Chapter 3 - The Letter Sebastian Never Read

We left the airport through a service exit.

Dr. Levin insisted.

Maria insisted harder.

Sebastian wanted Thomas Vale.

Immediately.

But Maria stopped him.

“You go after him now, he disappears.”

Sebastian looked at her.

“He murdered my father.”

“I know.”

“And you want me to wait?”

“I want you to win.”

That sentence stopped him.

We drove to Dr. Levin’s house.

Not the estate.

Not a hotel.

A quiet brick home twenty minutes from the airport.

Maria sat at the kitchen table.

Sebastian sat across from her.

They looked related even in silence.

Same eyes.

Same habit of touching the edge of a glass without drinking.

I stood near the counter.

Dr. Levin opened a locked cabinet.

Inside were envelopes.

Stacks of them.

Sebastian stared.

“What are those?”

Maria answered.

“My letters.”

Twenty-three years.

Different paper.

Different stamps.

Different return names.

Every envelope had been returned.

Some marked ADDRESS UNKNOWN.

Some REFUSED.

Some never opened.

Sebastian picked one.

His name was written in blue ink.

He opened it carefully.

He read.

Then sat down.

“What does it say?” I asked.

He handed it to me.

It was dated twelve years earlier.

Sebastian was twenty-one.

Maria had written:

I saw your graduation photograph in a newspaper.

You look like your father when you are trying not to smile.

I am proud of you.

I hope one day I am allowed to say that to your face.

Sebastian stared at the table.

“Allowed.”

Maria looked down.

“I thought you knew.”

He opened another.

Then another.

At twenty-five:

I heard you took over the foundation.

Your father created it for medical scholarships.

Please protect it.

There are people around you who will turn generosity into camouflage.

At twenty-nine:

I saw you standing beside Anthony at the charity gala.

Please be careful with him.

He loved your father once.

That did not stop him from destroying him.

Sebastian stopped.

“Anthony.”

His uncle.

Anthony Romano.

Fifty-nine.

The man who raised him.

The man who taught him to shave.

The man who stood beside him at every birthday after his parents “died.”

Sebastian whispered:

“He kept every promise except the ones that mattered.”

Maria reached across the table.

Sebastian pulled his hand away.

Not cruelly.

Too much pain.

“You could have gone to the police.”

“I did.”

“When?”

“Nineteen years ago.”

“What happened?”

“The detective called Anthony.”

Sebastian looked up.

“Then?”

“Anthony sent me a photograph of you leaving a restaurant.”

She swallowed.

“You were fourteen.”

Sebastian’s anger changed shape.

Less fire.

More calculation.

“Who was the detective?”

Maria gave a name.

“Daniel Price.”

Sebastian knew it.

“Commissioner Price?”

Maria nodded.

“He became commissioner six years later.”

Sebastian leaned back.

The conspiracy was larger than a family.

Dr. Levin placed another envelope on the table.

“This one matters most.”

Sebastian opened it.

Inside was not a letter.

It was a photocopy of a handwritten note.

Signed by Sebastian’s father.

LUCA ROMANO.

Sebastian read aloud.

“If anything happens to me, Anthony knows why.”

He stopped.

Below that:

“Judge Cross has the original ledger.”

Sebastian looked at Maria.

“Natalie’s father had the evidence?”

“Yes.”

“And instead of turning it over, he helped Anthony?”

“That is what I believed.”

“Believed?”

Maria looked toward Dr. Levin.

“Until yesterday.”

The doctor removed a small flash drive from his pocket.

“Natalie’s father came to me three weeks ago.”

Sebastian stared.

“What?”

“He was frightened.”

“Of Anthony?”

“No.”

“Then who?”

Dr. Levin placed the drive on the table.

“Of Natalie.”

No one spoke.

Sebastian looked at the drive.

“My fiancée?”

“Yes.”

Maria’s face was tight.

“She knew more than her father told her.”

Sebastian shook his head.

“She was protecting him.”

Maria said nothing.

That silence was worse.

I asked:

“What is on the drive?”

Dr. Levin plugged it into a laptop.

A video opened.

Judge Harold Cross appeared on screen.

Seventy-one.

Gray hair.

Formal even while terrified.

He looked directly into the camera.

“If Sebastian Romano sees this, it means I failed to tell him myself.”

Sebastian did not blink.

The judge continued.

“Anthony Romano did not act alone.”

A pause.

“My signature appears on payments because I moved money for him.”

Sebastian’s jaw tightened.

“But I did it after he threatened my wife.”

Another pause.

“Natalie discovered the arrangement when she was twenty-six.”

Sebastian looked at Maria.

Natalie was thirty-one now.

Five years.

Not six months.

Five years.

The judge continued.

“At first she wanted to expose him.”

Sebastian leaned forward.

“At first?”

The recorded judge looked ashamed.

“Then she realized the same network that made Anthony rich could make her powerful.”

Sebastian’s face emptied.

“No.”

The video continued.

“Natalie began negotiating directly with Anthony.”

Dr. Levin paused it.

Sebastian stared at the frozen image.

“My engagement.”

Maria’s voice was quiet.

“Was not only an engagement.”

He looked at her.

“What was it?”

“A merger.”

Sebastian stood.

The chair scraped hard against the floor.

He walked to the window.

Then turned.

“Play the rest.”

Dr. Levin did.

The judge returned.

“There is a contract.”

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.

“What contract?”

The judge answered from the screen as if he could hear him.

“A private succession agreement.”

Sebastian did not move.

“If Sebastian marries Natalie, control of Romano Holdings transfers into a joint trust after one year.”

The room went silent.

The judge continued.

“If Sebastian dies before the first anniversary, Natalie becomes sole beneficiary.”

Sebastian stared at the screen.

I felt cold.

Maria whispered:

“That is why I came back now.”

Sebastian turned toward her.

“You thought they were going to kill me.”

Maria shook her head.

“I stopped thinking.”

She looked at the frozen face of Judge Cross.

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“I knew.”

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