A Million Dollars Too Late Chapter 09

A Million Dollars Too Late Chapter 09

Marcello’s POV

I thought that in this dream, Audrey had finally forgiven me. But just as I was about to touch her, she

vanished.

I crashed hard into the snow.

The noise startled the boy, and he clung to Audrey’s leg. He tilted his head up. “Mommy, who is that?”

Audrey looked down and smoothed his hair. “Just someone who doesn’t matter anymore.”

Those three words hurt worse than any physical pain I’d ever felt. My legs gave out, and I crawled onto my

knees in the snow.

“Audrey, I gave everything back. I destroyed the Corvino family. I made Valeria pay. I lost my family, my fortune, my power. Now I’ve given my life, too.”

“Please. Forgive me.”

Audrey stood over me, still holding our son’s hand. Her eyes held no warmth at all.

“Marcello, you’re still so selfish.”

My whole body went rigid.

“You think dying fixes anything? That it erases what you did to me?”

“You took down the Corvinos-so what? Does that bring my father back?”

“You lost your power. Good. Does that undo a single thing I went through in that cell?”

She shifted the boy gently behind her. “Now you finally know he existed. But where were you? When he was

dying inside me, where the hell were you?”

“I begged you. For money to save my life. You threw a case of worthless vouchers at me.”

“I collapsed in the snow, and when I woke up, you slapped me across the face.”

“I was bleeding on the floor. Reaching for you. And you just-” She stopped. Her voice dropped. “You put me

in that cell. Yourself.”

Every word hit me like a fist. “I know I was wrong.”

I pressed my forehead into the snow, sobbing. “Then another life. I’ll find you. I’ll give you everything-marry

you, protect you, protect our child. Just give me one more chance.”

Audrey gave him a cold smile. “Another life? Marcello, I don’t want to meet you in this life or any other.”

A beam of warm light descended from the empty sky. It enveloped Audrey and the boy. Their bodies began to

turn translucent.

I scrambled forward in sheer terror. “Audrey, don’t go. Leave the boy with me-please, just let me hold him

once.”

She tightened her grip on our son’s hand. “He was never yours. And I will never forgive you.”

She looked at me one last time. No love. No hate. Just a stranger. Then she walked into the light with our

child.

I lunged for them, but my hands closed on nothing. I could only watch as they dissolved into countless

points of light and vanished completely.

“Audrey!”

My scream echoed across the empty snow.

The space around me collapsed. Countless black hands erupted from the ground and latched onto my legs. I fought with everything I had, but they dragged me inch by inch into an endless darkness.

And there, I started to feel everything Audrey had felt before she died.

The starvation. The beatings. The tumor eating her alive. Her father dead. Her mother broken. And our child -our child’s heart stopping inside her before it ever truly started.

The punishment had no end. And I knew I would never see them again. I jolted awake from the nightmare,

gasping.

The urn was still clutched against my chest. Outside the window, the snow had stopped. My heart was still

beating.

But every single word Audrey had spoken in that dream echoed in my skull.

Dying can’t wash away the sin. Destroying the Corvino family can’t undo the damage I caused.

Before I leave this world, I can still do a few last things.

I went back to Chicago and handed over the safe footage, Valeria’s transfer records, and every piece of

evidence that proved Audrey’s innocence to the prosecutor.

I also recorded a public testimony. I admitted I had used Ravello family power to corrupt the trial-that I had deliberately ordered my lawyers to push for the harshest sentence possible.

Audrey never stole my jewelry. Valeria framed her. The one who really put her in that cell was me.

Two days later, the court vacated every charge against her. Her name was finally cleared.

Then I signed my will.

The Lake Forest estate, the three hotels, the investment accounts, the offshore funds, and every piece of

personal property I had the right to sell-all of it was liquidated.

Half went to St. Agnes Medical Center, for brain cancer research and to cover treatment costs for patients who couldn’t afford them. The other half went to twelve foster homes and child protection agencies across Chicago.

The foundation documents didn’t carry the Ravello name.

They bore a single line: [In memory of Audrey Lane-and a child who never took a breath in this world.]

Enzo watched me sign the final page. “Don. You’ve left yourself nothing.”

“I have nothing left to leave it to.”

“You could still choose to live.”

I shook my head. “The day I sent Audrey to prison-that was the day I lost my home. I have no reason to keep

going.”

That night, I drove back to the Lake Forest estate alone.

I placed the urn on the headboard where Audrey used to sleep. On the desk, I left my recorded confession,

the will, and the court order that had expunged her conviction.

I looked at her photograph one last time.

“I know you won’t forgive me. This time, I’m not asking you to.”

I turned off the camera, and I picked up the gun on the desk.