Chapter 6 - THE PRICE OF A BROTHER
“Richard offered Daniel money to disappear?”
Matteo stared at Camille.
She wiped her face.
“He told me Daniel had agreed to leave the country.”
“Did Daniel know why?”
“I don't think so.”
“You don't think so?”
Camille flinched.
Matteo placed Laura's coat across the desk.
“Where was the money supposed to go?”
“To an account in Daniel's name.”
“And what was he supposed to sign?”
“A declaration saying he was not Anthony Bellini.”
Matteo felt sick.
Richard had stolen Anthony's childhood.
Now he intended to purchase the man's silence.
“Why now?” Matteo asked.
Camille looked down.
“Because your mother recognized Daniel at the foundation fundraiser.”
Matteo remembered the photograph.
Six months earlier, Isabella Bellini had apparently seen Anthony standing beside Richard.
And Richard had spent the following months trying to contain the consequences.
“Did Daniel know my mother recognized him?”
“No. Father told him she was confused.”
Matteo shook his head.
“That's what you've been saying about Evelyn.”
Camille couldn't meet his eyes.
“I know.”
He studied the woman he'd planned to marry.
She wasn't the same person he'd believed she was.
But he could see that some part of her understood what she'd helped destroy.
“Camille, I'm ending our engagement.”
She went very still.
“I love you.”
“Maybe you do. But love doesn't give you permission to threaten my employees, control my mother's care, or lie about my brother.”
Tears slipped down her cheeks.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Tell the truth without asking what it costs you.”
He removed the engagement ring from a small tray beside the desk.
Camille had left it there the previous evening while washing her hands.
He placed it in front of her.
She looked at it for several seconds.
Then she picked it up.
“I deserve that,” she whispered.
Matteo didn't answer.
Forgiveness was not something he could offer while his brother's future remained at risk.
After Camille left, Matteo called his security chief into the office.
“Find every payment made through that foundation since Dad died.”
Marco nodded.
“And Richard?”
“Don't approach him. Not yet.”
Matteo wanted to confront Richard immediately.
But anger had already cost his family too much.
He needed evidence Richard couldn't dismiss.
That afternoon, Daniel agreed to meet Matteo at a public park.
They sat on a bench overlooking a small pond.
Children played near the walking path.
Daniel arrived carrying the blue notebook he'd shown Matteo at Rosebridge.
“I've been thinking about what you told me,” he said.
Matteo waited.
Daniel opened the notebook.
“I remember a room with green curtains. A woman was crying. She kept telling someone not to make me drink something.”
Matteo felt a chill.
“Do you remember who she was?”
“No.”
“Do you remember Richard?”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“He was there.”
“What happened afterward?”
“I woke up in a hospital. They said there had been a crash.”
Matteo watched a child chase a soccer ball across the grass.
He imagined eleven-year-old Anthony waking in an unfamiliar hospital without anyone he trusted.
“Daniel, Richard lied about your parents.”
Daniel stared at the water.
“I know that now.”
“Then why are you still protecting him?”
Daniel looked up sharply.
“Because he wasn't cruel every day.”
Matteo said nothing.
Daniel continued.
“He paid for my education. When I had nightmares, sometimes he'd sit outside my bedroom until I fell asleep. He taught me how to drive.”
His voice cracked.
“I spent fifteen years thinking he was the only person who stayed.”
Matteo felt his anger change shape.
Daniel wasn't defending Richard because he was foolish.
He was struggling to accept that the person who cared for him had also stolen his life.
“Both things can be true,” Matteo said gently. “He may have cared about you sometimes. And he may have done something unforgivable.”
Daniel wiped his eyes.
“I don't know who I am anymore.”
“You don't have to decide today.”
Daniel looked at him.
“What if I'm not the brother you remember?”
Matteo's throat tightened.
“Then I'll learn who you are now.”
For the first time, Daniel smiled faintly.
It was an uncertain smile.
But it was real.
Then he opened the notebook.
“There's something I haven't shown you.”
He turned to the back.
A page contained a child's drawing.
Two houses stood beneath a yellow sun.
One was large and gray.
The other was smaller, with blue windows.
Between them was a red car.
A woman stood beside it, holding a boy's hand.
Across the bottom, written in uneven letters, were four words.
Mom said be brave.
Matteo studied it.
“Who drew this?”
“I did. Richard kept it in a box with my childhood things.”
“Did he explain it?”
“He said I'd drawn it after the accident.”
Matteo pointed toward the smaller house.
“Do you recognize that place?”
Daniel hesitated.
“I remember a kitchen with yellow chairs.”
Matteo looked at the drawing again.
The red car had a distinctive stripe along its hood.
Richard had owned a red Cadillac fifteen years earlier.
Matteo remembered seeing it in family photographs.
“May I photograph this?”
Daniel nodded.
Matteo took a picture.
Then Daniel asked a question that broke his heart.
“Was I happy before?”
Matteo looked at him.
“You were loved.”
Daniel swallowed.
“That's not the same thing.”
“No,” Matteo admitted. “It isn't.”
He remembered Anthony crying when their father missed a school play.
He remembered their mother losing patience over muddy shoes.
Their childhood hadn't been perfect.
But it had been theirs.
“You had people who wanted you,” Matteo said. “You still do.”
Daniel lowered his head.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Then he whispered, “I want to see Isabella.”
Matteo nodded.
“So do I.”
That evening, Sophie examined the photograph of the child's drawing.
Evelyn sat beside her, wearing reading glasses.
When Sophie showed her the smaller house, Evelyn gasped.
“I know that house.”
Matteo leaned forward.
“Where?”
“Outside Pittsburgh. Laura stayed there after she disappeared.”
Matteo pointed toward the woman in the drawing.
“Is that Laura?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
Evelyn adjusted her glasses.
She stared at the drawing for several seconds.
Then she began crying.
“Matteo, your brother didn't draw Laura.”
“Who did he draw?”
Evelyn touched the paper.
“Your mother.”
Matteo frowned.
“But Mom lived here.”
“Yes.”
May you like
Evelyn looked at him.
“Because Isabella followed Anthony to Pittsburgh. And for three months, she lived in that house with him.”
