Chapter 25 - THE PRICE OF A CLEAN NAME
Luca could have kept the legitimate empire.
Lawyers told him so.
Construction.
Shipping.
Warehouses.
Hotels.
Several companies had clean books.
Thousands of employees depended on them.
Selling everything would create chaos.
Keeping everything would preserve a name built partly through crime.
The choice was not simple.
That pleased Luca.
Simple choices rarely changed people.
He created a restructuring board.
Independent.
No Costello majority.
Employee representation.
Victim compensation fund.
Compliance officers who did not answer to family.
Damian laughed when he saw the governance plan.
“Father would burn this.”
“Father is unavailable.”
“Fortunately.”
Sofia joined by video.
“What percentage do we keep?”
“Minority.”
“How minor?”
“Twenty combined.”
Damian nearly choked.
“You’re giving away control.”
“Yes.”
“Voluntarily.”
“Yes.”
Sofia smiled.
“I like it.”
Damian looked betrayed.
“You would.”
Nicholas watched.
“What happens to my inheritance?”
Damian went still.
“That is yours to decide.”
Nicholas frowned.
“I’m seventeen.”
“Exactly.”
“You’re supposed to decide stuff.”
“I decided enough without knowing you existed.”
Damian’s voice softened.
“I’m not starting by deciding your future now.”
Nicholas looked away.
Luca saw approval hidden beneath discomfort.
Victim compensation became the hardest part.
Bellweather records included people harmed by Costello operations.
Businesses pressured.
Families displaced.
Workers threatened.
Medical patients exploited by Vale.
Not everything could be repaired with money.
Luca knew that.
Money still mattered.
He committed most of his personal liquid assets.
Pierce’s seized funds added more.
Hale’s assets became subject to restitution claims.
Teresa transferred hidden accounts.
Sofia surrendered the six hundred eighty million dollar reserve.
Luca looked at her.
“You could have disappeared with this.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Sofia looked toward Maya.
“Because disappearing is what everyone taught me.”
She smiled faintly.
“I’m tired of being good at it.”
Maya hated the new security restrictions.
“Why can’t I walk to dance class?”
“Because you are eight.”
“Tommy can walk.”
“Tommy’s history is not our standard.”
Tommy, eating cookies, nodded.
“Fair.”
Maya crossed her arms.
“You said normal.”
“Normal children do not walk three miles alone.”
“I could.”
“That is not the test.”
Elena watched Luca struggle through parenting.
She enjoyed it far too much.
“You’re smiling.”
He said.
“No.”
“You are.”
“Maybe.”
“This is difficult.”
“Yes.”
“You could assist.”
“I am.”
“How?”
“By not laughing loudly.”
Luca stared.
Maya whispered to Tommy.
“They flirt weird.”
Tommy nodded.
“Rich people.”
Elena threw a napkin at him.
Luca and Elena finally discussed the summer.
Not the conspiracy.
Not Maya.
Them.
The night Luca planned to propose.
He had bought a ring.
Plain.
Small.
Nothing like Costello jewelry.
He kept it in the old apartment.
It disappeared after his collapse.
Elena laughed.
“You were going to propose with a cheap ring?”
“I thought you hated expensive things.”
“I hated your expensive things because you acted weird about money.”
“How?”
“You tipped too much.”
“That is a strange complaint.”
“You once tipped a cabdriver more than the ride.”
“He helped with groceries.”
“He carried one bag.”
“He seemed tired.”
Elena smiled.
“I knew you had money.”
“You didn’t know how much.”
“I thought you were a contractor.”
“I technically was.”
“You owned the company.”
“Details.”
She laughed.
Then became quiet.
“Would we have worked?”
Luca stared.
“Twelve years ago?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know.”
“Good answer.”
“What did you expect?”
“A lie.”
He smiled.
“No.”
He looked toward the porch.
“We were different.”
“You were stubborn.”
“I remain.”
“I was scared.”
“You hid it.”
“I remain good at that too.”
Luca touched her hand.
“I don’t want to recreate that summer.”
Elena’s face changed.
“No?”
“No.”
He paused.
“I want to know who you are now.”
She looked at him.
“That was better than a proposal.”
“I am learning.”
“Slowly.”
“Yes.”
They kissed.
Not dramatic.
No music.
Maya opened the door halfway through.
“Oh.”
Elena pulled back.
Luca closed his eyes.
Maya grinned.
“I knew it.”
“Out.”
Luca said.
“I’m going.”
She ran.
Then shouted down the hallway.
“Tommy, I won!”
Elena stared.
“They had a bet?”
“Apparently.”
“I am rethinking adoption.”
Luca laughed.
Tommy’s placement became official one month later.
Not adoption yet.
Guardianship with Elena.
Luca included only after extensive review because his legal situation remained complicated.
Tommy entered the house carrying one backpack.
“That’s everything?”
Luca asked.
“Yes.”
Luca looked toward the enormous room prepared upstairs.
Then remembered Elena’s warning.
Do not buy back childhood with objects.
“You need anything?”
“Baseball glove.”
“You have six.”
“My own.”
Luca understood.
Not house gloves.
Not loaned gloves.
His.
“Okay.”
They went to a sporting goods store.
No private opening.
No custom appointment.
Maya came.
Nicholas came.
Damian pretended not to enjoy it.
Tommy chose the third-cheapest glove.
Luca tried to convince him to choose based on fit.
Tommy insisted cost mattered.
Finally the clerk told him the expensive glove was wrong for his hand.
Tommy chose a medium-priced one.
Luca considered that a negotiation victory.
Tommy wrote his name inside.
Then added Anna underneath.
Luca looked away before the boy saw his face.
Vale’s trial date was set.
Hale’s too.
Pierce accepted a plea and agreed to testify.
Celia entered a separate cooperation agreement.
Teresa faced sentencing for fraud and conspiracy.
She did not request leniency from Luca.
Sofia faced financial penalties and probation possibilities due cooperation.
Damian’s attorneys predicted prison.
Nicholas heard.
That night he came to Damian’s room.
“You’re going away?”
“Maybe.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
Nicholas became angry.
“So I find you and then you leave.”
Damian’s face broke.
“I know.”
“That’s stupid.”
“Yes.”
“Can’t Luca fix it?”
Damian shook his head.
“No.”
“He fixes things.”
“Not this.”
“Why?”
“Because if he does, everything we’re trying to change becomes another lie.”
Nicholas looked toward the floor.
“I hate this family.”
Damian nodded.
“Sometimes me too.”
Nicholas sat.
After a while, he leaned against Damian’s shoulder.
Damian did not move.
He barely breathed.
Then Nicholas whispered.
“Dad.”
One word.
Damian closed his eyes.
Seventeen years collapsed into it.
The following morning, Luca reached the baseball diamond with a cane.
No chair.
Aiden walked beside him.
Maya waited at home plate.
“You’re late.”
“I walked from the porch.”
“That took forever.”
“Thank you for your support.”
Tommy threw him a ball.
Luca nearly dropped it.
“Ready?”
“No.”
Maya held the bat.
“Pitch.”
Luca stared.
“I cannot pitch standing.”
“You promised.”
“Maya.”
“Twelve years.”
“What?”
“You had twelve years to practice in your head.”
Tommy laughed.
Luca shook his head.
Then he planted the cane.
Raised his arm.
Threw.
The ball bounced twice before reaching home plate.
Maya swung.
Missed completely.
Everyone cheered anyway.
Luca laughed.
The sound carried across the field.
For a moment, nothing else mattered.
Then a black sedan stopped outside the gate.
A federal officer approached.
Luca saw his face.
The officer held an envelope.
Court seal.
Luca opened it.
The government had accepted his cooperation.
But one charge remained personally against him.
Conspiracy connected to an order Luca had authorized fifteen years earlier.
Before the poisoning.
A man had disappeared.
A witness.
Luca remembered the name.
Michael Reed.
He had believed Reed fled Chicago.
According to newly discovered evidence, Reed had been killed.
And Luca’s signature appeared on the order that sent men to find him.
Elena stared.
“Did you know?”
Luca looked at the paper.
“No.”
Then he remembered.
An angry meeting.
An order.
“Bring Reed in.”
Those had been his words.
What happened afterward had never been asked.
Luca looked at Maya.
May you like
The new life did not erase the old one.
And if honesty only mattered when it cost something, this was the bill.
