Chapter 9 – The Funeral He Never Had

Luca didn’t go home immediately after leaving Rivera’s office.

He asked the driver to take us to St. Catherine’s.

The chapel stood at the end of a quiet street, its brick walls darkened by rain.

Samuel was waiting inside.

He knew why Luca had come.

I could tell from the way he stood beside the organ, one hand resting against its polished wood.

“It’s Michael,” Luca said.

Samuel bowed his head.

“Yes, son.”

For several seconds, the only sound was rain against the stained-glass windows.

Then Luca walked to the front pew.

He sat where his mother had always sat.

I remembered Samuel telling me how Isabella used to bring her two boys here on Sunday mornings.

Luca had been restless.

Michael had liked the music.

Now the same church was holding the truth his mother had died trying to uncover.

Samuel sat beside him.

“Would you like me to play something?”

Luca shook his head.

“Not yet.”

The old man waited.

Luca stared toward the altar.

“I should have listened when Michael came to me about Frank.”

Samuel said nothing.

“He told me there were safety problems. I told him to let the accountants handle it.”

“You didn’t know what Frank was going to do.”

“No. But I knew Michael was worried.”

He looked down.

“And I made him feel like that didn’t matter.”

Samuel rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Regret can teach you something, Luca. But it can’t become the only thing you give your brother.”

Luca turned toward him.

“What else is there?”

Samuel thought for a moment.

“Finish the work he was trying to do.”

The words seemed to settle somewhere deep inside him.

He looked toward the organ.

“My mother wanted him to be remembered.”

“She did.”

“I’ve spent years searching for an answer. I never thought about what I’d do when I finally found one.”

Samuel smiled sadly.

“Most people don’t.”

The next morning, Luca asked his business manager for every available record connected to Bellini Recovery.

He didn’t delegate the responsibility and forget about it.

He sat through hours of old inspection reports.

Read complaints filed by drivers.

Reviewed accidents that had been labeled minor despite serious injuries.

Some of the records had been lost when the towing company closed.

Others showed the exact pattern Michael had warned about.

Equipment marked safe without proper inspection.

Repair invoices approved despite incomplete work.

Employees pressured to return before they were medically ready.

Luca looked increasingly angry as the day passed.

But this time, he didn’t reach for his phone to threaten anybody.

He made notes.

Asked questions.

And insisted that the findings be reviewed independently.

When his manager suggested the old cases might expose the company to liability, Luca looked at him.

“Then we deal with the liability.”

“Sir, some of these claims go back more than a decade.”

“Then we’ve had more than a decade to do the right thing.”

I was carrying coffee into the office when he said it.

He noticed me at the door.

“Emily, come in.”

I set the tray down.

He looked at my injured lip.

“Have you decided whether you want to return to your usual position?”

I hesitated.

“I’d like to keep working here.”

“That wasn’t my question.”

I looked up.

Luca leaned back.

“Do you want to do the same job?”

No one had ever asked me that.

I’d been so focused on keeping my paycheck that I hadn’t considered whether I wanted anything different.

“I enjoy the work,” I said carefully. “But I don’t want to be afraid of speaking up.”

“You shouldn’t have to be.”

I looked at him.

“Mrs. Carter has been teaching me some of the household management records. I’d like to learn more.”

He nodded.

“Then let’s arrange proper training.”

I smiled faintly.

“Thank you, sir.”

“And Emily?”

“Yes?”

“Vanessa’s threats about your employment were unacceptable. I’m having the staff policies rewritten so no one can threaten someone’s livelihood for reporting mistreatment.”

I nodded.

It wasn’t a grand gesture.

But it was something real.

Later that week, Vanessa’s attorney arranged for her belongings to be collected.

She was cooperating with investigators, who were considering criminal charges connected to the concealment of evidence and her actions after Michael’s death.

The exact legal consequences would take time.

Luca didn’t attempt to influence them.

He didn’t ask for special treatment.

And he didn’t demand punishment beyond what the evidence supported.

When someone suggested he might want to speak publicly about Vanessa, he refused.

“Michael deserves to be remembered for his life,” he said. “Not just for the woman who helped hide his death.”

That evening, Samuel brought the original recording back to the mansion.

He’d had it professionally copied so the family wouldn’t risk losing the only complete version.

Luca sat alone in the study and listened.

I was passing through the hall when I heard Isabella’s voice.

“Luca, sweetheart, if you’re listening to this…”

I kept walking.

Some moments belonged to family.

But half an hour later, Luca called me into the room.

His eyes were red.

He held a small piece of paper in his hand.

“My mother said something near the end.”

I waited.

“She said Michael was always afraid I’d think he wasn’t successful enough. That he had to prove himself.”

Luca looked down.

“I never knew he felt that way.”

He handed me the page.

On it, he’d written a sentence from his mother’s recording.

Tell Luca that his brother was never trying to be better than him. He was trying to make him better.

Luca stared at those words.

Then he looked toward the fireplace.

“Emily, I need to arrange a funeral.”

I nodded.

“And I want Samuel to play the organ.”

“I’m sure he will.”

Luca swallowed.

“But there’s something else.”

He took a deep breath.

“I want to invite the men who worked for Bellini Recovery. The ones Michael was trying to help.”

I smiled gently.

“I think he’d like that.”

Luca looked down at the paper again.

Then he said,

“And I want every one of them to know exactly why my brother never came home.”

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