Chapter 38 #2
"Giuseppe raped Alejandro’s mother. Paid her off. Forgot about her." My voice stays flat. Clinical. "Then, years later, he did the same thing to mine."
The silence in the room is suffocating. I can feel it pressing against my chest, against my throat. But I keep talking. They need to hear this. All of it.
"My adoptive father found out. I don't know how. Maybe my mother told him. Maybe he pieced it together on his own. But he knew. And he threatened to expose Giuseppe. To destroy everything he'd built."
I look at Alejandro.
"Giuseppe needed the problem eliminated. So he went to Alejandro's father. Asked him to handle it. And Alejandro's father saw an opportunity." I pause. "His son was ready to start working for the family business. Ready to prove himself. So they gave him a job."
I turn back to the family. To Bruno's white face. To Lorenzo's clenched jaw. To Vittoria's steady gaze.
"They sent Alejandro to kill my family. My mother.
My father. My brother. Me." I gesture toward the man bound to the chair.
"The gun jammed." My voice doesn't waver.
"That's the only reason I'm standing here.
A mechanical failure. A fraction of a second where the universe decided I got to live and my family didn't."
Alejandro shifts in his chair. The ropes creak against the metal.
"I still don't know how I ended up crossing paths with the Sartoris that day. I've thought about it days. Whether it was coincidence. Whether someone arranged it. Whether Giuseppe somehow—"
I stop. Shake my head.
"I don't know. I probably never will."
The room is silent. Processing. Drowning.
"Alejandro didn't know any of this until three years ago as I already said." I continue. "His mother was dying. Cancer. She told him the truth about his father. About Giuseppe. About what she'd been paid to forget."
I look at Alejandro. His jaw is tight now. The grin is gone.
"She told him to find a doctor. A man Giuseppe had paid to keep quiet for decades. The doctor was still alive. He had records."
I pause. Let the implication sink in.
"Records of every woman Giuseppe raped. Two kids that resulted from it. Every payoff. Every silence bought with money and threats." My voice hardens. "The doctor's clients were rich men like Giuseppe. Powerful men. Men who paid fortunes to make their crimes disappear."
Aria is shaking now. Her whole body trembling. Vittoria moves to her mother's side, puts an arm around her shoulders.
"Alejandro found the records. Found a folder with a name he recognized." I meet Alejandro's eyes. "My mother's name."
Alejandro's expression doesn't change. But something flickers in his gaze. Something that might be pain. Or satisfaction. Or both.
"That's how he found me. That's how he connected the dots. The boy who survived the hit he was sent to complete. The boy who somehow ended up serving the very family that destroyed his own." I turn back to the room.
Bruno is staring at me like he's never seen me before. Like I'm a stranger wearing a familiar face.
Bruno's face is unreadable. His hands have stopped shaking. That's worse, somehow. The stillness before violence.
"You should have told us." His voice is quiet. Dangerous. "You should have fucking told us."
"If I had told you, you would have acted. Alejandro would have known. And everyone he was watching would be dead." I don't look away.
"So you made the choice for us." Bruno's jaw tightens. "You decided we couldn't handle the truth."
"I decided I would rather have you hate me than bury you."
The words hang in the air between us. Twenty years of loyalty. Twenty years of brotherhood. All of it balanced on a knife's edge.
Bruno stares at me for a long moment.
"Giuseppe used both of us," Alejandro says. "He raped our mothers. He ordered our families killed. He turned us into tools for his empire."
He laughs.
The sound is hollow.
"The only difference between us is which side of the gun we ended up on."
I let his words hang in the air.
Let everyone absorb them.
Then I shake my head.
"No," I say. "The difference between us is much simpler than that."
Alejandro's eyebrows rise. "Is it?"
"You killed children." My voice is steady. Cold. "You killed my seven-year-old brother. You would have killed me if that gun hadn't jammed. And you've spent the last three years planning to kill more innocent people. People who had nothing to do with what Giuseppe did."
Alejandro shrugs. The movement is casual. Dismissive.
"Every man in this basement would have done the same thing," he says. "Given the right circumstances. The right motivation. The right order from above." His eyes sweep the room. "Don't pretend you're any different. Don't pretend any of you are better than me."
I don't laugh.
"You're wrong."
Alejandro's grin falters.
"What kind of person kills kids?" I take a step closer to him. "What kind of person murders innocent people? People who never hurt anyone? Children who didn't even understand the world they were born into?"
Alejandro's jaw tightens. "This is how our world works. You know that better than anyone. You've killed for this family. You've—"
"I've killed men who chose this life." My voice cuts through his. "Men who picked up guns and made themselves targets. Men who knew the risks. Men who had it coming."
I crouch down again. Bring my face close to his.
"I have never killed a child. I have never killed an innocent person. I have never murdered someone's family while they hid in a closet, listening to their mother scream."
Alejandro's expression doesn't change.
"That's the difference between us," I say. "That's why it was so easy for me to choose that night. When you gave me your ultimatum. When you told me to destroy my family or watch the people I love die."
I stand up. Look down at him.
"It took me less than a second to decide I was going to save them from you."
Alejandro opens his mouth to respond.
"Because none of them would have done what you did.
" I gesture toward the family gathered behind me.
"None of them would have killed a seven-year-old boy.
None of them would have murdered innocent women.
None of them would have spent years planning to slaughter people who had nothing to do with their pain. "
I pause. Let the words settle.
"They never knew I was half a brother to them.
They had no idea Giuseppe was my biological father.
No idea we shared blood." My voice hardens.
"But they still gave me everything. A home.
A family. A purpose. They took in a sixteen-year-old kid who was starving on the streets and they made him one of their own. "
I look at them all.
I turn back to Alejandro.
"But you?" I crouch down one more time. "You are one of the greatest monsters I have ever met."
Alejandro's eyes narrow. His mouth opens to speak.
"And you are not leaving this place alive."
Alejandro starts to respond. His lips form words I don't want to hear.
Dmitri moves before anyone else can react. One moment he's standing by Vittoria's side. The next, he's behind Alejandro's chair, a strip of duct tape stretched between his hands.
The tape covers Alejandro's mouth mid-syllable.
Alejandro's eyes go wide. He thrashes against his restraints, but the ropes hold. Muffled sounds emerge from behind the tape. Protests. Threats. Pleas.
None of it matters anymore.
I straighten up. Look around the room at the faces watching me. My family. The people I almost lost. The people I would have died to protect.
"Everyone out," I say. "Upstairs. Now."
Bruno hesitates. His jaw is still tight. His hands still flexing at his sides. He wants to be the one to do this. Wants to make Alejandro pay with his own hands.
"Bruno." My voice is quiet. Final. "Upstairs."
For a long moment, Bruno doesn't move.
Then Antonella takes his hand. Squeezes it. Whispers something I can't hear.
Bruno's shoulders drop. He nods once, sharp and angry, and lets his wife lead him toward the stairs.
Lorenzo and Sophia follow. Then Nico and Kristen, Pietro. Vittoria guides Aria, who is still trembling, still clutching her scattered rosary beads.
Marina is the last to move.
I walk to her. Until I can see the questions she's not asking.
"I won't do it here," I say quietly. "Not now."
She searches my face. Looking for something. I don't know if she finds it.
Then she nods.
I watch her climb the stairs. Watch her disappear into the light above.
The basement feels colder without her.
I turn to Liam, who has been standing silently by the door throughout the entire conversation. The former SAS officer's face is unreadable. Professional. Waiting for orders.
"Stay with him," I say. "Don't let anyone down here except me."
Liam nods once. "Understood."
I take one last look at Alejandro. At the man who killed my family. At the man who shares my blood. At the monster who thought he could use my pain to destroy everything I love.
His eyes are wild above the duct tape. Furious. Terrified.
Good.
I climb the stairs without looking back.
The family is gathered in the living room when I emerge. Scattered across sofas and chairs. Shell-shocked. Processing. Drowning in revelations they never asked for.
Bruno is standing by the window, staring out at nothing. Antonella sits nearby, one hand resting on her pregnant belly.
Lorenzo has Sophia pulled tight against his side. Her face is buried in his chest. His hand strokes her hair in a rhythm that suggests he's comforting himself as much as her.
Nico stands apart from everyone, arms crossed, watching me with those calculating eyes.
Vittoria is kneeling beside Aria, speaking softly in Italian. Dmitri hovers nearby, protective even now.
Marina is sitting on the arm of a sofa. Alone. Waiting.
I stop in the center of the room. Wait until everyone's attention settles on me.
"Now," I say, "we need to talk about the plan."