Chapter 8 - THE MAN WHO STOOD BESIDE MY FATHER
Roman betrayed me the following night.
Not with a gun.
Men like Roman understood that paperwork could kill dynasties more effectively.
He filed an emergency corporate resolution claiming my recent decisions were impairing Moretti Harbor Holdings.
Three directors supported him.
Two had been bought.
One had been threatened.
The resolution temporarily limited my unilateral authority over major asset transfers.
At the same time, a Vandermark bank called a $68 million credit facility.
It was coordinated.
I knew exactly what Roman wanted.
Pressure.
He wanted me afraid enough to marry Celeste and sign.
Instead, I drove to his house.
He opened the door himself.
“Gabriel.”
“Walk with me.”
Snow covered his garden.
We walked past dead rose bushes.
“You loved my father?”
Roman laughed softly.
“That’s a strange question.”
“Answer it.”
“Yes.”
“You loved Ewan?”
His face tightened.
“Like a nephew.”
“You helped Celeste search my mother’s room.”
Silence.
“You’ve been taking Vandermark money.”
Roman stopped walking.
“At some point, loyalty has to become practical.”
There it was.
No denial.
“Your father left you an empire that was already changing.”
Roman looked exhausted.
“Ewan wanted legitimacy. Your mother wanted trusts and lawyers. You wanted control without cruelty. None of you understood what Victor understood.”
“And what is that?”
“Power doesn’t care whether your conscience is comfortable.”
I stared at him.
“You sold Ewan.”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
“I protected the family after Ewan died.”
“By hiding his wife?”
“By preventing civil war.”
Roman stepped closer.
“If Delia’s claim becomes public, every predator in Chicago will smell weakness.”
“So you attacked her?”
“No.”
He looked genuinely offended.
“I never told Celeste to touch that woman.”
That distinction told me Roman still had a line.
A crooked line.
But a line.
“Did you know Celeste was at Pier 44?”
Roman looked away.
That was answer enough.
I returned home knowing something important.
Roman was guilty.
But not of everything.
May you like
And Celeste was beginning to act without him.
That made her more dangerous.
