Chapter 12 - Lorenzo Bellini
Lorenzo Bellini looked eighty and indestructible.
Silver hair combed back.
Black overcoat.
Cane in his left hand.
Pistol in his right.
Six armed men followed him.
Matteo stared at the man he had buried eleven years earlier.
Lorenzo looked almost pleased.
“My son.”
Matteo’s expression did not change.
“Apparently not.”
Lorenzo’s gaze flicked toward Thomas.
“Biology is overrated.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Lorenzo smiled.
“You first.”
His men spread through the vault.
Gabriel lowered his weapon when two rifles aimed at Sofia.
Matteo slowly put his gun down.
Elena moved beside him.
Lorenzo noticed.
“The housekeeper.”
Elena’s eyes burned.
“Say that again.”
He smiled faintly.
“Marisol had that temper.”
Elena lunged.
Matteo caught her.
“Not now.”
Lorenzo looked toward Sofia.
The little girl held her bear tightly.
He crouched slightly.
“Hello, Sofia.”
She hid behind Matteo.
Lorenzo’s smile disappeared.
Matteo said, “You don’t speak to her.”
“You sound protective.”
“I am.”
“Interesting.”
Lorenzo walked toward the ledger.
“You opened Meridian. Saved me considerable time.”
Thomas said, “You still can’t access the ownership vault.”
“No.”
Lorenzo looked at Matteo.
“He will.”
“No, I won’t.”
Lorenzo sighed.
“Matteo, throughout your life you have confused refusal with power.”
“And you confused control with love.”
Lorenzo’s eyes sharpened.
“Love is a story weak people tell about dependency.”
Sofia whispered loudly to Matteo.
“I don’t like him.”
One of Lorenzo’s men almost smiled.
Lorenzo looked at her.
“The feeling may be mutual.”
Elena stepped forward.
“You threaten my child again and I swear—”
“What?”
Lorenzo’s voice remained calm.
“You’ll mop me to death?”
Matteo hit him.
Hard.
Lorenzo fell against the desk.
Every gun rose.
Matteo stood over him.
“If anyone shoots, they’ll never open your vault.”
No one fired.
Lorenzo wiped blood from his lip.
Then laughed.
“Good.”
He stood.
“That is what I built.”
“You didn’t build me.”
“I sharpened you.”
“You tortured a child.”
“I prepared an heir.”
Matteo leaned close.
“You failed.”
Lorenzo’s eyes shifted.
Perhaps for the first time, Matteo saw doubt.
Thomas said, “Open the files, Matteo.”
Lorenzo turned.
“No.”
Thomas smiled.
“Afraid?”
Lorenzo’s face hardened.
Thomas pointed toward a cabinet.
“The financial ledger.”
Gabriel understood.
He moved.
A guard raised his weapon.
Thomas shouted, “If you shoot him, the evidence dies with us.”
Gabriel opened the cabinet.
Hundreds of pages.
Trusts.
Offshore companies.
Participant payments.
Bribes.
Lorenzo stared.
Matteo asked, “Who else owns this?”
Thomas answered.
“Dozens.”
“Names?”
“Read.”
Matteo scanned the first page.
Political dynasties.
Corporate families.
Private medical foundations.
And one organization repeated beside each transaction.
ARGENT FOUNDATION.
Elena frowned.
“I know that name.”
David looked at her.
“From where?”
“Helena.”
Isabella whispered, “Argent was the competitor.”
Lorenzo’s mouth tightened.
Matteo saw it.
“The men who attacked my house.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
“Argent?”
Thomas nodded.
“They broke away from Continuity fifteen years ago.”
“Why?”
“They wanted to sell the system beyond family inheritance.”
Gabriel asked, “To governments?”
Thomas looked grim.
“Anyone.”
Matteo understood the true scale.
This was no longer about Bellini inheritance.
It was an infrastructure for replacing identities.
Children.
DNA.
Records.
Law.
Money.
Lorenzo picked up the ledger.
Matteo stopped him.
“Put it down.”
Lorenzo raised the pistol.
Matteo did not move.
“You think I won’t shoot you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you spent thirty-eight years trying to make me useful.”
Lorenzo smiled.
“Correct.”
Then he shot Thomas.
The bullet struck Thomas below the shoulder.
Gabriel shouted.
Chaos erupted.
Isabella screamed.
Matteo tackled Lorenzo.
Elena grabbed Sofia and ran behind the shelves.
David attacked one of the guards.
Gabriel fired.
Celeste pulled a fire lever.
Metal shutters dropped between vault sections.
Two of Lorenzo’s men were trapped on the wrong side.
Matteo and Lorenzo crashed to the floor.
The old man was stronger than he looked.
He drove the cane into Matteo’s ribs.
Matteo ripped it away.
Lorenzo whispered, “Open the vault.”
“No.”
“Then everyone dies.”
Matteo punched him.
“You first.”
Lorenzo laughed through blood.
“You still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“I didn’t come for Meridian.”
A siren began.
Not fire.
Something else.
Isabella screamed from the terminal.
“Matteo!”
He looked.
A countdown.
04:58.
04:57.
04:56.
“What is that?”
Isabella’s face drained.
“Thermal purge.”
Thomas, bleeding on the floor, whispered, “It burns the archive.”
May you like
Lorenzo smiled.
“If I can’t own the truth, no one does.”
