Page 66 of Family Secrets

“Watch me,” Gino challenged, eyes dark and his voice dead calm. “After Emilio came to Jonathan, asking for help finding out who was sending photos of Nicole to him, my father gave the job to Uncle Johnny and Saul. When Johnny changed his mind about killing Emilio, Saul decided to go it alone. He offered Morti Rizzoli money to feed him information, and for a while he did. When Saul upped his game, Emilio reacted and sent Morti and Nicole away. A few weeks into exile, Nicole found out she was pregnant, but forbade Morti from telling Emilio, never thinking she wouldn’t see him again. Fast forward to the day Johnny stumbled upon proof Saul was stealing money, the same day Morti was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and grew a conscience. Uncle Johnny managed to get a call to Morti, warning him Saul sent men to kill him and Nicole before Saul’s hitman shot him in the back. Morti managed to get Nicole out of the house, but not before she went into labor. Not knowing who to trust, Morti called his sister, Margarita Rizzoli, who he’d financed to attend nursing school.”

Gino turned to Elizabeth, her eyes brimming with tears nearly made his knees buckle. “You would know Margarita as Beatrice Smith, the alias she’d adopted after she delivered you and swore to your mother she would keep you safe.”

Turning back to Sully, “Morti couldn’t take Nicole to a hospital, nor could he seek treatment for his cancer. When Margarita couldn’t stop Nicole’s bleeding after giving birth, she and Morti buried her in an unmarked grave on the family property. Margarita returned three months later to bury her brother. Morti had left money behind for Margarita, but with a little girl to care for, it ran out. Less than a year later, Saul was killed by a jealous lover, which should have been the end of the story.”

Shaking his head, Sully straddled the chair, waving his gun in Gino’s direction.

“While you were off at your Ivy League school,” Sully’s voice was wrapped in jealousy. “I was stuck here, doing every shitty job Jonathan wanted me to. My father came up with a plan to fool Jonathan into thinking I was the better choice to run the Family. He had me scanning clubs and bringing him the hottest girls so my name stayed on his mind more than yours. At first, I didn’t feel as if it was making any difference, but then I brought home Lisa...”

“And Jonathan lost his fucking mind.” Gino finished for him.

A sly smiled curled at the corner of Sully’s lips. “He didn’t care she was barely legal. After that first taste, he was hooked.”

“Which gave you the opportunity you’d been hoping for,” Gino added.

“Not at first, no. At first, I was more focused on helping my father find Morti. It wasn’t until Mario came home asking for money to give to some bitch he was fucking to have an abortion. Saul refused him; said family, even the bastards, were important. It got me to thinking, what if Morti had a sample of Nicole, knocked her up or some shit. I did the math and figured he or she would be about my age. I had Lisa create an account on social media, focusing her friends within a hundred miles of the last place Morti and Nicole were known to be. It took maybe three months before Lisa found someone who we thought could be a possibility. I created a fake account, went to the page where Lisa found her, and made a sexist comment which encouraged the bond. We spent the next year making sure my theory was right.”

Elizabeth silently cried as she listened to Sully’s tale. She’d been so stupid to tell Lisa about herself.

“So you sent Mario to Kansas,” Gino began, Elizabeth’s tears fueling the inferno raging inside of him. “Armed with a syringe full of shit from Dr. Flynn.”

“How did you…?” Sully questioned, his face contorted until realization hit him. “Fucking Niko.”

“I’d love nothing more than to give that motherfucker all the credit, but the most damming piece of evidence came from Dr. Flynn over here.” Gino nodded to the man standing beside Lisa.

With Elizabeth’s vision nearly clear, she looked to the man who’d been blurry earlier, a gasp left her throat as she recognized the man as the doctor who’d helped her find where to donate blood for her father.

“A call came into your phone from Dr. Feelgood over here a few nights ago, telling you Elizabeth had come by the hospital, just as you suspected she would. When my connection in genetics gave me the news of Elizabeth’s paternity, he also told me I wasn’t the first to provide a sample of hers. My only question is, how did you take blood from her without her knowledge?”

Sully smiled triumphantly, the answer fresh on his lips, but keeping Gino in the dark much more appealing.

“The paper cut!” Elizabeth shouted, her voice nasally from the blood caked in her nose. “My first day in the office, you had me sign a stack of papers, cutting my hand in the process.” Shifting her focus back to the man standing beside Lisa, “And you were at the hospital, you showed me where to go for...” She trailed off, realizing her mistake a second too late.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Gino assured, as Lisa rolled her eyes, moving closer to the man beside her. “Dr. Flynn got caught with his hands in an underage cookie jar, he’s been on the Vitale payroll ever since. Our money made the allegations go away. That is until he got the idea his balls are bigger than what they are by handing Mario Fentanyl before he boarded a plane for Kansas.”

“How did you know this? I…” Sully trailed off his face contorted in anger.

Gino shook his head, dropping his chin. “The night Morty The Mooch was pinched, the chemist is also one of Dr. Flynn’s best customers. He reminded me of how he’d done you a favor by hooking him up.”

“That shit worked like a fucking charm.” Mario wheezed from his position on the floor, his regaining consciousness gaining the attention of the room. “I waited until everyone left the house before I snuck in the back door. That old bitch gave me a fight, but once I stuck her with the syringe, she went down like a stone.”

Growing bored with the testosterone fest, Lisa made her way across the room to stand beside Sully.

“And then she died, the end.” Lisa waved her hand around dismissively. “Can we hurry this up, Sully? I—"

“Why, Lisa? Have an orgy you need to get to?”

Wrinkling her nose, “No, that’s more your style.”

“Oh, I forgot,” Gino mocked. “You prefer sucking dick while Sully shoots the poor bastard in the back of the head.”

Lisa’s eyes flashed wide, her mouth gaping open as she turned to Sully.

“Don’t act so surprised, Lisa, Your DNA was all over my father’s cock. And while Sully covered his tracks pretty well: blocking the cameras, and assuming his prints wouldn’t be questioned, he neglected one minor detail.”

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