Chapter 15
Four Bellandi men had been taking Marco’s money.
One warehouse chief.
Two captains.
One bodyguard supervisor.
Elena knew because she had listened while hidden at Saint Alden.
Samuel confirmed two.
Marco confirmed none.
At first.
Then Bianca turned on him.
“Tell them.”
He stared.
“You started this.”
She laughed.
“No. You did.”
Their alliance lasted exactly as long as protection.
I looked at Marco.
“Names.”
“No.”
Elena spoke quietly.
“Charles Vane.”
Marco’s face changed.
One.
Samuel added:
“Peter Lowe.”
Two.
George said:
“Matthew Crane.”
Three.
The fourth remained.
Marco smiled.
“You’ll never know.”
A voice from the doorway answered:
“Me.”
My security chief Elias Ward stepped forward.
My chest tightened.
No.
He removed his sidearm.
Placed it on the table.
“I took money.”
Silence.
Elias had shown me Samuel’s photograph.
Had found Saint Alden.
Had found Elena.
I stared.
“Why confess?”
“Because I stopped taking it eight months ago.”
“That doesn’t erase it.”
“I know.”
Elena looked at him.
“He helped me.”
I turned.
“What?”
She nodded.
“Elias was the reason I got out of Red Hollow.”
Everything rearranged.
He had betrayed me.
Then betrayed the betrayal.
Not clean.
Not innocent.
Human.
Elias looked at me.
“I thought Orson’s old faction would win.”
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then?”
“Marco convinced me Bianca would stabilize the house.”
I almost laughed.
There was that word again.
Stability.
“And what changed?”
Elias looked at the girls.
“Bianca.”
She scoffed.
“What?”
“I watched you with them.”
Silence.
“You punish children for not loving you.”
Her face hardened.
“They’re spoiled.”
Elias shook his head.
“That’s when I knew what kind of house we were building.”
He helped Elena.
Then quietly collected evidence.
I looked around the room.
Betrayal everywhere.
But motives differed.
That mattered.
Not for innocence.
For consequences.
I assembled senior Bellandi capos that night.
No police.
No public trial.
Just the people whose loyalty held the organization together.
Elena spoke.
Samuel spoke.
Hannah spoke.
The restaurant staff spoke.
Then Bianca made her final mistake.
She looked at my daughters and said:
May you like
“If those brats had simply called me Mama, none of this would have happened.”
Every man in the room turned against her at once.
