Chapter 6 - THE BROTHER WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Nicholas denied everything.
Until Gabriel showed him the photograph.
Then he sat down.
“I didn't hurt Lily.”
“Convince me.”
Nicholas had discovered Lang altering medical records almost a year earlier.
Instead of telling Gabriel, he blackmailed the doctor.
Emma stared.
“Why?”
Nicholas looked ashamed.
“Because I needed to know who was paying him.”
“And?”
“Bellacosta.”
Gabriel frowned.
“I control Bellacosta.”
“No. You control the American side.”
Their late father had built the company with another family.
The Contis.
Twenty-four percent of the company moving into an independent trust would allow the Conti family, with allied shareholders, to take control.
The scheme wasn't about Jonathan.
Jonathan had been positioned to take the blame.
Someone forged communications making it appear he had manipulated Lily's diagnosis.
The real architect was Celeste Conti.
Alessandra's older sister.
Lily and Sophia's aunt.
Gabriel remembered every birthday.
Every hospital visit.
Celeste holding Lily.
Celeste crying at Alessandra's funeral.
He felt physically ill.
“Why would she kill her sister?”
Nicholas shook his head.
“I don't know if she did.”
They found Celeste the next morning.
She didn't run.
She confessed to bribing Lang.
But not to killing Alessandra.
“I wanted the shares.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You used my daughter.”
“I never hurt Lily.”
“You taught everyone around her to believe she couldn't improve.”
Celeste looked down.
That was answer enough.
“But I loved Alessandra.”
“Not enough.”
Celeste began crying.
“She found out. I stopped.”
“Then who touched the car?”
“I don't know.”
Gabriel didn't believe her.
Until Emma noticed something in the original hidden-camera footage.
Alessandra and Jonathan weren't arguing.
They were rehearsing.
Emma slowed the video.
Alessandra pointed toward Lily.
Jonathan handed her papers.
She tore them.
Then Jonathan grabbed her wrist.
Alessandra slapped him.
They repeated it.
Again.
It was staged.
“For the camera,” Emma whispered.
Jonathan had known someone else was watching his hidden camera.
They were feeding that person false information.
Gabriel turned.
“Who had access?”
Jonathan answered.
“Only one person.”
Marco Bellini.
Gabriel's security chief.
The man standing behind them.
May you like
Marco drew his gun.
---
