where Leo slept.

"The family survived being destroyed by you already."

Antonio flinched.

Marello turned to Nico.

"Copy everything we have on legitimate businesses. Separate employees from criminal operations."

Nico nodded.

"Already started."

Antonio stared.

"You planned this."

"I planned to leave this life before I met Elena again."

I looked at him.

"What?"

He met my eyes.

"I began restructuring four years ago."

"Why?"

His expression softened.

"Because I got tired of visiting graves."

The room became silent.

He continued.

"I thought if I ever had a family again, I didn't want them inheriting a war."

My eyes burned.

Bianca looked away.

For perhaps the first time, I understood why she had said he changed.

He had.

Without knowing Leo was alive, some part of Marello had still been moving toward fatherhood.

Nico broke the silence.

"So what's the plan for noon?"

Marello looked at Bianca.

"Victor expects Leo."

She nodded.

"He'll be watching every entrance."

"Then we give him a child-sized silhouette and make him believe I brought Leo."

I shook my head.

"No decoy involving a child."

"No child."

Nico understood.

"Thermal dummy under a coat."

"Exactly."

Antonio frowned.

"He will verify."

"Eventually."

Marello looked at me.

"Enough time for you to access the archive."

I stared.

"Me?"

"Victor will focus on me."

"No."

"Elena."

"You are not using yourself as bait."

"I am not asking permission."

"Then neither am I."

Bianca watched us.

"How did either of you survive seven years apart?"

"We were less irritated," Marello said.

I glared.

He almost smiled.

Nico spread the church plans.

"We can enter through this service tunnel."

I leaned closer.

"And the archive?"

"Here."

Bianca pointed.

"Behind the old baptismal room. There's a stone stair."

"How do you know?"

She hesitated.

"I was there with Victor."

Marello stared.

"When?"

"Two weeks ago."

"Planning my murder?"

"Planning the succession challenge."

"Same week. Different betrayal."

She looked ashamed.

Good.

Nico marked positions.

"Elena and two agents take the tunnel. Marello arrives at the front with the decoy. My team covers both exits."

Antonio stepped forward.

"I'm coming."

Marello laughed.

"No."

"I know the archive locks."

"So does Bianca."

Bianca looked up.

Marello considered her.

Then shook his head.

"She stays restrained."

Bianca said, "You won't open the inner vault without me."

Antonio nodded reluctantly.

"She's right."

I looked at Marello.

"You need her."

He hated it.

I could see that.

Finally, he said, "She comes with Elena."

Bianca blinked.

"You trust me with her?"

"No."

He looked at me.

"I trust Elena with you."

I folded my arms.

"That sounds dangerously close to confidence."

"It is experience."

At eleven thirty, we left Casa Vitali.

Leo stayed behind under the protection of twelve guards.

Before I left, he hugged me.

"Come back."

"I will."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

He looked at Marello.

"You too."

Marello knelt.

"I will."

Leo placed the broken red toy car in his hand.

"For luck."

Marello looked at it.

"I thought this needed fixing."

"It does."

"Then why give it to me?"

"So you have to come back and fix it."

Marello's eyes filled.

He closed his hand around the toy.

"Smart."

Leo smiled.

"I get it from both of you."

We drove to Saint Agnes beneath a gray noon sky.

The old church appeared between bare trees.

At exactly twelve, Marello stepped from the front vehicle carrying a bundled figure beneath a blanket.

Victor's voice came through speakers mounted above the church doors.

"Alone."

Marello looked upward.

"You know me better than that."

"Bring the boy."

Marello held the bundle tighter.

"Show yourself."

The doors opened.

Victor stood at the altar.

Gunmen lined the pews.

Nico whispered through my earpiece.

"He's focused on Marello. Move."

Bianca and I entered the tunnel beneath the cemetery.

The air smelled of stone and damp earth.

My flashlight swept across old brick.

Bianca walked ahead with one wrist cuffed to a short chain I held.

"Left," she whispered.

"Don't try anything."

"I know."

We reached a metal door.

Bianca entered six digits.

Nothing.

She tried again.

"Victor changed it."

I heard Marello's voice faintly through the earpiece.

"You wanted me. I'm here."

Victor answered over the church system.

"I wanted justice."

Marello said, "Men like us always rename revenge."

I looked at Bianca.

"Can you bypass it?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe is not comforting."

"Neither is being chained to the woman who slapped me yesterday."

"You deserved it."

"I know."

That stopped me.

She removed a small pin from her hair.

I stared.

"How did security miss that?"

"They searched for weapons."

"Is it a weapon?"

"In boarding school, yes."

She worked the lock.

A click.

The door opened.

Inside, stone steps descended.

At the bottom, we found the archive.

Shelves of sealed boxes.

Ledgers.

Old contracts.

And in the center, a table with an open black case.

Empty.

Bianca whispered, "The original charter is gone."

My stomach dropped.

Then a screen on the far wall turned on.

Victor appeared.

Not in the church.

In another room.

He smiled.

"Hello, Elena."

I stopped.

Bianca went pale.

"You lied to Marello," I said.

Victor nodded.

"The church is theater."

"Where are you?"

He looked off camera.

Then Leo stepped into frame.

My heart stopped.

"No."

Victor put a hand on my son's shoulder.

Leo looked terrified.

"Mama."

I couldn't breathe.

Bianca whispered, "How?"

Victor smiled.

"You spent so much time planning how to keep me out."

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He looked directly into the camera.

"You forgot to ask who was already inside."