Chapter 14 - The Last Night of Victor Bellini|
For one terrible second, nobody moved.
Victor stood on the dock with a gun pointed toward his daughter.
Vanessa's hands were raised.
Her face was white with fear.
Rain swept across the river.
The lights of downtown Chicago shimmered against the black water.
Maya spoke calmly into the radio.
“Vanessa, keep your hands visible.”
“Don't make any sudden movements.”
Victor looked around the pier.
“You think I didn't know?”
He laughed bitterly.
“I taught your mother how to lie before you were born.”
Vanessa was trembling.
“Dad, please put the gun down.”
“You betrayed me.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“I finally stopped helping you betray everybody else.”
Victor's expression twisted.
“You ungrateful little girl.”
I watched the surveillance monitor from the operations vehicle.
My stomach churned.
This was the same man who had smiled at the wedding.
The same man who had walked his daughter down the aisle.
The same man who had looked Margaret in the face and called her confused.
Now he was holding his own daughter at gunpoint.
Luca stood beside me.
His jaw was clenched.
I could see the struggle inside him.
Every instinct he had learned in his old life was telling him to confront Victor personally.
But he had promised me something.
He had promised his father something.
And he had promised himself he would stop confusing revenge with justice.
Maya turned toward him.
“Stay here.”
Luca nodded.
For a moment, I thought he would obey without question.
Then Victor's voice came through the radio again.
“Tell Luca that his father should have died in that warehouse.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Victor continued.
“Thirty years I kept that old fool alive.”
“Thirty years he signed whatever I put in front of him.”
“And now everybody wants to call me a monster.”
Vanessa began crying.
“You are a monster.”
Victor slapped her.
I flinched.
Luca took a step forward.
I caught his arm.
“Luca.”
He turned toward me.
His eyes were burning.
“He hurt her.”
“I know.”
“He hurt my father.”
“I know.”
“He threatened your mother.”
My voice shook.
“I know.”
I held his arm tighter.
“But you cannot fix any of that by becoming him.”
He stared at me.
Then slowly, his shoulders lowered.
Maya's agents began moving into position.
Victor was standing near a narrow gangway leading toward a private motorboat.
He had planned his escape carefully.
The boat's engine was already running.
A suitcase lay beside the railing.
He pulled Vanessa backward.
“Move.”
She stumbled.
Her shoes slipped against the wet wood.
I watched in horror as she fell against the metal railing.
Victor grabbed her arm.
“Get up!”
Vanessa screamed.
A loose section of railing gave way.
She fell into the Chicago River.
The sound of her hitting the water echoed across the dock.
Everything changed.
Victor turned toward the boat.
He didn't even look back.
His daughter was struggling in the dark water.
And he was preparing to leave.
Luca was already moving.
“Luca!” I shouted.
He ran toward the dock with Tomas following.
I hurried after them, staying behind the agents advancing along the waterfront.
Victor saw Luca approaching.
He raised his gun.
“Stay back!”
Luca stopped.
His hands were empty.
“Your daughter is drowning!”
Victor's face hardened.
“She made her choice.”
For one second, Luca stared at him in disbelief.
Then he turned away.
He ran toward the edge of the dock.
I spotted a life ring attached to a nearby post.
I grabbed it.
“Luca!”
He turned.
I threw it toward him.
He caught it and tossed it into the water.
“Vanessa, grab the ring!”
She struggled toward it.
Her fingers closed around the rope.
Luca and Tomas pulled together while an emergency rescue team hurried forward.
I helped secure the line.
Vanessa was lifted onto the dock, coughing and shivering.
I knelt beside her.
“Vanessa, can you hear me?”
She nodded weakly.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“My father.”
I looked toward the water.
Victor had climbed into his motorboat.
But he hadn't escaped.
An enforcement vessel was approaching from the river.
Agents blocked the shoreline exits.
Maya's voice carried across the dock.
“Victor Bellini!”
“Put down your weapon!”
Victor looked around.
For the first time, there was nowhere left to run.
He raised the gun again.
Then he saw the officers surrounding him.
The engine continued idling.
His face twisted with rage.
But slowly, he placed the weapon on the deck.
“Hands where we can see them!”
Victor obeyed.
Agents boarded the vessel.
Moments later, they secured him in handcuffs.
I stood beside Luca as they brought Victor onto the pier.
He looked at his former son-in-law.
“Look what you've done.”
Luca said nothing.
Victor's eyes narrowed.
“I gave you everything.”
Luca finally spoke.
“You took everything.”
He stepped closer.
“You took my father.”
“You took Leonard Price from his daughter.”
“You took thirty years from people who never did anything to you.”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“And what are you now, Luca?”
“A saint?”
Luca shook his head.
“No.”
He looked toward Maya.
“I'm a man who's finally ready to answer for what he's done.”
Victor stared at him.
Then he looked at me.
His expression changed.
“The maid.”
I held his gaze.
He gave a cruel smile.
“This all started because you couldn't mind your own business.”
I thought about the elderly woman outside the wedding.
Her wet dress.
Her trembling hands.
The broken shoe.
The photograph.
And the kindness that had somehow uncovered thirty years of evil.
“No,” I answered.
“It started when you decided other people's lives were yours to destroy.”
Victor's smile disappeared.
Maya led him away.
For the first time in his life, his wealth couldn't buy silence.
His reputation couldn't frighten the truth away.
And nobody was coming to rescue him from the consequences.
Vanessa sat beneath an emergency blanket.
I approached her.
She looked at me.
“Why did you help me?”
I thought about her standing above Margaret at the wedding.
About the cruel words she had spoken.
About everything she had concealed.
Then I answered.
“Because nobody deserves to be left behind when they're helpless.”
She began crying.
“I don't deserve your kindness.”
I knelt beside her.
“Kindness isn't a reward.”
She covered her face.
And I knew she finally understood.
Later, Luca and I returned to the hospital.
Dominic was awake.
Margaret sat beside his bed, recovering from the smoke she had inhaled.
When Luca entered, his father looked up.
“Son?”
Luca smiled through his tears.
“It's over, Dad.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Victor?”
“Arrested.”
The old man closed his eyes.
Tears rolled slowly down his cheeks.
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
Then Dominic reached for Luca.
His son hurried to embrace him.
Margaret began crying.
I stood beside the door watching them.
Thirty years of pain couldn't disappear in one night.
But for the first time, the people who had been separated by lies were together.
Dominic pulled back.
He touched the small scar above Luca's eyebrow.
“My Little Wolf.”
Luca smiled.
“I'm here, Dad.”
Dominic held his face between trembling hands.
“You came home.”
May you like
And this time, when Luca answered, his voice didn't break.
“So did you.”
