Chương 6 - THE COUSIN WHO TURNED OFF THE CAMERA
Vincent had been family for forty-six years.
Adrian trusted him before he trusted Marcus.
Before me.
Before almost everyone.
That was why he was perfect.
We did not confront him.
We fed him information.
Marcus deliberately told Vincent I was hiding at a Bellandi lake house near Kenosha.
I wasn't.
Within forty minutes, two vehicles left a warehouse connected to Matteo Russo.
Straight toward Wisconsin.
Proof.
Then Vincent made his mistake.
He used the same executive security token to access the estate archive remotely.
Marcus captured it.
No cloned credentials.
No external breach.
Vincent.
Adrian stared at the screen.
Nothing in his face moved.
I stood beside him in a temporary operations room.
Not the estate.
I still refused to return.
“Say something,” I said.
“He was at our wedding.”
“I remember.”
“He held my father when he died.”
“I know.”
“I paid for his daughter's university.”
“Yes.”
Adrian laughed once.
“Apparently generosity remains a terrible security system.”
“You're finally learning.”
He looked at me.
Then:
“I want to kill him.”
“I know.”
“I won't.”
Better.
Vincent was arrested on financial charges first.
Evidence connected him to shell companies used in the trust scheme.
Matteo tried moving Luca Russo the same night.
Federal agents intercepted the convoy after Elena finally agreed to cooperate fully.
Her son was recovered alive.
She collapsed when she saw him.
I watched from another room.
I still disliked her.
That did not mean I wanted her child harmed.
Humans are inconveniently capable of multiple emotions.
Vincent eventually asked to speak to Adrian.
Adrian brought me.
Vincent laughed when he saw me.
“There she is.”
I sat.
“You sound disappointed.”
“You were supposed to disappear longer.”
There.
Adrian's jaw tightened.
Vincent continued:
“We never planned to hurt you.”
“How comforting.”
“Matteo's men were only supposed to watch.”
“The gray-coat man chased me.”
“He was trying to stop you.”
“By chasing me through an alley?”
Vincent shrugged.
“Poor judgment.”
I hated him immediately.
Adrian asked:
“Why?”
Vincent looked at him.
“Because you were dismantling everything.”
“What?”
“The old structures.”
Adrian had been slowly legalizing the organization for years.
Selling illicit businesses.
Cutting off certain revenue.
Removing family privileges.
Vincent hated it.
“You were turning us into accountants.”
Adrian answered:
“I prefer accountants to funerals.”
Vincent smiled.
“Your father would've been ashamed.”
Adrian's face remained still.
Then he said:
“My father is dead.”
Simple.
Powerful.
Vincent looked toward me.
“She did that to you.”
Adrian did not even glance my way.
“No.”
He leaned forward.
“I did.”
Vincent frowned.
“I changed.”
Then:
May you like
“And thank God I did.”
That was when I understood Adrian might actually survive losing the version of himself his family worshiped.
