Chapter 10 - THE FATHER NICO WORSHIPPED
Rafe left the room.
Nobody stopped him.
Nico wanted to.
Vivia touched his wrist.
“Give him a minute.”
Nico sat again.
His mother had just accused his father of murder.
Not complicity.
Not a cover-up.
Murder.
He looked at Elena.
“You saw Dad kill Gino?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Michael recorded it.”
Nico felt sick.
“Where is the recording?”
“Marcella had it.”
Vivia’s head lifted.
“That’s how she controlled Dad.”
Elena nodded.
“When Vincent realized I survived, he wanted to expose Carlo.”
“Marcella showed him the recording.”
“If he confessed…”
“She would give police the proof that he killed Gino.”
Nico rubbed his forehead.
“Why did Dad kill him?”
Elena looked ashamed for a crime she had not committed.
“Fear.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Gino called Vincent.”
“He said he was going to tell police about Michael’s car.”
“Vincent begged him not to.”
“Gino refused.”
“So Dad killed him?”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“He went to Gino’s apartment.”
“They argued.”
“Gino threatened to call you.”
Nico frowned.
“Me?”
“You were studying finance.”
“He believed if he told you what Bellandi Holdings really was, you would force your father to choose.”
Nico looked away.
“Dad chose.”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
Elena did not answer immediately.
Then she whispered.
“He pushed Gino.”
Rafe’s voice came from the doorway.
“Down the stairs?”
Everyone turned.
He stood there again.
His face looked older.
Elena nodded.
Rafe closed his eyes.
“The report said he collapsed on the landing.”
“He did.”
“After Vincent pushed him.”
“Yes.”
“Did he mean to kill him?”
“I don’t know.”
Rafe laughed bitterly.
“That’s what everyone says when rich men kill someone by accident.”
Nico did not defend his father.
He could not.
Rafe looked at him.
“This is the man I spent twelve years protecting.”
Nico stood.
“So did I.”
Rafe stared at him.
Neither knew what to say.
Alessia entered.
She held her phone.
“We have another problem.”
Nico almost laughed.
“Of course we do.”
“The board publicly announced Marcella as interim chair.”
“I know.”
“She also filed emergency motions in New York.”
“For what?”
“To freeze your voting shares.”
Nico stared.
“On what grounds?”
“Breach of fiduciary duty.”
“For investigating fraud?”
“For abandoning the company during a liquidity crisis.”
Vivia stood.
“She created the crisis.”
“Yes.”
Alessia continued.
“There’s more.”
Nico waited.
“She filed something regarding Vivia.”
Vivia frowned.
“What?”
“A petition challenging your legal capacity to exercise the trust shares.”
Silence.
Vivia almost smiled.
“She thinks I’m incompetent?”
Alessia nodded.
“Based on psychiatric evaluations.”
Vivia’s expression changed.
“What evaluations?”
“Apparently several.”
“I’ve never had psychiatric evaluations.”
Elena opened her eyes wider.
“Marcella.”
Vivia looked at her.
“What?”
“She did the same thing to me.”
Nico froze.
Elena continued.
“When I began questioning the accounts, Marcella arranged private doctors.”
“She told Vincent I was unstable.”
“She created records.”
Nico felt anger rising.
“She has been building the same case against Vivia?”
“Maybe for years.”
Vivia shook her head.
“How?”
Then she remembered.
College.
After Elena’s supposed death.
A grief counselor had been sent by the family.
Vivia saw him twice.
Later, Marcella insisted she speak to another therapist after an argument at Christmas.
Three years ago, Marcella arranged an “executive wellness assessment” when Vivia briefly considered joining the company.
Vivia’s face went pale.
“All of them.”
Nico understood.
“She picked the doctors.”
Vivia nodded.
Alessia looked at her phone.
“Marcella’s petition claims a twelve-year history of emotional instability, paranoia, and obsessive fixation on your mother’s death.”
Vivia laughed.
It sounded hollow.
“My dead mother who was alive.”
“Yes.”
“That paranoia?”
“Yes.”
Nico took the phone.
“She planned this.”
Rafe entered fully.
“Long before tonight.”
Nico looked at him.
“Why?”
Rafe pointed toward the trust records.
“Forty percent.”
Marcella had known Elena transferred shares to Vivia.
She could not erase the trust.
She could only prevent Vivia from exercising it.
Nico suddenly understood the board mechanics.
“With Vivia’s forty percent, Marcella can’t control the company.”
Alessia nodded.
“If Vivia is declared incapable…”
“Who becomes trustee?”
They searched the document.
Successor trustee:
MARCELLA BELLANDI.
Vivia stared.
“She gets my shares.”
“Temporarily,” Alessia said.
“Long enough.”
Nico looked toward his mother.
“Did you name Marcella?”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
They scrolled further.
The original trust named Vincent.
Then Nico.
Marcella’s name appeared in an amendment dated three months after Elena’s supposed death.
Nico’s signature appeared beside it.
He stared.
“I never signed this.”
Alessia zoomed in.
“It was witnessed by Daniel Mercer.”
Nico’s anger became icy.
“So Daniel forged me.”
Rafe nodded.
“And probably gave himself access to your digital certificate.”
Nico turned his phone back on.
Two hundred thirty-seven missed calls.
He dialed one number.
The family’s longtime outside counsel, Samuel Price.
Samuel answered immediately.
“Nico.”
“Did you draft the amendment to Vivia’s trust?”
Silence.
“Samuel.”
“I was junior counsel then.”
“Did you draft it?”
“Yes.”
“Did I sign it?”
Another silence.
“No.”
Vivia looked at Nico.
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Samuel.”
“I was told the signature page came from your office.”
“Who told you?”
“Daniel.”
Of course.
Nico walked toward the window.
“Did you know Mom was alive?”
Samuel stopped breathing.
That was answer enough.
Nico’s entire body went still.
“Nico—”
“You knew.”
“I knew she survived the crash.”
“For how long?”
“Three days.”
Vivia stared.
“You came to our funeral.”
Samuel’s voice trembled through the phone.
“I was ordered to.”
“By whom?” Nico asked.
“Your father.”
Nico closed his eyes.
“Who else knew?”
Samuel whispered.
“Carlo.”
“Marcella.”
“Daniel.”
“Dr. Hensley at St. Matthew’s.”
“And…”
He stopped.
Nico waited.
“And who?”
Samuel began crying quietly.
“Father Gabriel.”
Vivia looked toward Nico.
Father Gabriel had conducted Elena’s funeral.
He had stood over the closed casket.
He had told Vivia her mother was at peace.
Nico’s voice changed.
“The priest knew the coffin was empty?”
“Yes.”
Vivia turned away.
Nico pressed the phone tighter.
“Why?”
“Vincent said Elena would be killed if the truth came out.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still?”
Samuel was silent.
“Do you still believe him?”
“No.”
Nico looked at Elena.
“What changed?”
Samuel answered.
“Your father came to see me three days before he died.”
Nico froze.
“What did he want?”
“To change everything.”
“What?”
“The trust.”
“The company.”
“The confession.”
Nico stared into nothing.
“He was going to confess?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he?”
Samuel’s breathing became uneven.
“Because he died that night.”
Vincent Bellandi had supposedly suffered a massive stroke in his sleep.
Nico remembered Marcella calling him before dawn.
He remembered arriving and seeing his father already covered.
He remembered no autopsy because Vincent’s physician declared the cause natural.
Nico slowly looked toward his mother.
She understood.
Samuel’s voice came through the phone.
“Nico…”
“Yes?”
“I kept one thing Vincent gave me.”
“What?”
“A sealed statement.”
“Where?”
“My office.”
“Get it.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
A loud crash came through the phone.
Samuel gasped.
Nico stood.
“Samuel?”
Footsteps.
A door opening.
Samuel whispered.
“They’re here.”
“Who?”
The call cut off.
Nico immediately dialed back.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then a photograph arrived from Samuel’s number.
It showed Samuel tied to an office chair.
Behind him stood Carlo Bellandi.
Carlo held a sealed brown envelope.
Across it, in Vincent Bellandi’s handwriting, were four words.
MY FULL CONFESSION — NICO.
A second image arrived.
Carlo held a lighter beneath one corner.
Then came a message.
YOU WANT YOUR FATHER’S TRUTH?
May you like
COME TAKE IT.
---
