Chapter 12
The trials began six months later.
By then, Hannah and Ellie lived in a secure apartment paid for through a victim fund, not my pocket.
Hannah insisted on that.
“I won’t be owned by gratitude,” she said.
“I’m not trying to own you.”
“I know. But I need to feel it.”
So I stepped back.
That was harder than giving orders.
Ellie sent drawings through Dr. Greene.
Me with very large shoulders.
Rosie with wings.
A house with no locked doors.
I kept every drawing in my desk.
Carlo’s trial was first.
He wore an expensive suit and a tired smile.
He expected fear to enter the courtroom before him.
It did not.
Elena’s voice played for the jury.
David’s records appeared on screens.
Vincent testified.
Matteo testified after taking a deal.
Hannah testified too.
Her voice shook when she described David’s final days.
“He told me if anything happened, I should protect Ellie from the Moretti name,” she said.
Carlo’s attorney asked, “And yet your daughter saved Mr. Moretti?”
Hannah looked at me.
Then back at the jury.
“My daughter saved a human being who could not breathe. Children often understand mercy better than adults.”
The courtroom went silent.
Carlo was convicted.
Murder conspiracy.
Racketeering.
Attempted murder.
Kidnapping.
More charges than I cared to count.
Matteo went next.
Vincent after him.
Sentences fell like doors closing.
For the first time in years, justice sounded louder than fear.
My own legal reckoning came quietly.
Because I cooperated fully, because the worst crimes belonged to Carlo’s faction, because I gave evidence no one else could access, I avoided prison.
But I lost control of companies.
Licenses.
Assets.
Power.
Good.
Power had taken enough from me.
The mansion remained.
I almost sold it.
Then Ellie visited one afternoon with Hannah.
She stood in the foyer and looked around.
“This house needs laughing,” she said.
Hannah blushed.
I looked at the silent staircase.
May you like
“Yes,” I said.
“It does.”
