Chapter 8 - The Truth Behind the Highway Accident
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The river wind blew through the abandoned pier.
A loose metal chain knocked against a railing.
Natalie stared at Vittorio Vitale.
The elderly man's face was pale beneath the warehouse lights.
“What did you just say?” she whispered.
Vittorio looked toward Richard.
Then back at Natalie.
“Daniel knew Luca hadn't died in an accident.”
Richard stepped forward.
“Vittorio, stop.”
The old man raised his cane.
“Enough.”
Richard's expression twisted.
“You think confessing now changes anything?”
“No,” Vittorio said. “But it may stop another person from dying because I was a coward.”
Natalie felt as though the ground had shifted beneath her.
“You knew?”
Vittorio closed his eyes.
“I suspected.”
“Suspected what?”
“That someone inside my organization had arranged the collision that killed Luca.”
Richard moved toward the van.
“Don't listen to him.”
Natalie took a step forward.
“Was it you?”
Vittorio looked at her.
The silence lasted too long.
Then he said, “No. But I helped conceal the investigation.”
Natalie recoiled.
“Why?”
“Because I believed exposing the truth would destroy my family.”
“And what about mine?”
The question struck him harder than any shouted accusation.
Natalie's voice broke.
“My parents died. My brother was eleven. I was eleven. We buried them in a cemetery we could barely afford.”
Vittorio lowered his head.
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
Tears streamed down her face.
“You went home to your mansion. I went home to an apartment where my little brother cried every night asking when our mother was coming back.”
Vittorio had no answer.
Richard suddenly lunged for Natalie's book.
She pulled it away.
One of his men raised a gun.
Before he could aim, police officers shouted from the surrounding darkness.
“Police! Drop your weapons!”
Floodlights illuminated the pier.
Richard spun toward the warehouse.
The armed men hesitated.
Then one dropped his gun.
The other tried to flee.
An officer tackled him beside the loading ramp.
Richard seized Mrs. Bell's chair and dragged her backward.
“Stay away!”
Natalie froze.
Mrs. Bell cried out.
Richard drew a handgun from his coat.
“Everyone back!”
The officers stopped advancing.
Richard pressed the weapon toward Mrs. Bell.
Alessandro emerged from behind a parked truck.
“Richard.”
The older man turned.
Hatred flashed across his face.
“You.”
Alessandro walked slowly toward him with his hands visible.
“Let her go.”
Richard laughed bitterly.
“You think you can order me around?”
“No.”
Alessandro stopped.
“I'm asking you to let an innocent woman go.”
Richard shook his head.
“You don't understand what your family did.”
“Then tell me.”
Richard's grip tightened.
“You were supposed to inherit everything. Your father promised me control of the foundation accounts in exchange for keeping the old business finances separate.”
Alessandro stared.
“You used charitable money to hide illegal proceeds?”
Richard smiled.
“Your father knew how useful a clean organization could be.”
Vittorio stepped forward.
“That wasn't the agreement.”
Richard turned on him.
“No. The agreement was that I would take care of Luca after he began asking questions.”
The pier fell silent.
Vittorio looked devastated.
“You told me you would frighten him.”
Richard laughed.
“And you believed that?”
Natalie felt physically sick.
Alessandro's face had gone completely still.
“Did you kill my brother?” he asked.
Richard looked directly at him.
“I arranged for his car to be struck on the highway.”
Alessandro took one step forward.
The police commander raised a hand.
“Mr. Vitale. Stay back.”
Richard continued.
“Daniel Collins discovered the payment records. He was going to the authorities.”
Natalie barely recognized her own voice.
“So you killed him too.”
Richard smiled.
“I ordered a second collision.”
The words hit her like a physical blow.
Her father had not died because of bad weather.
Her mother had not died because a truck driver lost control.
They had been murdered.
For money.
For silence.
For the convenience of powerful men.
Natalie staggered.
Alessandro moved toward her instinctively.
She pulled away.
“Don't.”
He stopped.
She looked at him through tears.
“Your family knew.”
Alessandro's expression broke.
“I didn't.”
“But your father did.”
“Yes.”
Richard suddenly shoved Mrs. Bell forward.
She fell from the chair.
As the officers moved, he turned his gun toward Vittorio.
Alessandro reacted before anyone else.
He pushed his father aside.
A shot rang out.
Natalie screamed.
Alessandro stumbled.
Blood spread across the upper left side of his coat.
Then officers fired.
Richard dropped his weapon and collapsed beside the van.
Police rushed forward.
Marco caught Alessandro before he fell.
“Boss!”
Natalie ran toward them.
“Alessandro!”
He was conscious.
His left shoulder was bleeding heavily.
Marco pressed a folded jacket against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
Alessandro looked toward Natalie.
“Are you okay?”
She stared at him.
He had been shot.
And he was asking whether she was safe.
Tears blurred her vision.
“Yes.”
He tried to smile.
“Good.”
Then his eyes closed.
Natalie grabbed his hand.
“Alessandro!”
A paramedic pushed through the crowd.
“We need space!”
She stepped back as they began treating him.
The sounds around her became strangely distant.
Sirens.
Shouting.
The river.
Mrs. Bell crying.
Vittorio calling his son's name.
Natalie could see only Alessandro.
The man she had accidentally hugged in a ballroom.
The man who had laughed when everyone else froze.
The man who had confessed his own failures when pretending innocence would have been easier.
The man who had just taken a bullet intended for his father.
And she realized with terrible clarity that somewhere between the forged certificates and the hospital corridors, between the stolen letters and the late-night conversations, she had fallen in love with him.
Not with the power.
Not with the wealth.
Not with the danger.
With the complicated, wounded man beneath all of it.
At the hospital, Alessandro was taken directly into surgery.
The bullet had entered near his shoulder and damaged a blood vessel.
Doctors worked to control the bleeding.
Natalie sat in the waiting room beside Michael.
Mrs. Bell had been examined and was resting.
Marco stood near the doors.
Vittorio sat alone at the far end of the room.
Nobody spoke to him.
After two hours, Natalie rose.
She walked toward the elderly man.
He looked up.
For a moment, she saw how much Alessandro resembled him.
The dark eyes.
The strong jaw.
The same guarded expression.
But Vittorio's face carried something else.
Regret.
“Why didn't you tell the police?” she asked.
He swallowed.
“I was afraid.”
“Of Richard?”
“Of losing everything.”
Natalie looked at him.
“You lost your son.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“And then you helped keep his killer free.”
Vittorio bowed his head.
“I know.”
Natalie's voice trembled.
“My father was trying to do the right thing.”
“Yes.”
“My mother didn't deserve to die.”
“No.”
“Michael didn't deserve to grow up without them.”
Vittorio began crying.
Natalie watched him for a long moment.
Then she said, “You don't get forgiveness just because you're sorry.”
He nodded.
“I understand.”
“If you truly regret what happened, tell the authorities everything. Every account. Every payment. Every name.”
Vittorio looked up.
“Even if it destroys my family?”
Natalie's eyes hardened.
“Your family was destroyed the night you decided protecting its reputation mattered more than protecting innocent people.”
The words left him speechless.
She turned away.
Behind her, Vittorio began sobbing.
At three seventeen in the morning, the surgeon entered.
Natalie stood so quickly that her chair tipped backward.
“How is he?”
The surgeon removed his mask.
“He lost a significant amount of blood, but we controlled the bleeding and repaired the damaged vessel.”
Natalie pressed a hand to her chest.
“Is he going to live?”
The doctor nodded.
“We expect him to recover.”
Her knees nearly gave way.
Michael caught her.
Natalie covered her mouth.
May you like
Then she began crying.
For the first time that night, they were tears of relief.
