CHAP 17 — MARCO’S LAST SECRET
Marco did not run.
He sat in Enzo’s library and waited.
“You took money from Alden,” Enzo said.
“Yes.”
Adeline stared at him.
“For how long?”
“Twenty-one years.”
“Why?”
“To keep him believing I belonged to him.”
Sofia laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
Marco nodded.
“It is.”
He opened a folder.
Every payment Alden made had been transferred into a separate account.
Untouched.
The total exceeded eleven million dollars.
“I never spent a cent.”
“Then why take it?” Enzo asked.
“Because every payment proved the relationship continued.”
Marco had been building his own case.
Quietly.
Illegally.
Obsessively.
For twenty-one years.
“Why didn’t you give it to prosecutors?”
“Because I didn’t trust them.”
Adeline shook her head.
“There it is again.”
Marco looked at her.
“What?”
“The same excuse everyone uses.”
He went still.
“My mother didn’t die because nobody had evidence.”
Adeline stepped closer.
“She died because every man around her decided he alone knew what to do with it.”
Marco had no answer.
Carlo hid evidence.
Antonio sealed cases.
Marco waited.
Thomas stayed silent.
Each man convinced himself secrecy was temporary.
Each silence protected Alden.
Marco slowly closed the folder.
“You’re right.”
Enzo looked at him.
Marco’s shoulders seemed to age.
“I spent twenty-one years preparing to defeat Alden.”
He looked at Adeline.
“And never noticed that preparation had become another way of being afraid.”
The eleven million dollars became evidence.
Marco agreed to testify.
The federal case expanded rapidly.
Conrad Pike changed his plea after learning Alden’s accounts had been frozen.
Thomas Ross testified about the fire.
Evelyn Price returned to Chicago and testified about Lucia’s hospital room.
Camilla testified about the trust scheme.
Marco testified about the financial network.
Sofia turned over her father’s journals.
And Enzo testified against himself.
That was the testimony everyone came to watch.
Reporters packed the courthouse.
Prosecutors asked him about bribery.
Threats.
Unreported money.
Carlo’s companies.
Alden’s partnership.
Enzo answered every question.
Then Alden’s attorney stood.
“Mr. Marchetti, you expect this court to believe you suddenly developed a conscience?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because conscience that arrives late is still responsible for what happened before it arrived.”
The courtroom went quiet.
The attorney smiled.
“You’re hoping to save yourself.”
“No.”
“Save Miss Croft?”
“No.”
“Then what exactly are you trying to save?”
Enzo looked toward Adeline.
Then toward Camilla.
Sofia.
Gabriel.
Marco.
People whose families had spent decades trapped inside lies.
“Whatever comes after us.”
For once, the answer was not strategic.
That made it powerful.
Alden watched from the defense table.
His expression remained calm.
But during the recess, he disappeared.
His ankle monitor had been cut.
A vehicle waited behind the courthouse.
By the time federal agents realized what happened, Alden Ashford was gone.
May you like
And so was one person from the witness room.
Camilla.
