Chapter 10 - THE TRUTH ABOUT MY FATHERArthur didn't enter the room immediately.
He stayed in the tunnel.
His voice echoed.
“Zo, your father was a complicated man.”
I stepped in front of Noah.
“You killed him.”
Arthur laughed softly.
“No.”
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You knew he was going to die.”
“Yes.”
“But you didn't kill him.”
Arthur's silence lasted too long.
Then:
“Your father killed himself.”
Tessa stared.
“What?”
“He knew what he had become.”
I felt anger rise.
“You're lying.”
Arthur entered the light.
“No. Your father discovered the truth about the network. He discovered what your grandfather had built.”
“What did he build?”
“A system.”
Arthur explained everything.
The Rossi family had spent decades collecting information.
Politicians.
Judges.
Competitors.
Police officials.
Anyone capable of threatening the business.
My grandfather built it.
My father inherited it.
Then my father tried to dismantle it.
Arthur refused.
Victor joined Arthur.
Together, they turned protection into profit.
But my father created the trust secretly.
Twenty-eight million.
Money meant to dismantle the network and protect anyone trapped inside it.
Including Tessa.
Including Noah.
“You murdered him because he tried to expose you.”
Arthur shook his head.
“Victor did.”
I turned.
“What?”
Arthur smiled.
“I only watched.”
Then he said the sentence I had feared.
“But you did not.”
I stared.
“What?”
“You exposed your own father.”
“How?”
“By trusting Victor.”
My stomach tightened.
Arthur explained that after my father's death, I unknowingly signed dozens of company documents that gave Victor expanded authority.
I hadn't known.
I thought I was consolidating the company.
I had actually handed him control.
Then Arthur revealed the final piece.
“You weren't supposed to inherit the trust.”
I frowned.
“Then who was?”
“Noah.”
The room went silent.
“My father left everything to Noah?”
“Not everything.”
Arthur handed me a document.
The trust beneficiary clause was clear.
Fifty percent for Noah.
Thirty percent for Tessa's mother.
Twenty percent for charitable organizations.
Nothing for me.
I felt strangely calm.
So this was what Victor had been hiding.
Not the money.
The heir.
Noah was the key.
Arthur looked at the boy.
“Sign the transfer when you're older.”
“No.”
Noah stepped forward.
Arthur laughed.
“You're eleven.”
“I don't care.”
I looked at the child.
Then at the document.
Then at Arthur.
“You're not getting anything.”
Arthur's smile disappeared.
“Think carefully.”
“I have.”
He raised his weapon.
Tessa screamed.
Marcus stepped into the tunnel behind him.
Gun in hand.
Arthur turned.
“Marcus?”
Marcus aimed.
At Arthur.
Not me.
“It's over.”
Arthur froze.
Marcus looked at me.
“I was never working for him.”
I stared.
“What?”
“I infiltrated his organization three years ago.”
Arthur's expression changed.
“You idiot.”
Marcus shook his head.
“I was protecting Noah.”
Tessa covered her mouth.
Arthur fired.
Marcus returned fire.
Arthur dropped.
The tunnel became silent.
I looked at Marcus.
“You could have told me.”
“If I had, you'd be dead.”
“You kidnapped Noah.”
“To keep him from being found.”
I wanted to be angry.
Instead, I realized something.
Marcus hadn't betrayed me.
He had been lying to everyone.
Including Arthur.
He had spent three years inside the network.
That meant he knew who was at the top.
“Who financed them?”
Marcus looked toward the tunnel.
Then said:
“I don't know.”
I stared.
“What?”
“There is always another name.”
“Whose?”
Marcus reached into his coat.
Pulled out a photograph.
I recognized the face immediately.
It was my mother.
Alive.
Standing beside Victor.
I stopped breathing.
“My mother died eight years ago.”
Marcus shook his head.
“No.”
May you like
I looked at him.
“She never died.”
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