Chapter 9 - What Elena Ferraro Really Did
Santino stared at Peter.
“No.”
Peter did not smile now.
“Elena wanted your father out of control.”
Walter stepped forward.
“That is a lie.”
Peter looked at him.
“You did not work upstairs then.”
Walter’s face tightened.
Peter continued.
“Santino’s father was violent.”
Silence.
Santino looked at Walter.
The butler did not deny it.
Santino’s voice became quiet.
“Was he?”
Walter swallowed.
“Yes.”
Santino looked away.
Another clean memory broke.
Peter continued.
“Elena asked Bellini for medication.”
Santino’s jaw tightened.
“To confuse him?”
“To calm him.”
“That is not the same.”
“No.”
“Then what changed?”
“Lorenzo.”
Peter looked at Anthony.
“Lorenzo saw the effect.”
Anthony closed his eyes.
Peter continued.
“He realized medication could create incapacity without blood.”
Santino stared.
“So my mother started something.”
“Yes.”
“But Lorenzo weaponized it.”
“Yes.”
Walter whispered:
“And Peter helped.”
Peter looked at his brother.
“Yes.”
No defense.
Santino asked:
“What happened to my father?”
Peter looked at him.
“Your mother left him.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Peter shook his head.
“She hid him.”
Silence.
Santino stared.
“Where?”
“Saint Matthew’s.”
Helen covered her mouth.
Peter continued.
“She had him admitted under another name.”
“Why?”
“Because she was afraid Lorenzo would kill him.”
Santino laughed bitterly.
“Everyone hides people to protect them.”
Peter nodded.
“Apparently.”
“What name?”
“Thomas Bell.”
Santino froze.
His mother’s maiden name was Bellini.
Close enough.
Peter continued.
“Your father lived there 8 years.”
“Did I ever see him?”
“No.”
“Did he know about me?”
“Yes.”
“Did he ask?”
“Yes.”
Santino closed his eyes.
“Did Mom stop him?”
“Yes.”
Walter looked down.
Santino’s voice broke.
“Why?”
Peter answered:
“Because he threatened to take you.”
Silence.
Santino looked at Walter.
“Is that true?”
Walter nodded.
“Yes.”
Santino sat.
The room went quiet.
His father had not been a vanished hero.
His mother had not been innocent.
Lorenzo had not invented every sin.
Peter continued.
“Your mother planned to tell you when you turned 18.”
Santino looked up.
“She died when I was 29.”
“Yes.”
“She had 11 years.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Peter looked at the microfilm.
“Because Lorenzo had learned where your father was.”
Santino stared.
“What happened?”
“He moved him.”
“Where?”
Peter looked at Anthony.
“Providence.”
Anthony went pale.
Santino noticed.
“You knew.”
Anthony closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Caitlyn stared at her father.
“You knew Santino’s father.”
“Yes.”
Santino stood.
“Where?”
Anthony swallowed.
“An apartment above a restaurant.”
“Which restaurant?”
Anthony looked ashamed.
“Mine.”
Silence.
Santino stared.
“You hid my father.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Two years.”
“Why did nobody tell me?”
Anthony looked at him.
“Because he asked us not to.”
Santino laughed.
“Of course he did.”
Anthony continued.
“He was ashamed.”
“Of what?”
“Of what he had done to Elena.”
Santino stopped.
“What did he do?”
Anthony looked at Walter.
Then Santino.
“He hit her.”
Silence.
Once.
Enough.
Santino stared at the floor.
Anthony continued.
“He said you saw it.”
Santino’s memory returned.
Kitchen.
Broken glass.
His mother crying.
His father leaving.
He had been 11.
He had buried it.
Anthony whispered:
“He believed you hated him.”
Santino closed his eyes.
“Did he die above your restaurant?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
Anthony looked at Peter.
Peter answered:
“Saint Matthew’s.”
Santino stared.
“Again.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Twenty years ago.”
Santino did the math.
Eight years after his supposed death.
Exactly what Peter had said.
“How?”
Peter looked at Bellini’s records.
“Heart failure.”
Caitlyn whispered:
“Like my father.”
Peter shook his head.
“Natural this time.”
Nobody believed him immediately.
He expected that.
Then he reached into his coat.
Security moved.
Peter stopped.
“Medical report.”
Santino nodded.
Peter removed a folded copy.
Autopsy.
Independent.
No overdose.
No altered medication.
Santino’s father had died naturally.
Hidden.
Ashamed.
Alive years longer than Santino knew.
Santino looked at Peter.
“What do you want?”
Peter’s face changed.
“For this to stop.”
“Why now?”
Peter looked toward Helen.
“Because keeping her sick was supposed to bring the records back.”
Caitlyn’s expression hardened.
“You hurt my mother to find paper.”
“Yes.”
Peter looked at her.
“And I am tired of being the man who says yes to that sentence.”
Santino stared.
Peter continued.
“Lorenzo is dead.”
“So?”
“The trust still exists.”
“And?”
Peter looked at Caitlyn.
“She owns it.”
Silence.
Caitlyn stopped breathing.
Peter continued.
“Not me.”
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