Chapter 10 - The UncleVincent entered the interview room wearing a dark suit without a tie.
He looked older.
Not defeated.
Dominic sat across from him.
Maya observed through one-way glass.
Attorneys were present.
Recording equipment was visible.
Vincent smiled.
“Your father would hate this room.”
“Probably.”
“He hated police.”
“So do you.”
“I hate weakness disguised as law.”
Dominic leaned back.
“Did you order Bell into my house?”
Vincent’s attorney shifted.
Vincent raised one hand.
“I authorized a security exercise.”
Dominic stared.
“A security exercise.”
“To show you vulnerabilities.”
“With contaminated frosting?”
Vincent’s smile disappeared.
“I never ordered anyone to poison Ethan.”
“You ordered him made sick.”
“No.”
“Nora says you did.”
“Nora is saving herself.”
“Bell says you did.”
“Bell steals.”
“The payments say you did.”
“My signature is on a thousand approvals.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Why Lily?”
Vincent’s face changed.
Only slightly.
Enough.
Dominic saw it.
“You knew.”
Vincent looked away.
“You chose a three-year-old because people would believe her.”
“Dominic—”
“You photographed her before the party.”
“I did not photograph anyone.”
“Your car did.”
“My office has drivers.”
“Nora says you selected Lily.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
Dominic leaned closer.
“She screamed before Ethan ate. Was that frustrating?”
Vincent’s attorney interrupted.
“We’re done if this becomes harassment.”
Vincent lifted a hand.
“No.”
He looked at Dominic.
“Lily was never supposed to be harmed.”
Dominic went still.
Through the glass, Maya stopped writing.
Vincent realized what he had said.
Too late.
Dominic’s voice became very quiet.
“What was she supposed to do?”
Vincent stared.
His attorney whispered urgently.
Vincent ignored him.
“She was supposed to see a man where she shouldn’t.”
“And Ethan?”
“Nothing permanent.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
There it was.
Not a full confession.
Enough truth to reveal the shape.
“Why?”
Vincent suddenly became angry.
“Because you were destroying everything.”
“My company?”
“Our family.”
“You mean your control.”
“I mean the thing your grandfather built.”
“My grandfather built extortion rackets.”
“He built power.”
“He built fear.”
“Same thing when nobody respects you!”
Vincent slammed his palm on the table.
Dominic did not move.
Vincent leaned forward.
“You think those clean suits respect you? The boards? Bankers? Lawyers? They tolerate your name because they fear what stands behind it.”
“And you needed me to believe that.”
“I needed you to remember it.”
“So you made my son sick.”
“He never ate it!”
“Because Lily stopped him!”
Vincent’s face twisted.
“He would have recovered.”
Dominic stared.
His uncle truly believed that mattered.
“You gambled with an eight-year-old’s body.”
“To prevent a war later.”
“You were creating the war.”
“To prevent you becoming vulnerable enough that someone else would.”
Dominic almost pitied him.
Almost.
“You don’t know how to exist unless there’s an enemy.”
Vincent’s expression hardened.
“Neither does this family.”
Dominic stood.
Vincent called after him.
“Your father understood me.”
Dominic turned.
“My father died afraid.”
Vincent’s face changed.
“He died respected.”
“He died checking windows.”
Silence.
Dominic continued.
“He taught me every man wants what we have. Elena spent ten years trying to teach me that sometimes the danger is what we have.”
Vincent sneered.
“Elena made you soft.”
“No.”
Dominic looked at his uncle.
“She made me ashamed of being cruel and calling it strength.”
Vincent laughed.
“You think police will make Ethan safe?”
“No.”
“Boards?”
“No.”
“Money?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Dominic paused.
“Teaching him he doesn’t need to become us.”
Vincent’s face finally cracked.
Not guilt.
Loss.
Dominic understood.
Vincent had not only feared losing income.
He feared becoming irrelevant to the next generation.
If Ethan grew into a legitimate life, everything Vincent believed about the Moretti legacy ended with him.
Dominic walked to the door.
Vincent said, “You owe me.”
Dominic stopped.
“For what?”
“I kept you alive when your father died.”
“That’s true.”
“I stood beside you.”
“Yes.”
“I buried men for you.”
Dominic looked back.
“That’s why this hurts.”
Vincent’s eyes filled with rage.
“You choose strangers over blood?”
“No.”
Dominic opened the door.
“I choose the children you treated like pieces on a board.”
He left.
Outside, Maya waited.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He frowned.
She shrugged.
“If you walked out of that feeling nothing, I’d worry.”
Dominic looked through the glass.
Vincent sat alone with his attorney.
“Do you have enough?”
“To prove everything? We’re closer.”
“Not enough.”
“Cases aren’t movies.”
Dominic smiled faintly.
Maya continued.
“His statement about Lily helps. Nora and Bell help. Financial records help.”
“What about the substance?”
“Full toxicology came back.”
Dominic’s face changed.
Maya chose her words carefully.
“It was a dangerous contaminant. The amount on Ethan’s serving could have caused a severe medical event.”
“Could it have killed him?”
“Possibly, depending on exposure and individual response.”
Dominic stared through the glass at Vincent.
His uncle had said Ethan would recover.
As if certainty belonged to him.
Maya saw Dominic’s hands tighten.
“Don’t.”
“I’m standing here.”
“Keep standing.”
Dominic turned away.
His phone rang.
Sophia.
“Ethan’s asking for you.”
“I’m coming.”
“How was it?”
Dominic looked back once at Vincent.
“He admitted enough.”
Sophia was silent.
“Dominic?”
“Yes?”
“Come home as Ethan’s father.”
He understood.
Not as executioner.
Not as boss.
Not as betrayed nephew.
“As his father,” he said.
He left the building.
Behind him, prosecutors prepared the next phase.
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Ahead of him waited an eight-year-old boy who still needed help sleeping after birthday cake.
For once, Dominic knew which responsibility came first.
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