Chapter 5
Anthony knew more about Matteo Vieri than he had ever told Salvatore.
Not because he had wanted to keep secrets from his boss.
Because Adelaide had ordered an entire generation never to speak of the man again.
Salvatore looked at his mother.
She lowered her eyes.
“Why?”
Adelaide took a long breath. “Because your father hated him.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“No.”
She looked older suddenly.
“Matteo discovered things your father did not want exposed.”
Hattie laughed from across the room. “Here we go. Dead men and old betrayals.”
Anthony ignored her.
“Vieri wasn’t expelled for selling Carbone secrets,” he said. “He was expelled because he accused your father of buying loyalty from rival capos and then blackmailing them afterward.”
Salvatore stared at him.
“That sounds familiar.”
Anthony’s eyes shifted toward Hattie and Nolan.
Very familiar.
Adelaide continued. “Your father buried Matteo’s accusation. I helped him.”
Salvatore did not react immediately.
That hurt Adelaide more.
“I thought I was protecting the family,” she said.
“No.”
Salvatore’s voice was quiet.
“You were protecting the man who controlled it.”
Adelaide nodded.
She accepted the distinction.
That was one difference between her and Hattie.
Hattie always called cruelty necessary.
Adelaide could still call an old mistake wrong.
“So Elena found Matteo,” Salvatore said.
Anthony nodded slowly. “That would make sense. If she suspected someone was rebuilding the same network your father used, Vieri would know how it worked.”
Nolan suddenly spoke.
“She shouldn’t have gone looking.”
Everyone turned.
He realized what he had done.
Salvatore rose.
“You knew she found him.”
Nolan tried to recover. “I’m guessing.”
“No.”
Salvatore crossed the room.
“You just blamed my wife for finding a man you supposedly knew nothing about.”
Nolan’s face hardened.
“She kept digging into things that weren’t hers.”
Salvatore stopped inches away.
“My organization?”
Silence.
“My family?”
Nolan said nothing.
“My life?”
Hattie interrupted. “If Elena had known her place, none of this would have happened.”
There it was.
The same justification.
The same language she used while starving Adelaide.
Salvatore looked from Hattie to Nolan.
Elena had not disappeared because she wanted another life.
May you like
She disappeared because she found an old system of control being rebuilt inside his own family.
And someone had decided removing her was easier than letting her speak.
