“The children will recover.”
“Even worse answer.”
What happened in that room would echo through every level of Rocco’s organization.
A message about what happens to men who hurt children.
About what happens to men who use the Moretti name to prey on poor families.
Because Rocco had uncovered six more families.
Six more forged documents.
Six more children forced to watch strangers take everything they owned.
And by morning, Vice Caruso would help return every single thing he had stolen.
Whether he wanted to or not.
Part 3
By dawn, Rocco had everything he needed.
Bank records showed Vice’s private accounts had grown by over $200,000 in just six months. Surveillance footage showed him personally loading stolen furniture into unmarked trucks.
The most damning evidence of all was a rented storage unit under a false name.
Inside were the belongings of the seven families he had robbed.
Vice remained tied to a chair in that same storage space, surrounded by the evidence.
Baby cups. Family photos. Wedding clothes. Children’s toys. Even a wheelchair belonging to a child who could barely move without it.
“You’re going to return everything,” Rocco said quietly as he walked through the piles of stolen items. “Every plate. Every pot. Every toy. And you’re going to apologize to every family in person.”
Vice’s face was swollen from the night’s interrogation, but a flicker of defiance still lingered in his eyes.
“And then what?” he asked. “You let me go? We both know that’s not how this works.”
Rocco stopped in front of a small pink teddy bear. He picked it up, remembering how Emma had clung to her bicycle handlebars with that same desperation.
—You’re right —Rocco said.
“That’s not how it works.”
He turned to face Vice.
“You robbed children. You forged documents in the names of the dead. You brought suffering to a 7-year-old girl.”
