Chapter 10 - Victor Comes Home
Victor Hale walked into a Providence emergency room at 4:17 the next morning.
He had a cut over one eyebrow, a bruised rib, and no memory of several hours.
Or so he said.
Detective Grant would not let Alessandro question him alone, which was probably wise.
Victor lay in a hospital bed looking exhausted and strangely calm.
“So,” Alessandro said, “you’re my brother.”
Victor’s eyes closed. “That’s how we’re starting?”
“It’s the cleanest question I have.”
“Yes.”
“How long have you known?”
“Since medical school.”
“And you treated me for eight years without telling me.”
“Our father asked me not to.”
“Our father asked everybody not to tell me things.”
Victor looked toward the window. “He was ashamed.”
“Of you?”
“Of himself.”
Detective Grant interrupted. “Where were you yesterday morning?”
Victor claimed someone struck him as he left the estate after checking on an employee with chest pain. He woke in an abandoned warehouse and escaped when his captor left.
“Who called you to the estate?”
Victor hesitated.
“Carlo.”
Alessandro’s patience thinned. “Isabella said she called you.”
“She texted later. Carlo called first.”
“Did you give Isabella medication?”
“No.”
“Did you tell anyone I was near a breakdown?”
Victor looked directly at him. “You were exhausted. You were angry. You were not near a breakdown.”
It was the first simple truth Alessandro had heard in days.
Then Victor added, “But I did something worse.”
He reached into the hospital drawer and removed a key.
“Three months ago, Carlo asked me to alter a health report. He wanted it to appear that you had a cardiac condition.”
Alessandro stared.
“Did you?”
“No. But I didn’t report him. I protected the family. Just like you always do.”
The accusation landed because it was accurate.
Victor handed the key to Detective Grant.
“It opens a locker at Union Station. Carlo told me if anything happened, I should destroy what was inside.”
Grant frowned. “Why didn’t you?”
Victor looked at Alessandro.
“Because yesterday a six-year-old was threatened for telling the truth, and I realized every man in this family keeps calling silence loyalty.”
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Inside the locker, they found a laptop.
On it was a video file labeled BREAKFAST.
