CHAP 11 — THE FIRST SIN
Forty-three years earlier, Carlo Marchetti and Alden Ashford had built their fortunes together.
Carlo controlled warehouses and transportation.
Alden understood banks, city contracts, and politicians.
One brought muscle.
The other brought legitimacy.
Camilla’s grandfather, Richard Ashford, discovered what they were doing.
He threatened to expose them.
He died inside a Marchetti warehouse.
Alden told everyone it had been a heart attack.
The photograph suggested otherwise.
“Who killed him?” Enzo asked.
Marco drank.
“I don’t know.”
“You were there.”
“Afterward.”
“Alden?”
“Maybe.”
“Carlo?”
“Maybe.”
Enzo slammed his fist onto the desk.
“Stop saying maybe.”
Marco looked at him sadly.
“Now you understand why I spent forty years hating that word.”
Carlo and Alden had each possessed enough evidence to destroy the other.
That was the foundation of their alliance.
Mutual guilt.
Mutual blackmail.
By the time Lucia discovered the financial network twenty years later, the partnership had become a war.
Carlo wanted out.
Alden could not allow it.
Lucia became leverage.
At St. Catherine, Alden threatened to release evidence tying Carlo to Richard Ashford’s death unless Carlo walked away and let Samuel silence Lucia.
Carlo refused.
A gun was drawn.
Marco arrived in the middle of it.
The standoff lasted less than a minute.
Samuel injected Lucia.
Carlo attacked him.
Alden’s men restrained Carlo.
By the time anyone reached Lucia, her heart had stopped.
“And you never told Adeline?” Enzo asked.
Marco looked at her.
“I was ashamed.”
Adeline’s voice was cold.
“That sounds very useful.”
“It isn’t an excuse.”
“No.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Marco had helped Carlo hide the truth afterward because exposing Alden would also expose the Marchetti family.
Carlo spent the next twenty-one years collecting evidence against Ashford while protecting his own legacy.
“He wanted to confess before he died,” Marco said.
Enzo remembered the hospital.
Lucia Croft.
Those words had not been confusion.
They had been guilt.
Adeline looked at Marco.
“Did my mother know Carlo helped create the system?”
“Yes.”
“Did she forgive him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she trust him?”
“At the end?”
Marco shook his head.
“I don’t think she trusted any of us.”
Adeline almost smiled.
“Smart woman.”
Then Marco revealed why he disappeared.
Someone had searched his house.
The hidden copies Lucia mentioned were gone.
“Who knew where they were?”
“Carlo. Me. Thomas Ross.”
“Thomas is in federal custody.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
Marco looked toward Enzo.
“The copies disappeared after Thomas surrendered.”
Meaning someone else knew.
Sofia’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed.
“What?”
She looked at Enzo.
“Federal prosecutors just released Alden Ashford.”
Adeline stared.
“How?”
“Insufficient evidence connecting him directly to the poisoning.”
“What about Camilla’s recording?”
“Ambiguous.”
“And Pike?”
“His lawyer says he acted alone.”
Cole swore.
Alden had purchased enough distance between himself and every crime that no single piece of evidence touched him directly.
He walked out of custody before midnight.
At 12:17 a.m., Enzo received a photograph.
Adeline’s apartment.
The door stood open.
Someone had entered.
Across the wall, written in red paint, were five words.
YOUR MOTHER SHOULD HAVE LISTENED.
Adeline stared at the photograph.
Then at Enzo.
He expected fear.
May you like
Instead she said:
“I’m done running.”
