Chapter 12 - THE MAN WHO HAD NEVER BEEN AN EMPLOYEE
Dominic Bassi accepted a plea agreement.
The financial investigation established he had benefited from misappropriated household funds and knowingly helped conceal irregular deductions after discovering them.
He did not mastermind Francesca.
Francesca did not mastermind Dominic.
They had reinforced each other's dishonesty because it was convenient.
Alessandro visited him once before sentencing.
Sam advised against it.
Alessandro went through counsel and did everything properly.
Dominic sat across a table in a detention facility.
“You look old,” Dominic said.
“So do you.”
“That little girl still around?”
“Sometimes.”
Dominic smiled.
“Funny.”
“What?”
“Everything we've done, and a toddler breaks the machine.”
Alessandro disliked the metaphor.
Maybe because it was accurate.
Dominic leaned forward.
“You know what happens now?”
“What?”
“You build a nicer machine.”
Alessandro stared at him.
“Independent HR. Auditors. Complaint lines. Beautiful.”
“You think that's bad?”
“I think you still believe systems can save you from being a person.”
That stayed with Alessandro.
He had responded to failure by creating procedures.
Procedures mattered.
They also created another temptation:
Believing corrected policy equaled corrected character.
Dominic continued.
“Your mother didn't need a complaint hotline.”
“My mother got murdered in her kitchen.”
The words came out harsher than intended.
Dominic looked down.
“I know.”
“That house destroyed her.”
“No.”
Dominic looked back up.
“Men did.”
Alessandro's jaw tightened.
Dominic continued:
“You always blamed the house. Then your father. Then the families. Then business. Now you're blaming yourself for Francesca.”
“You're defending me?”
“No.”
A faint smile.
“I'm telling you to stop making tragedy cleaner than it is.”
That sentence came from a man going to prison partly because Alessandro had trusted him.
It still contained truth.
Afterward Alessandro drove home alone.
The rose garden had recently been replanted.
Not restored.
The old roses were gone.
New plants occupied the same soil.
He stood there at dusk thinking about his mother, Marco, Sophia, Emma, Francesca, Dominic.
For years, Alessandro believed accountability meant identifying who caused the damage.
Now he understood adult life offered a more difficult problem.
Several people could contribute to the same harm in different ways.
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Punishing the worst actor did not cancel everybody else's responsibility.
And accepting your responsibility did not require stealing theirs.
