Chương 16
He disliked counseling.
The psychologist, Dr. Leone, asked questions Alessandro considered either obvious or impossible.
“When did you first understand your father was dangerous?”
“He broke a man’s hand at dinner.”
“How old were you?”
“Nine.”
“What did you do?”
“Finished eating.”
“How did you feel?”
“I don’t remember.”
“What did you eat?”
“Veal.”
“Interesting.”
“It was dinner.”
“You remember the meal but not the feeling.”
“The veal was overcooked.”
Dr. Leone waited.
Alessandro looked at the clock.
After several sessions, he admitted he had hummed his mother’s lullaby before ordering his first killing. He had not recognized the connection at the time. The melody had quieted his breathing.
Dr. Leone did not tell him what this meant.
Alessandro disliked her slightly less after that.
In September, prosecutors charged him with racketeering, conspiracy, bribery, tax fraud, and three counts of complicity in homicide. His cooperation reduced the possible sentence but did not erase it.
He entered a guilty plea to the financial and conspiracy charges. The homicide counts remained under negotiation because his orders had not specified murder, only “resolution,” a word his organization used precisely because it allowed men to pretend outcomes were ambiguous.
Outside the courthouse, reporters shouted questions.
“Do you consider yourself a hero?”
“Did Sophia Rossi seduce you into betraying your family?”
“Will you apologize to the victims?”
Alessandro stopped at the steps.
Marco touched his elbow. “Do not improvise morality.”
Alessandro faced the microphones.
“I am not a hero,” he said. “Mrs. Rossi did not persuade me to commit crimes, and she did not cause me to answer for them. The people harmed by my decisions do not owe me the comfort of accepting an apology.”
Marco closed his eyes.
A reporter shouted, “Then why cooperate?”
Alessandro looked toward the camera lights.
“Because a child was doing an adult’s work while adults protected themselves.”
The statement appeared in headlines by evening. Some called it moving. Others called it rehearsed. Paolo, the dismissed forklift operator, told a television interviewer that poetic answers did not replace wages.
He was right.
The Moretti mansion sold in November to a hotel group.
Part of the proceeds funded worker restitution, witness security, and compensation claims connected to old crimes. Another portion disappeared into taxes, debts, and legal fees. The rose garden was scheduled to become an event terrace. The laundry room would be converted into a spa.
Sophia testified before a closed grand jury two weeks before the sale.
Vittorio’s attorneys questioned the chain of custody of Teresa’s letters and suggested Sophia had learned details from public records before fabricating them. Forensic testing established the paper, ink, and recordings were consistent with the dates claimed. Handwriting experts compared Maria’s letters with hundreds of authenticated samples.
Elena provided corroboration.
She returned from Florence and testified that Maria intended to leave, that Renato informed Enzo, and that Vittorio coordinated the cover-up after the murder. She also admitted remaining silent for twenty-seven years.
Her testimony cost her relationships with both surviving children, who accused her of destroying the family for attention.
Afterward, she wrote Alessandro a letter.
I thought silence was the price of keeping what remained. I did not understand silence was what remained.
He read the sentence in his apartment and placed the letter beside his mother’s.
Vittorio never confessed formally.
He dismissed the tape as an argument taken out of context and claimed Carlo had altered the ledgers. He described Alessandro as emotionally unstable, manipulated by guilt, and desperate to reduce his own sentence.
Some of his claims were persuasive because they contained pieces of truth.
Alessandro was guilty.
He was emotionally unstable.
He wanted a reduced sentence.
Truth did not become false merely because a liar used it.
The murder case proceeded anyway.
In January, Sophia and Emma moved to Bologna. The protection order remained, but restrictions eased after several arrests dismantled Vittorio’s remaining network.
Sophia began her training program.
Emma attended preschool under her own name.
Alessandro learned this from Luca, who continued speaking with Sophia because Emma liked sending him voice messages about lunch.
“She ate peas today,” Luca reported.
Alessandro looked up from a stack of plea documents.
“Why are you telling me?”
“She requested that I inform you.”
“Emma?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Luca played the message.
“Mr. Lessandro, I eat five peas. Green peas. Luca say you no eat carrots. That bad. Bye.”
The recording ended.
Alessandro listened again.
“Five is not many,” he said.
“She is four.”
“She was three.”
“Time continues even when you are indicted.”
Alessandro placed the phone on the table.
“Does Sophia ask about me?”
“No.”
The answer hurt more because Luca did not soften it.
Three months later, Vittorio Moretti died before trial.
A stroke took him in the prison infirmary at dawn. He had refused a plea agreement the previous week and written no final statement.
The news reached Alessandro during a meeting with prosecutors.
He felt relief first.
Then grief.
Then anger at the grief.
He left the room and vomited in a courthouse bathroom while a janitor waited outside with a mop. When Alessandro emerged, the man pointed to a paper towel dispenser.
“You missed your sleeve.”
Alessandro cleaned his cuff.
“Thank you.”
The janitor looked at him more closely. Recognition came slowly.
“You’re that Moretti.”
“Yes.”
“My brother worked at your warehouse.”
Alessandro braced himself.
“He found another job,” the janitor said. “Less money.”
“I’m sorry.”
The man considered him.
“You people say that a lot when money is already gone.”
Then he pushed the mop bucket into the bathroom.
Vittorio’s death ended the possibility of conviction but not the investigation. Prosecutors formally named him as a central participant in Maria Moretti’s murder and Matteo Rossi’s death. Corrado Lanza’s surviving sons issued a statement denying involvement and demanding compensation for properties Alessandro had seized in retaliation.
The courts rejected most of their claim because the properties had since been used for unrelated crimes. Justice remained untidy.
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Alessandro was sentenced the following autumn.
The judge credited his cooperation, restitution efforts, and acceptance of responsibility. She also listed the lives damaged by his organization and rejected the argument that inherited violence reduced adult choice.
