Chapter 9 - THE BROTHER’S CHOICE
Enzo froze.
Lorenzo’s shirt was torn.
Blood ran from his shoulder.
Behind him, firefighters and federal agents moved through the tunnel.
He had opened the ballroom exits and led the trapped guests toward the chapel.
Camilla’s plan to burn witnesses had failed.
Lorenzo forced Enzo onto his knees.
“You poisoned my son.”
Enzo laughed.
“You poisoned entire cities.”
The words struck harder than expected.
Lorenzo’s face changed.
Enzo continued.
“You move weapons through neighborhoods.”
“You collect money from desperate men.”
“You destroy families.”
“Do not pretend Leo made you moral.”
Lorenzo did not deny it.
“I never claimed innocence.”
“No.”
“You only claim rules.”
Enzo looked toward me.
“This woman thinks you will save her.”
“She does not understand that men like us save only what belongs to us.”
Lorenzo looked at me.
Then at Leo, who was breathing again inside Dr. Reed’s arms.
“She does not belong to me.”
Enzo’s smile faded.
“That is why I am saving her.”
He handed his weapon to Agent Quinn.
Then he held out both wrists.
The federal agent stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
“Ending the inheritance.”
If Lorenzo surrendered the medical ledgers and admitted control of the criminal businesses, the trust clause would freeze every succession transfer.
Neither Enzo nor Camilla could inherit while the assets were under federal seizure.
Leo’s protected trust would remain untouched.
Enzo shouted.
“You cannot give them everything.”
Lorenzo looked at his brother.
“I can give them what should never have belonged to us.”
Quinn handcuffed Enzo.
Dante helped Bianca stand.
Dr. Reed checked Leo again.
“He needs a hospital now.”
We emerged from the chapel tunnel into cold morning rain.
Police surrounded the grounds.
Cameras pointed toward us.
The false kidnapping alert had already spread across every news channel.
I walked out carrying Leo.
Officers raised their weapons.
“Put the child down.”
My body locked.
It was the nursery again.
A gun.
A dying baby.
An accusation.
Lorenzo stepped in front of me with his hands cuffed.
“She saved him.”
An officer shouted for him to kneel.
He did.
The most feared mafia boss in the country lowered himself into the mud while I held his son.
Agent Quinn displayed her credentials.
“This woman is a protected witness.”
“Lower your weapons.”
One by one, the officers obeyed.
An ambulance took Leo, Dr. Reed, Bianca, and me to Saint Joseph’s Hospital.
Lorenzo was taken into federal custody.
Enzo went in a separate vehicle.
Camilla remained missing.
The burned mansion was searched until nightfall.
Inside the eastern wing, investigators found Dr. Vale’s medical case.
They found blood.
They found Camilla’s pearls.
They did not find either person.
At the hospital, Leo finally accepted a clean bottle after feeding from me.
Dr. Reed smiled.
“He is learning food is safe.”
I understood the sentence too well.
Leo slept inside a guarded room.
I stood beside the window.
Agent Quinn entered carrying an evidence bag.
Inside was Lily’s blanket.
“We found another tracking device.”
“Where did it transmit?”
“To a private clinic outside Albany.”
The clinic belonged to Rossi Medical Holdings.
Camilla had visited it the day Lily died.
Dr. Vale had signed the guest register.
Quinn looked at me.
“We think your daughter’s death was part of a larger medical scheme.”
“What could be larger than killing her?”
The agent placed a photograph on the table.
It showed six pregnant women.
Each had lost a child after receiving care through the same clinic.
May you like
I recognized one of them.
She worked in the Rossi mansion kitchen.
