Chapter 9 - The Truth About Matteo’s Father

The police took statements for eleven hours.

No one left quickly.

Not even Matteo.

The ledger changed everything.

Some crimes were too old.

Some were not.

Some names belonged to dead men.

Others belonged to people who had spent years pretending they were respectable.

Victor’s attorneys arrived before noon.

Elliot’s before breakfast.

Anthony asked for one.

Carlo did not.

That surprised Matteo.

“You’re not calling anyone?”

Carlo sat across from him in a private interview room.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I did some of what’s in that ledger.”

Matteo stared at him.

“You’re admitting it.”

“Yes.”

“Just like that.”

“No.”

Carlo looked at his son.

“Not just like that.”

Matteo leaned back.

His face was exhausted.

“I spent six years thinking you were dead.”

“I know.”

“You could have called.”

“I almost did.”

“How many times?”

Carlo smiled sadly.

“Every birthday.”

Matteo looked away.

“That doesn’t make it better.”

“I know.”

“Stop saying that.”

Carlo nodded.

Matteo looked at him again.

“Why fake your death?”

Carlo was silent for a moment.

Then:

“Because Elliot wasn’t the first person looking for the ledger.”

“Who was?”

“A federal investigator.”

Matteo frowned.

“That sounds like someone you should have talked to.”

“I intended to.”

“But?”

“Someone inside the investigation was selling information.”

“To who?”

“Anthony.”

Anthony was alive then.

Still hidden.

Carlo continued.

“I realized if I cooperated openly, Isabella would be found.”

“So you disappeared.”

“Yes.”

“And left me.”

Carlo’s face tightened.

“Yes.”

Matteo stood.

“That is the part none of you seem to understand.”

Carlo looked at him.

“I do.”

“No.”

Matteo shook his head.

“You all say you protected me.”

“My mother disappeared.”

“You died.”

“Lawson kept files.”

“Victor lied.”

“Rebecca knew.”

“And every one of you decided I was safer without the truth.”

Carlo did not argue.

Matteo continued.

“I became exactly what you were afraid I would become because no one told me why I should be afraid.”

Carlo looked at the dagger tattoo on Matteo’s forearm.

Then at his son’s face.

“You’re right.”

Matteo stopped.

He had expected excuses.

Not that.

Carlo said:

“I chose survival over being your father.”

Matteo’s eyes changed.

“And I don’t know how to repair that.”

Silence.

Outside the room, Rebecca waited with Isabella.

The DNA test had been expedited.

Money did some things quickly.

The result arrived that afternoon.

Mr. Lawson opened it.

Everyone stood in a quiet conference room.

Rebecca held Elena’s hand.

Matteo stood beside Isabella.

Mr. Lawson read once.

Then again.

Rebecca whispered:

“Just say it.”

He looked up.

“Carlo Rinaldi is not Rebecca’s biological father.”

Everyone exhaled differently.

Rebecca almost laughed.

Matteo closed his eyes.

Isabella gripped the back of a chair.

Anthony, seated beside his attorney, frowned.

Matteo looked at him.

“You lied.”

Anthony shrugged.

“I repeated what Elena told me years ago.”

Elena shook her head.

“I never told you Carlo was her father.”

Anthony looked at her.

“You said Victor wasn’t.”

Rebecca turned to her mother.

Elena’s face changed.

Mr. Lawson looked at the report.

“There is another result.”

Rebecca stared.

“What?”

“We compared the available family markers.”

Victor went pale.

Elena looked at him.

Mr. Lawson continued.

“Victor is not Rebecca’s father.”

Rebecca’s eyes filled again.

“Then who is?”

No one answered.

Elena sat down.

Rebecca stared at her.

“Mom.”

Elena whispered:

“Thomas.”

Silence.

Elliot’s head lifted from across the room.

Thomas closed his eyes.

Rebecca looked between them.

“Thomas Vaughn is my father?”

Elena nodded.

Elliot laughed in disbelief.

“So Rebecca is my sister.”

“Half sister,” Anthony said.

Matteo looked at him.

Anthony stopped talking.

Rebecca stared at Thomas.

“You knew?”

Thomas whispered:

“Not until fifteen years ago.”

“After you disappeared.”

“Yes.”

“Did that have anything to do with why you stayed gone?”

“Yes.”

Elliot stood.

His lawyer touched his arm.

He pulled away.

“You left me and then found out Rebecca was yours.”

Thomas looked at him.

“I did not choose one child over the other.”

Elliot’s voice broke.

“You chose neither.”

Thomas had no answer.

Rebecca looked at Matteo.

For the first time all night, something between them was simple.

They were not related.

But nothing else was.

Mr. Lawson placed the report down.

Matteo asked Elena:

“Why did Anthony believe Carlo was Rebecca’s father?”

Elena looked at Carlo.

“Because Carlo agreed to let him.”

Matteo frowned.

Carlo nodded.

“I spread the rumor.”

“Why?”

“To protect Thomas.”

“From Anthony.”

“Yes.”

Anthony smiled bitterly.

“And it worked.”

Matteo said:

“Until now.”

“Yes.”

Isabella looked at Carlo.

“You let me believe you had betrayed me.”

Carlo’s face fell.

“I thought the lie would die with me.”

Isabella stared at him.

“That has been the problem with all of you.”

No one answered.

The room remained quiet.

Then Mr. Lawson’s phone rang.

He listened.

His expression changed.

Matteo looked at him.

“What?”

The lawyer ended the call.

“The search team found something under the old floor at St. Agnes.”

Anthony frowned.

“What?”

Mr. Lawson looked at Isabella.

“A sealed metal case.”

Matteo said:

“Money?”

“No.”

“Documents?”

“Some.”

“What else?”

Mr. Lawson swallowed.

“A handgun.”

Victor went still.

Anthony stopped smiling.

Mr. Lawson continued.

“And a handwritten statement signed by Carlo.”

Matteo turned to his father.

Carlo looked like he had expected this day for eighteen years.

Matteo asked:

“What did you write?”

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Carlo answered:

“The truth about what happened at the house after your mother escaped.”