Chapter 12
Augusto finally told the truth.
He had found Rafael alive below the ravine.
Broken arm.
Cracked ribs.
Barely conscious.
But alive.
At the time, Augusto was thirty-one and already being prepared as the family’s future patriarch. Rafael had been the younger brother everyone loved more.
That mattered.
More than Augusto wanted to admit.
“He begged me not to tell Father,” Augusto said.
Luciano stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because he knew Father would never let him leave.”
Rafael wanted to disappear with his pregnant wife.
Start somewhere else.
Live without Ferraro power.
Augusto helped him.
For one night.
Then changed his mind.
Anthony closed his eyes.
“You told your father.”
Augusto nodded.
The old patriarch’s men reached Rafael’s safe house before dawn.
His wife escaped.
Rafael did too.
After that, Augusto never saw either again.
“You betrayed him,” Dario said.
Augusto looked at his younger son.
“I was afraid.”
Dario laughed bitterly.
“So you became him.”
The sentence landed hard.
Luciano watched his father absorb it.
Thirty-four years later, Augusto had staged another family “correction” around another pregnant woman because control still felt safer than uncertainty.
Rafael had been waiting for proof.
But Celeste had paid for it.
Luciano looked at Marco.
“Take me to him.”
Marco hesitated.
Celeste spoke first.
“No.”
Luciano turned.
She stepped closer.
“He used me too.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know he knew.”
That was enough.
Celeste looked toward Marco.
“If Rafael wanted Augusto’s confession, he could have come here years ago. He waited until I became useful.”
Marco looked away.
Luciano understood.
Rafael was not innocent simply because Augusto had wronged him.
Pain could create victims.
It could also create men who justified new cruelty because old cruelty had been done to them first.
Celeste put one hand on Luciano’s arm.
“If you go to him angry, everyone gets what they planned.”
Luciano looked at her.
Dario wanted rage on camera.
Augusto wanted rage to prove instability.
Rafael wanted rage to prove Augusto had poisoned the family.
Everyone had built a story around Luciano losing control.
May you like
Celeste’s voice softened.
“Don’t give any of them the ending they wrote for you.”
