Chapter 10 - VICTOR ROSSI TAKES THE STAND
The custody hearing began Monday morning.
By then the warehouse explosion dominated every local news station.
Victor's attorneys advised delay.
Victor refused.
Margaret arrived with two lawyers.
Child welfare representatives sat behind them.
Harper entered separately.
She had not agreed to testify for Victor.
She had agreed to tell the truth.
That distinction mattered.
Finn stayed in a private room with a court-appointed child specialist.
Victor wore a dark suit.
No visible weapon.
No security inside the courtroom.
Harper knew those things had been negotiated.
She also knew Victor hated every second of it.
Margaret's attorney spoke first.
He described a violent household.
A traumatized child.
An absent father.
A nanny who had resigned after verbal abuse.
Harper watched Victor.
He did not react.
Then the attorney introduced the photograph of Finn alone on the bus.
Victor's hand tightened.
Still, he remained silent.
Margaret testified.
She admitted hiding information about Elena.
She cried.
She said she loved Finn.
Harper believed her.
Then Victor took the stand.
His attorney began carefully.
“Mr. Rossi, do you consider yourself a good father?”
Victor paused.
“No.”
The attorney visibly faltered.
Harper looked up.
“Would you clarify?”
“I consider myself a father who loves his son.”
Victor looked toward the judge.
“That isn't the same thing.”
The courtroom went silent.
His attorney tried again.
“Have you provided for Finn financially?”
“Yes.”
“Education?”
“Yes.”
“Healthcare?”
“Yes.”
“Security?”
Victor looked down.
“Too much security.”
The judge leaned forward.
“What do you mean?”
Victor breathed slowly.
“For years, I believed safety meant preventing every possible threat.”
He looked toward Harper.
“I treated fear like weakness. Especially his.”
Harper's throat tightened.
Victor continued.
“Finn survived an event at three years old that killed his mother. Instead of helping him understand fear, I wanted him to stop showing it because his fear reminded me that I had failed to protect them.”
Margaret looked away.
Victor's voice became quieter.
“I made my son's grief about me.”
Harper had never expected those words.
Neither had the attorneys.
The judge asked, “And Ms. Bennett?”
Victor's eyes found Harper.
“She understood him.”
“Yet she resigned.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Victor could have softened the answer.
He didn't.
“Because I insulted her.”
“What did you say?”
His attorney stood.
“Your Honor—”
Victor raised a hand.
“No.”
He looked directly at Harper.
“I told her no one would ever want her.”
A murmur passed through the courtroom.
Victor continued.
“I said it because she challenged the way I handled Finn's panic attacks. She was right. I was angry. So I chose something personal I believed would humiliate her.”
The judge stared.
“And you believe this supports your fitness as a parent?”
“No.”
Victor's attorney looked ready to faint.
Victor continued.
“But hiding it would support my unfitness.”
Harper inhaled sharply.
The judge leaned back.
Victor looked toward Margaret.
“I cannot ask this court to trust me while lying about the person I've been.”
He turned back.
“I have made mistakes. Some serious. Some unforgivable.”
Harper knew the weight beneath that word.
“But Finn should not be removed from the only home he remembers because someone outside this courtroom is manufacturing danger around him.”
The judge's eyes sharpened.
Victor's attorney introduced evidence regarding Gabriel.
The school data breach.
Nathan's payments.
The tracking device.
Warehouse.
Elena's files.
Margaret's petition suddenly looked different.
Not malicious.
Manipulated.
Harper testified last.
Margaret's lawyer approached.
“Ms. Bennett, did Mr. Rossi verbally abuse you?”
“Yes.”
Victor did not look away.
“Did you resign because of it?”
“Yes.”
“Do you consider him emotionally healthy?”
Victor's attorney objected.
Sustained.
The lawyer rephrased.
“Have you observed behavior from Mr. Rossi that concerns you regarding Finn?”
“Yes.”
Victor remained still.
“Please describe it.”
“He confuses control with safety.”
The attorney looked pleased.
Harper continued.
“He sometimes expects Finn to regulate emotions like an adult. He used to dismiss his fear instead of helping him.”
“Used to?”
Harper paused.
“Yes.”
The lawyer frowned.
“What changed?”
“He did.”
Victor looked at her.
Harper continued.
“Not completely.”
A few people almost laughed.
“Mr. Rossi has a great deal to learn.”
The judge's mouth twitched.
Harper looked directly at Victor.
“But when Finn was kidnapped, Victor listened to instructions that went against every instinct he had. He lowered his weapon when I asked. He used Finn's grounding routine during an emergency. He put his son's emotional safety ahead of his pride.”
Margaret's attorney nodded slowly.
“Do you believe Finn should remain with his father?”
Harper looked at Margaret.
Then Victor.
“Yes.”
Victor's eyes closed briefly.
“But,” Harper added, “with conditions.”
His eyes reopened.
The judge leaned forward.
“What conditions?”
“Consistent trauma therapy for Finn. Parenting therapy for Victor.”
Victor's eyebrows rose.
Harper continued.
“Reduced visible security around Finn where possible. No employees with unchecked access to him. And a professional child-development specialist who is not personally dependent on Mr. Rossi for employment.”
The attorney smiled.
“You mean not you?”
“Especially not me.”
Victor absorbed that.
“I love Finn,” Harper said. “Which means I shouldn't have to sacrifice my dignity to stay near him.”
Silence.
Victor lowered his head.
The judge recessed for thirty minutes.
When she returned, emergency guardianship was denied.
Finn would remain with Victor under temporary court supervision.
Margaret received structured visitation.
Therapy requirements were ordered.
Victor did not celebrate.
Outside the courtroom, cameras waited.
Reporters shouted.
“Mr. Rossi!”
“Victor!”
“Did you endanger your son?”
“Is Gabriel Rossi alive?”
Victor ignored them.
Then one reporter yelled:
“Ms. Bennett! Did Rossi fire you because of your weight?”
Harper stopped.
Victor turned.
Security moved instinctively.
Harper raised a hand.
“No.”
Cameras focused.
“I resigned because a man who should have known better tried to make me feel ashamed of myself.”
Victor stood several feet behind her.
The reporter asked, “Do you forgive him?”
Harper almost smiled.
“That's not today's story.”
Then she walked away.
Victor watched her go.
Marco came beside him.
“You're not following?”
“No.”
Marco raised an eyebrow.
Victor looked at Harper disappearing through the crowd.
“She'll come back if she wants to.”
Marco smiled faintly.
“Therapy is working already.”
Victor glared.
“Don't ruin the moment.”
That evening, Gabriel released the first files.
Not Finn's.
Victor's.
Financial records.
Names.
Accounts.
Operations.
Evidence strong enough to attract federal attention.
Marco placed the documents in front of Victor.
“This could destroy everything.”
Victor looked toward the playroom where Finn sat building a cardboard city.
Three weeks earlier, those words would have meant his organization.
His power.
His reputation.
His empire.
Now Victor understood something Elena had tried to teach him.
Everything was a relative term.
“How bad?” he asked.
“Bad.”
“Prison?”
“Potentially.”
Victor nodded.
Marco stared.
“That's it?”
Victor looked at his son.
“Gabriel thinks I'll protect the empire.”
“You always have.”
Victor closed the file.
“That's why he knows how to beat me.”
Marco went still.
Victor picked up his phone.
“Call the federal prosecutor.”
Marco stared.
“What?”
“Tell them I'm ready to talk.”
“Victor.”
“Everything.”
Marco lowered his voice.
“You give them everything, the Rossi organization ends.”
Victor looked toward Finn.
“Good.”
May you like
For the first time since becoming a Rossi, Victor chose his son over his empire.
And by midnight, half the criminal world in Chicago wanted him dead.
