Chapter 3 - ELENA AND LEO
Poppy ran into Hannah’s arms so hard they nearly both fell.
“Mama!”
Hannah knelt despite bruised knees.
Victor watched from the opposite side of the hospital family room.
He did not intrude.
Poppy touched Hannah’s face.
“Bad man?”
“Bad man.”
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
That answer was for a toddler.
Adults got the longer version later.
Poppy opened one fist.
“Rabbit.”
The stuffed rabbit had been dried.
One ear still stitched with red thread.
Hannah started crying.
Poppy immediately did too.
Victor looked away.
Some moments did not belong to witnesses.
Later, when Poppy slept against Hannah, Victor sat near the window.
“Gregory worked for me fourteen years.”
Hannah said nothing.
“Twelve years ago my wife and son died.”
“I know.”
Everyone in Baltimore knew the public story.
The Castellano convoy ambush.
Rival Delacroix crew.
Elena Castellano.
Leo Castellano, six.
Both dead.
Victor survived because he changed vehicles twenty minutes before departure after an urgent port call.
The other vehicle took his family home.
Delacroix gunmen hit it.
For years Victor believed they meant to kill all three.
They probably did.
What he did not know was how they got the route.
“Gregory was at the cemetery.”
Victor’s voice sounded strange to his own ears.
“He carried Leo’s coffin.”
Hannah looked toward him.
“He helped me rebuild security afterward.”
Marcus had been younger then.
Field operations.
Gregory controlled the estate.
Keys.
Schedules.
Vendors.
Victor continued:
“Three weeks ago, an accountant tied to the old Delacroix network died.”
“Okay.”
“His attorney released documents.”
The Delacroix ledgers.
Original cash books.
Route purchases.
Protection payments.
Informants.
One entry:
G.V. — Castellano family route / Thursday / 40K initial
Second:
G.V. confirms principal vehicle.
Principal.
Victor.
Except he left the vehicle.
Elena and Leo took it.
The rest of the payment:
$160,000.
Gregory’s bank records from twelve years ago showed no direct deposit.
But the ledgers were enough to reopen questions.
Victor had placed them in his study safe.
Only three people knew.
Victor.
Marcus.
Gregory.
Marcus’s code did not open the safe.
Gregory’s did.
Hannah whispered:
“So he stole them.”
“Yes.”
“Why not destroy them immediately?”
“Maybe he needs to know whether copies exist.”
“Do they?”
Victor looked at her.
“Yes.”
Good.
Then Hannah said:
“Gregory talked while he thought I wouldn't matter.”
Victor’s attention sharpened.
“What?”
“He said the books should’ve stayed buried with the Delacroix accountant.”
That confirmed knowledge.
“Anything else?”
“He said your family died because people made mistakes under pressure.”
Victor’s face went still.
“What exact words?”
Hannah thought.
People do stupid things when audits close in.
That was what Gregory had said.
An audit.
Victor remembered one.
Twelve years ago, finance had found missing funds from Castellano Shipping.
Roughly $4 million.
Investigation stopped after Elena and Leo died.
Victor abandoned business for weeks.
Then months of war with Delacroix.
By the time he returned, Gregory had “resolved” the discrepancy as vendor fraud.
Victor whispered:
“He used their deaths to kill an audit.”
Hannah looked at him.
“You don't know that yet.”
He almost smiled.
Grace? no Hannah. She was right.
Again.
“No.”
He corrected.
“We verify.”
Adult evidence.
Not grief.
May you like
That became the rule.
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