Chapter 8 - THE MAN WHO SOLD THE FIRST LOCATION AND THE SECOND ONE TOO
Gavin finally gave a full proffer.
His lawyer had spent days negotiating.
The state had evidence regarding the restaurant assault.
Federal investigators had financial questions.
Gavin had leverage only because he knew where the bodies were metaphorically buried.
Cassidy made Dominic say “metaphorically” every time.
He hated it.
Gavin admitted he had sold Dominic’s locations for three years.
Restaurants.
Foundation dinners.
Hotel suites.
Not every time.
Only when asked.
Anthony Bellini paid him.
Sometimes cash.
Sometimes debts.
Sometimes favors.
The information then went to others.
Gavin claimed he did not know all buyers.
He knew one.
Marco.
The first direct payment from Marco to Gavin came disguised as event-consulting work.
Then continued through Anthony.
Why?
At first, business surveillance.
Marco wanted to know which politicians Dominic met privately.
Which bankers.
Which developers.
Which family captains.
Information was power.
Then Elena.
Gavin said Anthony requested West Town’s access schedule.
He gave it.
Later Anthony asked for restaurant reservation tools and private event credentials.
The night Elena died, Gavin knew people were being sent to recover documents.
He claimed he did not know a fire would start.
He also admitted something else.
Marco had ordered the Gilded Spoon reservation monitored.
Current day.
Now.
Not eighteen months ago.
“Why?” Dominic asked his attorney.
The attorney read Gavin’s statement.
Because Marco believed Dominic was preparing to remove him from several Valente businesses after an upcoming governance review.
Cassidy looked at Dominic.
“You were?”
“Yes.”
“You never mentioned that.”
“It wasn’t relevant to Lucia.”
“It is if Marco thinks it is.”
Dominic had spent six months moving Valente Holdings toward cleaner outside financing.
Independent directors.
Audited subsidiaries.
Removal of family-linked vendors.
Marco publicly supported him.
Privately, those changes would expose the foundation scheme and reduce Marco’s influence.
Gavin sold the Gilded Spoon reservation so a Moretti intermediary could photograph Dominic meeting unknown contacts.
Not necessarily attack him.
Create pressure.
Maybe more.
Gavin insisted he did not know.
Again.
Too much not knowing.
But one fact was clear:
Cassidy had not accidentally stepped into an old war.
Gavin was actively selling them out that morning.
Lucia’s presence had not stopped him.
Maybe he did not know she would be there.
He saw her once they arrived.
Still sent the information.
The title in Cassidy’s mind wrote itself.
The man she humiliated for grabbing a frightened child had already sold the child’s location before touching her.
That was why his fear looked different when Dominic returned.
Not because he had been rude to the wrong customer.
Because the customer knew his daughter remembered him.
Gavin also explained Lake Geneva.
Anthony had asked three weeks earlier for service codes and floor plans.
Gavin did not have them.
Marco’s office did.
That confirmed internal preparation.
Dominic shut the property down.
Police and private security documented unauthorized entry.
Nothing dangerous found.
No dramatic weapons cache.
Just evidence somebody had been inside.
Fresh food.
A blanket moved.
Security panel reset.
A spare phone charger.
Waiting.
For whom?
Unknown.
Cassidy returned to her apartment that evening.
First night alone in days.
Her landlord had emailed a final warning.
She paid the overdue rent from her Valente wages.
Then opened the nursing-school website.
Application for readmission.
Spring term.
She stared.
Tuition still looked impossible.
Then she closed the browser.
Not yet.
Her mother called.
“You sound weird.”
“I always sound weird.”
“No. Hopeful weird.”
Cassidy looked at the closed laptop.
“Maybe.”
“Rich widower?”
“School.”
“Better.”
“Absolutely.”
Her mother coughed.
Cassidy’s chest tightened.
“Did you take the new medication?”
“Yes, nurse.”
“Not a nurse.”
“Yet.”
Cassidy went quiet.
Mom heard it.
“Cass.”
“I’m thinking.”
“About going back?”
“Maybe.”
“Do it.”
“With what money?”
“Figure it out without selling a kidney.”
“Yours are useless.”
“Exactly.”
Cassidy laughed.
The next morning Dominic asked her to sign an extended contract.
Eight weeks.
Same hours.
Higher pay.
Cassidy read every page.
“You’re staring.”
“I’ve worked for managers.”
“Fair.”
“No NDA about criminal conduct?”
“No.”
“No clause saying I can’t report something unsafe?”
“No.”
“No weird morality restrictions?”
“No.”
“You have a better lawyer than Gavin.”
“Dominic.”
She looked at the compensation.
“This is too much.”
“It’s market.”
“For what market?”
He shrugged.
“People my daughter trusts.”
“That is not a market.”
“It is now.”
Cassidy signed.
Then added one handwritten line:
Either party may terminate immediately if Lucia’s treating clinician believes the arrangement is harming her care.
Dominic read it.
“Fine.”
“You’re not arguing?”
“No.”
“Growth.”
He looked at her.
“Don’t ruin it.”
Upstairs, Lucia had therapy.
This time Dominic attended only at Dr. Levin’s invitation.
Lucia used cards.
Safe.
Scared.
Angry.
Mama.
Daddy.
Marco.
Dr. Levin asked:
“What happens inside your body when you think about talking?”
Lucia pointed to SCARED.
“What are you scared will happen?”
Lucia stared at Dominic.
Then her hands began trembling.
Cassidy sat beside her.
No questions.
Lucia signed:
DADDY DIE.
Dominic stopped breathing.
Dr. Levin spoke softly.
“Who said Daddy would die?”
Lucia’s hands disappeared.
Session ended.
No pressure.
But the fear now had words.
Not simply fire.
Not simply grief.
Lucia believed speaking could kill her father.
That belief had come from somewhere.
Later that day, investigators recovered hospital visitor logs from the night of Elena’s death.
Dominic had been across town dealing with the fire scene and police.
Lucia spent three hours in pediatric observation for smoke inhalation.
Visitors:
Elias.
A nurse.
Dr. Levin, called later.
And Marco Bellini.
Alone with Lucia for eleven minutes.
No other family member present.
Dominic stared at the log.
Cassidy felt sick.
May you like
Whatever Lucia feared may not have begun in the fire.
It may have begun in the hospital after it.
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