Chapter 8 - The Empire Matteo Burned Himself
By noon, the Bellini empire was collapsing on live television.
Financial networks reported federal raids.
Banks suspended accounts.
Trading partners withdrew.
Employees received messages warning of payroll delays.
Matteo watched the news from the passenger seat of David’s old pickup truck.
His face remained unreadable.
Gabriel sat in the back with three laptops.
“They leaked psychiatric files.”
Matteo looked back.
“Mine?”
“Yes.”
“Real?”
“Mixed. Some real medical data. Some fabricated evaluations.”
“Diagnosis?”
Gabriel grimaced.
“Paranoid delusions. Violent instability. Narcissistic personality disorder. Prescription misuse.”
David whistled.
“Efficient.”
Matteo looked at him.
David stopped.
Gabriel continued.
“They also manufactured evidence that you moved seventy million dollars through shell entities.”
“Can we disprove it?”
“Eventually.”
“Not fast enough.”
“No.”
Elena sat beside Sofia in a second vehicle driven by Isabella.
Celeste rode with them.
Matteo had insisted Elena remain within sight.
Not because he trusted Isabella.
Because he trusted almost no one.
They stopped at an abandoned roadside restaurant forty miles from Meridian.
Matteo entered first.
Dust.
Broken booths.
No power.
Safe enough.
Gabriel connected through a satellite modem.
“Your board called an emergency meeting.”
Matteo glanced at the clock.
“When?”
“Thirty minutes.”
“Can I join?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel paused.
“But they’re expecting to remove you.”
Matteo sat.
“Good.”
Gabriel stared.
“Good?”
“Put me on.”
Twenty-eight minutes later, twelve Bellini Holdings directors appeared on Gabriel’s screen.
Some angry.
Some frightened.
Some avoiding Matteo’s eyes.
The chairwoman, Margaret Sloan, spoke first.
“Matteo, considering the criminal investigation and questions about your mental fitness, the board has no choice.”
Matteo leaned back.
“There’s always a choice.”
“We are moving to suspend you.”
“I understand.”
Several directors looked surprised.
Margaret hesitated.
“You’re not contesting?”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at Matteo.
Neither had discussed this.
Matteo continued.
“In fact, I resign.”
Silence.
Margaret stared.
“Effective immediately.”
A director named Charles Benton spoke.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious.”
“Matteo, if you resign during an investigation, the market will interpret it as guilt.”
“The market can interpret whatever it likes.”
“What about Bellini Holdings?”
Matteo’s voice hardened.
“Protect the employees.”
Margaret blinked.
“What?”
“Liquid reserves outside frozen accounts. Use them for payroll.”
“They’re under family control.”
“I’m authorizing transfer.”
Gabriel leaned close.
“That’s nearly six hundred million dollars.”
Matteo didn’t look away from the screen.
“Do it.”
Margaret stared.
“You would give up control?”
“I’m giving up my leverage.”
Charles said, “Why?”
Matteo looked directly into the camera.
“Because someone believes I will sacrifice thousands of employees to preserve my chair.”
He paused.
“They’re wrong.”
He ended the call.
Gabriel stared.
“You just surrendered the company.”
“No.”
“You resigned as CEO.”
“I surrendered what my father thought owned me.”
Elena stood in the doorway.
She had heard everything.
“You gave away six hundred million dollars?”
“Not away.”
“To employees.”
“That money exists because of them.”
She studied him differently.
Matteo noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That was something.”
Elena looked toward Sofia.
“I spent a year thinking you were an arrogant rich man who never noticed the people cleaning his floors.”
Matteo raised an eyebrow.
“I noticed.”
“Really?”
“You always moved the flowers on my desk.”
“They were blocking the sunlight.”
“I liked them there.”
“They were dying.”
“They were expensive.”
“So is a coffin.”
Gabriel covered a laugh with a cough.
Matteo almost smiled.
Then Sofia ran in.
“Mommy! Grandma Isabella says we’re going to a castle.”
Matteo’s smile disappeared.
Grandma Isabella.
Isabella appeared behind her.
“I did not ask her to call me that.”
Elena looked at Sofia.
“Baby, Isabella isn’t—”
Sofia frowned.
“She’s his mommy.”
She pointed at Matteo.
“And he’s family.”
No one knew what to say.
Sofia walked to Matteo.
“Are you my uncle?”
Matteo crouched.
“I don’t know.”
“Can you be?”
Elena’s breath caught.
Matteo looked at the little girl.
“I can try.”
Sofia nodded as though that solved everything.
“Okay.”
She returned to her bear.
Isabella watched Matteo.
He stood.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“I was going to say you would have been a good father.”
Matteo’s eyes darkened.
“You don’t get to tell me what I would have been.”
Isabella lowered her gaze.
“You’re right.”
Gabriel interrupted.
“We have another problem.”
He turned his laptop.
A map showed the road ahead.
“State police roadblock fifteen miles north.”
“For us?”
“Probably.”
David looked through the window.
“We can take service roads.”
Celeste shook her head.
“Too slow.”
Matteo looked at her.
“You know the area?”
“I’ve been to Meridian.”
Everyone turned.
Isabella stared.
“When?”
“1991.”
“Why?”
Celeste’s voice weakened.
“I found my sister.”
Elena stepped closer.
“At Meridian?”
“No.”
Celeste looked at Sofia.
“I found her daughter.”
Silence.
“Where?”
Celeste looked at Matteo.
“In Lorenzo Bellini’s house.”
Matteo’s face tightened.
“What was her name?”
Celeste swallowed.
May you like
“Isabella called her Elena.”
Every eye turned toward Elena Cruz.
