Chapter 20 - Victor’s Last Bargain
Victor chose Navy Pier.
Public.
Crowded.
Impossible to control completely.
Adrien arrived wearing a wire.
Rebecca Shaw had agents positioned throughout the area.
Isabella watched from a surveillance van.
Victor appeared at sunset.
Baseball cap.
Cheap jacket.
No elegance remained.
He looked exhausted.
Adrien sat beside him on a bench overlooking Lake Michigan.
“You look terrible.”
Victor laughed.
“You always were charming.”
“How did you escape?”
“Bellini paid two contractors years ago to build contingency routes through federal transportation networks.”
“That sentence makes no sense.”
“It doesn’t have to. Corrupt people survive through favors.”
Adrien looked at him.
“What do you want?”
“Protection.”
“You had federal protection.”
“I want yours.”
Adrien laughed.
“That may be the stupidest request you’ve ever made.”
Victor looked toward the lake.
“Bellini tried to have me killed.”
“He’s in custody.”
“Bellini doesn’t need freedom to order death.”
Adrien believed that.
“What do you know?”
Victor swallowed.
“The Bellini files aren’t complete.”
“Lorenzo’s?”
“Yes.”
“What’s missing?”
“One name.”
Adrien waited.
“Your father protected someone.”
“Who?”
Victor looked at him.
“Evelyn Bellini.”
Stefano’s sister.
The woman photographed visiting Samuel Grant.
Adrien frowned.
“She worked with Lorenzo?”
Victor nodded.
“She was the one who gave him access to Stefano’s accounts.”
“Why?”
“Because Stefano killed her husband.”
Adrien stared.
Victor continued.
“Not personally. He ordered it.”
Evelyn’s husband had been a city contractor who discovered Bellini-controlled bid manipulation.
He threatened to expose it.
Months later, he died in a supposed carjacking.
Evelyn knew.
She began secretly helping Lorenzo.
“Where is she now?”
Victor smiled bitterly.
“Where Bellini can reach her.”
“Meaning?”
“Federal witness hotel.”
Adrien’s expression changed.
“That location is protected.”
“Protected by whom?”
The point landed.
Bellini had spent decades buying officials.
Even in custody, he might still reach someone inside government systems.
Adrien stood.
“We need to call Rebecca.”
Victor grabbed his sleeve.
“Wait.”
Adrien looked down.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Evelyn has the original Bellini ledger.”
“Original?”
“Not Lorenzo’s copies. Stefano’s.”
Adrien sat again.
Victor explained that Bellini kept handwritten records of payments as insurance against his own partners.
Evelyn stole it years ago.
She hid it.
If prosecutors obtained it, every remaining defense collapsed.
“Why didn’t she give it to Lorenzo?”
“She planned to.”
“Then?”
“Lorenzo died.”
“And she disappeared.”
“Yes.”
Adrien looked toward the surveillance van.
Victor lowered his voice.
“There’s something else.”
“Of course there is.”
“Evelyn contacted me before I came to Chicago.”
Adrien turned sharply.
“What?”
“She told me not to trust Stefano.”
“You still did.”
“I was desperate.”
Victor looked ashamed.
“She offered me a way out.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew my father had poisoned me against the Morettis since childhood. She thought if I saw the original records, I would understand.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Victor laughed painfully.
“I chose revenge. Easier than admitting my entire life was built around a lie.”
Adrien thought of Marcus.
Different men.
Same poison.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Get Evelyn out.”
“Why me?”
“Because Bellini knows every federal safe location tied to Chicago.”
Adrien immediately contacted Rebecca through the wire phrase they had agreed on.
She responded within minutes.
Evelyn Bellini was relocated.
Three hours later, an internal investigation discovered an employee had accessed her protected file without authorization.
Bellini still had influence.
But not enough.
Evelyn agreed to meet Adrien and Isabella.
She arrived under federal escort.
She looked exhausted.
When she saw Victor, her expression hardened.
“You stupid boy.”
Victor lowered his eyes.
“I know.”
Evelyn looked at Adrien.
“Your father tried to save all of us.”
Adrien almost rejected the statement.
Lorenzo had been many things.
Savior was not a word he used.
But Evelyn continued.
“He knew the system was rotten. He knew he helped build part of it. At the end, he wanted to break it.”
She opened a small suitcase.
Inside was a black notebook.
Stefano Bellini’s handwriting covered the pages.
Names.
Amounts.
Dates.
Judges.
Police.
Politicians.
Union leaders.
Family captains.
Everything.
Rebecca Shaw stared.
“This is enough.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
She turned to the final page.
One entry.
L. MORETTI - MEDICATION - V. MARCHETTI - $250,000.
Adrien stopped breathing.
There it was.
Not suspicion.
Not implication.
Payment.
The price placed on his father’s final weeks.
Victor whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Adrien looked at him.
For the first time, he believed Victor actually meant it.
Adrien closed the ledger.
“This ends now.”
May you like
And this time, everyone in the room knew he did not mean with bullets.
He meant with evidence nobody could bury.
