Chapter 6: What Brothers Owe Each Other
Nico was still at the dining room table.
The wine glass had been pushed aside.
He had his elbows on the table and his face in his hands.
He looked up when Lorenzo entered.
He looked like a man who had spent the night deciding whether to run and concluded, finally, that he was too tired.
Lorenzo sat across from him.
Neither spoke for a moment.
"She's been detained," Lorenzo said.
Nico nodded slowly.
"Renato?"
"He'll face professional consequences.
Possibly criminal ones.
That depends on what the investigators find."
"And me?"
Lorenzo looked at his brother.
Nico's eyes were red at the edges.
His shirt was wrinkled.
He looked nothing like the relaxed man who had been sitting with a wine glass the previous afternoon.
"You came to me with the document," Lorenzo said.
"I printed it to destroy it."
"But you didn't destroy it."
Nico looked at the table.
"No."
"Why?"
A long pause.
"Because I kept thinking about Sophia." His voice was rough.
"Lena.
A six-year-old child.
Valentina was going to use them." He shook his head.
"I told myself I could live with a lot of things.
I couldn't live with that."
Lorenzo was quiet.
"You sent the message," he said.
"Move the plan forward tonight."
"I sent it because Valentina told me to.
She was watching.
She had someone watching my room." Nico looked up.
"If I didn't send it, she said Sophia would be dealt with before morning."
"You could have come to me."
"I know."
"You should have come to me eight months ago."
"I know that too."
Lorenzo stood and walked to the window.
The grounds were fully lit now.
A gardener was moving along the far path.
Somewhere near the east wing, a door opened and closed.
"Father's clause," Lorenzo said without turning.
"The transfer provision."
"Yes."
"You really didn't know it existed until Valentina told you."
"I knew there was a clause.
I didn't know the exact terms." Nico's voice dropped.
"When she showed me the document, I thought — I thought it was simply what Father had intended.
That it was already decided."
"It wasn't what Father intended," Lorenzo said.
"I spoke to Carla this morning.
The clause was inserted by Renato without Father's specific instruction.
Father's original will divided the holdings equally between us on a ten-year schedule." He turned.
"You were already getting half, Nico.
You just didn't know."
Nico stared at him.
"Renato changed it?"
"Renato simplified it.
He told Father it was cleaner.
Father trusted him." Lorenzo came back to the table.
"The same way I trusted him.
The same way you trusted Valentina."
Nico put his face back in his hands.
"I'm sorry," he said.
The words came out muffled and broken.
"Lorenzo.
I'm sorry."
Lorenzo sat down.
He didn't speak immediately.
He thought about the boys they had been.
The street in Rome.
The small hand in his.
"The investigators will want a full statement," he said.
"Everything you know.
The Miami plan.
The names.
The timeline."
"I'll give them everything."
"It won't be simple.
There will be legal exposure."
"I know."
"Carla will represent you if you want her to.
As a separate matter from my interests."
Nico looked up.
"Why would you do that?"
Lorenzo looked at his brother for a long time.
"Because you didn't destroy the document," he said finally.
Nico's eyes filled.
He pressed his lips together and looked away.
Lorenzo reached across the table and put his hand briefly on his brother's arm.
Then he stood.
"Get some sleep," he said.
"The investigators arrive at nine."
He walked to the door.
"Lorenzo."
He stopped.
"Sophia," Nico said.
"Is she all right?
And the girl?"
Lorenzo thought of Lena's arms around his waist.
The weight of her.
The five words that had changed the entire afternoon.
"They're safe," he said.
May you like
"I made a promise."
He left Nico alone with the grey morning light coming through the windows.
