Chapter 9 - The Last Dinner
The bullet missed Nicholas’s major organs.
Claire told him he was lucky.
Nicholas told her luck had nothing to do with it.
Claire threatened to hit him with his own hospital tray.
He stopped arguing.
Three days later he walked out of the hospital against medical advice.
Claire was waiting by the elevator.
“No.”
Nicholas stopped.
“What?”
“You’re going back inside.”
“I’m discharged.”
“You threatened the doctor.”
“He discharged me.”
“Under duress.”
“Still counts.”
Claire pointed at his side.
“You were shot.”
“I remember.”
“You have stitches.”
“I also remember those.”
“You need rest.”
Nicholas leaned closer.
“You kissed me in the ambulance.”
Claire’s mouth opened.
Marco turned away immediately.
“That was medical.”
Nicholas raised an eyebrow.
“Medical?”
“You were injured.”
“So you kissed me.”
“For circulation.”
Marco walked ten feet away.
Nicholas smiled.
Claire hated how attractive he became when he smiled.
She also hated that Evelyn noticed everything.
“You’re in love with him.”
Claire nearly dropped the soup bowl.
Evelyn sat at the kitchen table eating chicken noodles.
Seven spoonfuls.
A record.
“I am not.”
“Nine spoonfuls if you stop lying.”
“That’s emotional blackmail.”
Evelyn ate another bite.
Eight.
Claire stared.
Evelyn ate again.
Nine.
“Fine,” Evelyn said. “Now answer.”
Claire sat.
“I care about him.”
“He cares about you.”
“He has a strange way of showing it.”
“He was raised by dangerous men.”
“Not an excuse.”
“No.”
Evelyn looked thoughtful.
“But perhaps an explanation.”
Claire stirred her tea.
“You know what worries me?”
“My son being a mafia boss?”
“That’s on the list.”
Evelyn laughed.
“What else?”
“He thinks protecting people means controlling them.”
“Yes.”
“He needs to learn the difference.”
“Yes.”
“And I won’t spend my life asking permission to leave a room.”
Evelyn smiled.
“Then make him learn.”
Claire looked at her.
“You say that like you’ve trained him before.”
“My dear, I got that boy through puberty.”
Alessandra remained missing.
Dr. Hale disappeared.
But Damian woke.
And this time, he talked.
He gave Nicholas everything.
Bank records.
Payment instructions.
Names.
Recordings.
Alessandra had financed the medical manipulation.
Dr. Hale managed dosing.
Damian moved contaminated silverware and handled access.
Vincent had unknowingly become the backup.
But Damian also revealed something unexpected.
“Alessandra is leaving Chicago.”
“When?” Nicholas asked.
“Tomorrow night.”
“How?”
“Private airfield.”
Nicholas smiled.
Damian shook his head.
“She won’t go unless she thinks she won.”
Claire stood near the doorway.
“What would make her think that?”
Damian looked toward Evelyn.
“Control.”
That was how Evelyn came up with the dinner.
Nicholas refused.
Claire refused.
Marco refused.
Evelyn threatened all three of them with her cane.
The dinner happened.
Same dining room.
Same table.
Same seats as four months earlier.
Evelyn wore red.
Claire approved.
Nicholas sat to her right.
Vincent sat farther down the table, devastated but cooperating.
Damian attended under guard.
Hidden microphones captured everything.
And Alessandra received a message saying Evelyn had agreed to transfer voting control in exchange for ending the conflict.
She arrived at eight.
Alone.
Or appeared to.
Nicholas stood.
“You came.”
Alessandra removed her coat.
“You invited me.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“You tried to erase me.”
Alessandra sat.
“You’re being dramatic.”
Claire served the first course.
Soup.
Alessandra looked at it.
Then at Claire.
“I don’t eat carbohydrates at night.”
Claire smiled.
“How exhausting.”
Nicholas covered a cough.
Evelyn actually laughed.
Alessandra glared.
Dinner progressed.
She grew impatient.
“Where are the documents?”
Nicholas slid a folder onto the table.
“Here.”
Alessandra reached.
Evelyn placed one hand on it.
“First, I want the truth.”
Alessandra stared.
“What truth?”
“Why.”
“I told you.”
“No.”
Evelyn’s eyes hardened.
“You didn’t hate me.”
Alessandra’s face changed.
“You were my sister.”
“I was.”
“You held Nicholas when Michael and I went to Italy.”
“Yes.”
“You sat beside me when my mother died.”
Alessandra looked away.
Evelyn whispered, “When did money become worth more than all that?”
For the first time, Alessandra looked emotional.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“I was tired.”
“Of what?”
“Being the woman behind every Caruso man.”
Her voice rose.
“Michael made reckless deals. I fixed them. Vincent lost money. I found it. Nicholas started wars. I ended them.”
Nicholas remained silent.
Alessandra’s eyes filled.
“But when decisions were made, I was expected to pour coffee.”
Evelyn looked sad.
“So you decided to poison me.”
“I decided to take what should have been mine.”
“You could have asked.”
Alessandra laughed bitterly.
“Men like Michael never give power because someone asks politely.”
Claire understood something important.
Alessandra’s anger might once have been justified.
Her actions were not.
Pain explained cruelty.
It did not excuse it.
Evelyn pushed the folder forward.
“Take it.”
Nicholas turned.
“Mom.”
She ignored him.
Alessandra placed her hand on the folder.
Evelyn said, “But answer one thing.”
“What?”
“Who killed Michael?”
Nicholas froze.
Claire looked at him.
This had not been part of the plan.
Alessandra went pale.
Evelyn stared.
“I know his car accident wasn’t an accident.”
Nicholas whispered, “Mom?”
Evelyn never looked away from Alessandra.
“Michael told me two days before he died that someone in the family was stealing from the foundation.”
Claire remembered the ledger.
“He was going to expose them.”
Alessandra’s hand began trembling.
Nicholas stood.
“Did you kill my father?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No!”
The word cracked.
Nicholas stepped closer.
“Then who?”
Alessandra looked toward Damian.
Damian’s face drained.
Vincent stood.
“What?”
Damian began shaking.
“No.”
Alessandra smiled.
“You didn’t tell them everything.”
Vincent stared at his son.
“Damian?”
He began crying.
“I was nineteen.”
Nicholas looked stunned.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t know they’d kill him.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Hale.”
Silence.
Damian sobbed.
“She told me Uncle Michael was stealing from the family. She asked me to disable the GPS in his car so nobody could track a private meeting.”
Vincent covered his mouth.
Damian continued.
“I did it.”
Nicholas’s face became empty.
“What happened?”
“The brakes failed on Lake Shore Drive.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Nicholas lunged.
Claire grabbed him.
“Nicholas.”
He shook her off.
Marco stepped between them.
Damian cried, “I didn’t know!”
Nicholas shouted, “You helped kill my father!”
“I WAS NINETEEN!”
Alessandra stood.
“And now you understand why family loyalty is a fairy tale.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“Did you know?”
Alessandra said nothing.
That was enough.
Nicholas reached for his gun.
Claire grabbed his hand.
“No.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“If you kill her, she wins.”
His eyes burned.
“She killed my father.”
“Then make her answer for it.”
“She deserves—”
“I know what she deserves.”
Claire’s voice softened.
“But your mother deserves a son who comes home tonight.”
Nicholas looked at Evelyn.
She was crying.
That decided him.
He lowered the gun.
Police entered.
Federal agents followed.
Marco had already delivered copies of the evidence.
Alessandra stared at Nicholas as officers approached.
“You’re giving me to them?”
“Yes.”
“You’re a Caruso.”
Nicholas looked at his mother.
Then at Claire.
“Maybe that doesn’t have to mean what it used to.”
Alessandra was handcuffed.
At the doorway, she looked back.
“You think this ends because you choose to become respectable?”
Nicholas said nothing.
She smiled.
“Your father tried that too.”
Then she was gone.
The room remained silent.
Evelyn looked down at the untouched soup.
Claire approached.
“You don’t have to eat.”
Evelyn wiped her eyes.
“I know.”
Claire waited.
Evelyn picked up her spoon.
One bite.
Then another.
Nicholas sat beside her.
May you like
Evelyn took a third.
And for the first time in four months, she finished the bowl.
