Chapter 15 - The Man Who Saved Him
Dean stopped fighting when he saw Massimo walking toward him.
Luca’s men held both his arms.
The ballroom had been cleared.
Investigators secured the infiltrators.
Nathan Ashwood had been detained near the west hall.
Camille remained missing inside the estate.
Dean stared at Massimo.
“You chose them.”
Massimo understood.
“You could have chased Camille.”
“Yes.”
“You stayed for the maid and the kid.”
Massimo’s jaw tightened.
“They have names.”
Dean laughed.
“That’s what happened to you.”
“What?”
“You got weak.”
Massimo stopped directly in front of him.
“You shot me in the back.”
“You drugged me.”
“You kidnapped a child.”
“And you think caring about someone else is weakness?”
Dean’s smile faded.
Massimo leaned closer.
“You still don’t understand why you lost.”
Dean stared at him.
“You spent twelve years believing power meant being the man everyone feared.”
“So did I.”
“The difference is I finally learned better.”
Dean spat blood onto the marble near Massimo’s shoe.
“You sound like a priest.”
Massimo stepped back.
“No.”
“Just a man who wasted too much time.”
Dean was led away.
At the doors, he stopped.
“Massimo.”
Massimo looked at him.
“Camille has something you don’t know about.”
“What?”
Dean smiled.
“Ask her why she chose you before you ever met.”
Then he disappeared into the hallway.
Massimo froze.
Before he ever met Camille?
He had known Camille for four years.
The Ashwoods’ financial problems began seven years ago.
Samuel heard Dean’s comment.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Massimo asked.
Samuel hesitated.
“I need to show you something.”
They went to Massimo’s father’s old office.
Samuel opened a locked drawer.
Inside was a file dated eight years earlier.
Ashwood Holdings.
Massimo stared.
“My father knew them?”
“Yes.”
“He refused them financing.”
“Why?”
Samuel looked uncomfortable.
“Because Camille’s father was moving pension money to cover private losses.”
Massimo’s face hardened.
“My father exposed him?”
“Privately.”
“He forced Ashwood to repay it.”
“The family nearly collapsed.”
Massimo looked at the date.
“Camille was twenty-six.”
“She knew?”
Samuel sighed.
“I don’t know.”
But Massimo did.
Camille had not chosen him because she met a powerful man and became greedy.
She had entered his life because she already hated the Rinaldi name.
Love may have come later.
Or perhaps never.
The revenge came first.
A radio cracked.
Luca’s voice.
“We found her.”
Massimo grabbed the handset.
“Where?”
“Old chapel.”
The chapel had been closed since Massimo’s mother died.
A narrow stone building sat beyond the west garden.
Massimo walked there with the cane.
Every step hurt.
Elena would have killed him.
He kept going.
Camille stood inside beside the altar.
The leather case rested at her feet.
She looked at Massimo as he entered.
“No guards?”
“They’re outside.”
“You trust me?”
“No.”
She laughed softly.
“At least we finally stopped lying.”
Massimo approached.
“Why me?”
Camille looked toward the stained-glass windows.
“My father came home one night eight years ago and told us your family had destroyed him.”
“Your father stole from employees.”
“I learned that later.”
“But by then, I already knew your name.”
She looked at Massimo.
“Rinaldi.”
“I hated it.”
“So you approached me.”
“Yes.”
“Everything was planned?”
“At first.”
Massimo absorbed the words.
“At first?”
Camille’s eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t expect to love you.”
Massimo said nothing.
“I hated your family.”
“I hated what you represented.”
“Then I met you.”
“And you weren’t your father.”
“You weren’t your grandfather.”
“For a while, I thought I could let it go.”
Massimo’s voice was quiet.
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because my father’s debts got worse.”
“Nathan discovered the trust structure.”
“We realized marriage could save everything.”
“And Brooklyn Avenue?”
Camille closed her eyes.
“I wanted you injured.”
Massimo’s face hardened.
“Not dead.”
“You say that like it matters.”
“I know.”
She began crying.
“I told Dean to make it survivable.”
“You cannot make bullets survivable.”
“I know.”
“Now.”
Camille looked at him.
“I sat in that car and watched the shooting start.”
“And for the first time, I wanted to stop it.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Her voice broke.
“Because I was a coward.”
Massimo stood in silence.
Camille continued.
“When Dean told me you survived, I went to the hospital.”
“I sat beside you.”
“And when you opened your eyes, I was relieved.”
“That part was real.”
Massimo looked at her.
“So was the medication.”
She flinched.
“Yes.”
“The forged reports.”
“Yes.”
“The plan to take control.”
“Yes.”
“My death after the wedding.”
Camille looked away.
Massimo understood.
There was the answer.
Whatever love existed had never been stronger than ambition.
Massimo pointed toward the case.
“What’s inside?”
“Enough to ruin every Rinaldi account Dean touched.”
“Give it to me.”
Camille laughed weakly.
“So you can rebuild?”
“No.”
That surprised her.
Massimo stepped closer.
“So I can end it.”
Camille stared.
“The illegal accounts.”
“The bribery.”
“The old arrangements.”
“All of it.”
“You’d destroy your own empire.”
Massimo looked at the cane in his hand.
“No.”
“I’m going to find out whether there’s anything worth saving.”
Outside, approaching vehicles could be heard.
Camille looked toward the door.
“You called them.”
“Yes.”
She stared at him.
“I could have loved you.”
Massimo’s expression softened for the first time.
“That’s the tragedy.”
“You almost did.”
Camille slowly pushed the leather case toward him.
Then raised both hands.
When investigators entered, she did not resist.
Massimo watched them take her away.
At the chapel door, Camille turned.
“Massimo.”
He waited.
“Did Nina really make your feet move?”
Massimo looked down.
Then smiled faintly.
“No.”
Camille almost smiled too.
“But she was the first person who made me believe they could.”
Camille was taken outside.
Massimo remained in the empty chapel.
The conspiracy was finished.
Dean was alive.
Camille was in custody.
Nathan was detained.
Hale was cooperating.
The evidence was secure.
Massimo had won.
Yet standing there in the silence, he realized something unexpected.
He did not feel victorious.
He felt free.
May you like
And for the first time in his life, freedom frightened him more than power ever had.
Because now Massimo Rinaldi had to decide what kind of man would walk out of that chapel.
