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“We need to talk. With Lorenzo gone, you have to make a move. You can’t let those vultures get everything we built up over all these years.”
Nausea threatened to overtake her when she saw the greed in his eyes. Once again, she wondered how they could be blood related. Had she ever even known him?
“What we built?” she hissed. “We built nothing. I didn’t want anything to do with Lorenzo’s blood money. I still don’t. In fact, I’m leaving tomorrow. You and this entire family can go to—”
His hand clamped over her mouth. “Keep your voice down,” he whispered.
If her eyes could shoot laser beams, he’d be incinerated by now.
She yanked his hand off her mouth. “If you don’t want to hear me speak, then don’t make stupid comments like that. I’m out, Ricky.”
When he sputtered, she gave him her back. There was nothing he could say to change her mind.
“Don’t be stupid. You need the Morelli money to keep safe. Let me help you.”
She rounded up at him, barely keeping herself in check from clawing his eyes out.
“You mean, like you protected me from Lorenzo? Or like you protected Vicky from him?”
His mouth shut, then reopened, but no words came out.
“I thought so,” she whispered and left him behind. Soon she would leave it all behind.
***
Her feet were killing her. Every step felt like agony to her tortured toes. She took off her pumps and went up the stairs to her bedroom. Receiving condolences from people all day while feeling like a complete fraud was taking its toll on her. When she passed Lorenzo’s study, she heard a crash, like glass shattering. Then, a familiar snarl.
“What the hell do you mean, he’s altered his will?”
Pedro‘s voice made her senses go on high alert.
“Lower your voice!”
It was said in a much lower tone, but she recognized it none the less as Mike’s, the family consiglieri.
She quickly moved into the adjoining room and pressed her ear to the air vent. Lorenzo, may the devil torture his restless soul, was paranoid about bugs. There was a weekly indoor sweep to make sure he could conduct his shady business in his study without having to worry about anyone listening in. He should have looked into the room next door: Vicky’s former nursery had been turned into a workout room. It gave Elena great joy that the room he had made especially for her at the same time was his greatest leak.
“We can still fix this,” Mike continued.
“I should’ve known the cazzo would pull something like this.” Pedro let out a maniacal laugh. “So, he thinks he can just hand everything over to his bastardo?”
Elena’s heart started to hammer in her chest. They were talking about Vicky. What had Lorenzo done? He never gave a damn about Vicky, other than when she served as a “shield”. He must have had an ulterior motive. He always did.
“Technically, he didn’t give her anything,” Mike said. “He gave it to her future husband. Every last dime of clean money, every estate, and property, in his name. We’re talking millions here.”
No…
Bile rose up in her throat as she realized the implications of what Lorenzo had done. She’d known he hated his brother but never expected him to go this far.
Pedro spit out a few more choice words, but then quieted. She could hear him pacing up and down the thick carpet.
“The one who controls her husband controls the will.”
“Exactly.”
Then Pedro did something worse than curse; he laughed. It was as if she could look right into his muddy, perverted mind.
“The girl turns sixteen in a few months,” Mike reminded him.
