Chapter 28 - The Last Davis Enemy
When Matthew was sixteen, a man named Carlo Ventresca walked into the Claire Moore Foundation carrying a gun.
Not to shoot anyone.
To surrender it.
Security detained him immediately.
He asked for Victor.
Victor arrived twenty minutes later.
Carlo sat in an interview room.
Mid-forties.
Thin.
Exhausted.
“You know me?” he asked.
“No.”
“My father worked for Dominic.”
“That narrows it to several thousand people.”
Carlo laughed bitterly.
“He died in prison.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You’re right.”
Victor sat.
“What do you want?”
“Money.”
Victor almost smiled.
“At least you’re honest.”
“My daughter needs surgery.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“What surgery?”
“Congenital heart defect.”
“Why bring a gun?”
Carlo looked ashamed.
“Because I planned to threaten you.”
“And?”
“I saw the foundation.”
Carlo began crying.
“Kids in wheelchairs. Mothers getting dialysis. Your wife’s picture on the wall.”
“Hannah’s not on the wall.”
“Whatever.”
Victor waited.
Carlo continued.
“My father told me the Davis family owed us.”
“How much?”
“He said Dominic promised him five million.”
“For what?”
“Killing Eleanor Vale.”
Victor became still.
“He failed.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because before he died, he said Dominic hid money for the men who stayed loyal.”
Victor felt the old past return.
“What money?”
Carlo handed over an account number.
A Swiss bank.
Victor’s attorneys investigated.
Sixteen million dollars remained.
Criminal proceeds.
Unclaimed.
Victor contacted federal authorities.
The money was seized and directed into victim restitution.
Carlo received nothing from it.
Victor personally paid for the daughter’s surgery.
Hannah confronted him.
“You told me we don’t buy forgiveness.”
“I’m not.”
“You gave him two hundred thousand dollars.”
“I paid a hospital.”
“Victor.”
He sighed.
“His daughter did nothing.”
Hannah softened.
“Fair.”
Carlo later sent one letter.
She survived.
Thank you.
Victor kept it.
Then he did something unexpected.
He created a fund for children of incarcerated organized-crime members.
Counseling.
Education.
Housing support.
Matthew helped design the program.
“Why them?” a reporter asked.
Matthew answered:
“Because kids shouldn’t inherit punishment for things adults did.”
Victor watched from off-camera.
Hannah squeezed his hand.
Their son had inherited the Davis name.
But not the Davis curse.
That evening, Victor opened the safe containing Raymond’s letter.
Matthew was now sixteen.
“Do you want it?”
Matthew looked at the envelope.
“Is that from Uncle Raymond?”
“Yes.”
“Did you read it?”
“No.”
Matthew took it.
He opened it alone.
The letter contained only one page.
Matthew,
I spent my life believing family meant preserving what came before us.
Your father proved family can also mean ending what should never continue.
I hated him for that.
I was wrong.
Do not become us.
Raymond.
Matthew brought the letter downstairs.
Victor looked nervous.
“Well?”
Matthew handed it over.
Victor read.
Then sat quietly.
“He understood.”
“Too late,” Matthew said.
“Yes.”
“But he understood.”
“Yes.”
Matthew took the letter back.
He folded it.
Then burned it in the fireplace.
Victor watched.
“Why?”
“I don’t need it.”
May you like
That simple.
The last words of the old Davis empire turned to ash.
