Chapter 5 - MATTEO’S OWN BOOKS
The foundation investigation opened Matteo’s companies whether he liked it or not.
Not because the board had authority over everything.
Because current loan referrals crossed between charity and Romano Holdings.
Auditors needed related-party records.
Matteo’s lawyers negotiated scope.
Regulators asked questions.
Then one issue surfaced that had nothing to do with Luna Relief.
An old construction loan portfolio.
High-interest private loans to restaurants and small property owners.
Some legal.
Some not.
One collection contractor used intimidation.
Matteo knew.
Not every detail.
Enough.
Isabella learned from a newspaper before Matteo told her.
That made her furious.
She called.
“You said you’d tell me what matters before dinner.”
“We haven’t had dinner.”
“Do not lawyer your way through this.”
Silence.
Then:
“You’re right.”
He asked to meet.
She said:
office.
daytime.
Dr. Caruso nearby.
He agreed.
Then explanation.
Between ages thirty and thirty-six, Matteo expanded Romano private lending.
Borrowers banks rejected.
Fast money.
High returns.
Collection practices included:
daily calls,
public pressure,
threats to business relationships.
One contractor assaulted a borrower.
Matteo had written in message:
Make him understand we are done waiting.
He claimed he did not order assault.
He also admitted he knew the phrase could produce intimidation.
There.
Then regulators investigated years later.
Civil settlement.
portfolio wound down.
collection contractor fired.
Why no criminal conviction?
evidence limitations.
borrowers declined some cooperation.
conduct split across entities.
Not exoneration.
Then Isabella asked:
“Did you apologize?”
“To some.”
“Why some?”
“Some wanted nothing from me.”
Good.
Then:
“Did you compensate?”
Settlements.
Yes in documented cases.
Not all.
Then she said:
“I need time.”
Matteo nodded.
“Take it.”
She left.
No chase.
Then Rosalia.
Isabella told her.
Rosalia said:
“You expected a mafia boss to have a clean résumé?”
“I expected him to tell me.”
“Then judge the lie, not the fantasy.”
Good.
Then Isabella asked:
“Do you think I’m stupid for liking him?”
Rosalia stirred coffee.
“Liking is not a contract.”
There.
Then:
“Do not marry a reputation. Do not hate one either. Watch behavior.”
Practical.
Then Isabella’s work.
She completed translations.
Her name appeared in archival reports with Professor Ferri as verifier.
That helped career.
Not because Matteo secretly called publishers.
She applied for literary translation grant on her own.
Won partial fellowship.
Left morning café job.
Kept Trattoria Luna two nights because she liked Maria and tips.
Then a university press hired her for a Sicilian-American oral-history anthology.
Real progress.
No billionaire rescue.
Matteo sent:
Congratulations.
Nothing else.
Good.
Then Paolo Greco was charged with financial fraud and false records related to current benefit manipulation and undisclosed financial interests.
Not historical Luna discrepancies beyond provable records.
Enzo faced civil claims, tax review, and harassment-related fallout from surveillance.
No grand mafia indictment.
Then Paolo’s defense:
Matteo approved conversion strategy.
True in part.
Could that reduce Paolo’s responsibility?
Maybe context.
Not erase manual falsification.
Then foundation board asked Matteo to step down as chair during remediation.
He resisted privately.
Then agreed.
Public statement:
I approved a program structure that treated conversion from grants to affiliated credit as success. I did not know some benefit files were being overstated, but I failed to ask questions that a conflicted structure required.
Precise.
Then:
I will remain a donor under no special governance rights during independent review.
That last part mattered.
Money without authority.
Then his father’s name.
Some directors wanted to remove Romano Family Foundation branding entirely.
Others argued history should not be erased.
Staff survey mixed.
Beneficiaries mixed.
They chose:
rename assistance program as independent community trust.
Cultural center retained Romano name temporarily pending broader stakeholder review because collections extended beyond family.
No one simple symbolic purge.
Then Isabella and Matteo finally had dinner.
Four months after first trial translation.
Public restaurant.
Not Trattoria Luna.
Not owned by Romano.
Isabella verified.
He laughed when she admitted.
“You checked ownership?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Then conversation.
No investigation for first twenty minutes.
He asked about books.
She asked about his mother.
He said Lucia loved opera and hated expensive restaurants.
Then:
“She would have liked you.”
Isabella frowned.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Dead-mother approval as flirting.”
He blinked.
Then laughed.
“Fair.”
Then he asked:
“Why translating?”
Because language felt like home without needing money.
Because her grandmother switched dialect when angry.
Because English flattened jokes.
Because books let voices travel.
Then Matteo said:
“I envy that.”
“Why?”
“My family used language to hide.”
Italian around outsiders.
Sicilian around children.
English in court.
Numbers in books.
He wanted one language where words meant what they said.
Isabella replied:
“That language doesn’t exist.”
He smiled.
“Of course the translator says that.”
Then dessert.
He did not reach across table.
At end:
“Can I kiss you?”
Isabella’s chest tightened.
Not because afraid.
Because she wanted yes.
Still:
“No.”
Matteo nodded.
“Okay.”
No disappointed performance.
He called car? He offered.
She took subway.
Good.
Then second date weeks later.
She kissed him.
Brief.
He looked surprised.
“You’re impossible.”
“Testa di ferro.”
He grinned.
“Say it again.”
She laughed.
Then relationship began.
Slow.
Separate.
No job connection after her foundation contract ended.
Important.
Then new scandal.
A former Romano borrower gave interview accusing Matteo of ordering his brother beaten twelve years earlier.
Name:
Anthony Bell.
Matteo denied ordering assault.
Admitted threatening business pressure.
No evidence resolved quickly.
Isabella did not defend publicly.
She asked him privately:
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Could someone reasonably have thought you wanted it?”
Matteo closed eyes.
“Yes.”
There.
Then independent review of old lending complaints.
He commissioned? Better under settlement monitor maybe. Affected individuals could file.
Anthony’s brother had medical records consistent with assault.
Contractor later convicted in unrelated violence.
One witness said contractor referenced Romano.
No direct instruction.
Civil liability still possible.
Matteo offered mediation through counsel.
Anthony refused.
Fine.
Then Isabella asked:
“Do you need me to believe you’re innocent of every thing no one can prove?”
Matteo looked.
“No.”
“Good.”
Then:
“What do you need?”
He thought.
“For you to believe I tell you what I know now.”
That was possible.
Specific trust.
Then Rosalia invited Matteo to dinner.
Isabella almost fell over.
“Why?”
Rosalia said:
“I need to inspect him.”
“Nonna.”
Matteo came with pastries.
Correct choice.
Dinner:
pasta con sarde.
arguments.
family stories.
Rosalia asked:
“Do you carry a gun?”
Matteo nearly choked.
“No.”
“Men around you?”
“Security sometimes.”
“Do they come in my house?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Then:
“If you hurt her?”
Isabella groaned.
Matteo answered:
“She should leave.”
Rosalia narrowed eyes.
“Not ‘I never would’?”
“No one should have to stay because I promise I’ll always behave.”
Rosalia stared.
Then nodded once.
After he left, Isabella asked:
“Well?”
Rosalia said:
“Still arrogant.”
“And?”
“Iron head.”
No endorsement.
Good.
Then one week later, foundation auditors found the last major modern discrepancy.
Not fraud.
A software migration had duplicated 112 old benefit records and inflated cumulative aid totals for some families.
Paolo exploited some.
But many errors were system design, not deliberate.
That mattered.
Not every wrong number belonged to villain.
Remediation expanded.
Then Isabella realized the story she entered wanting to translate had become something else.
Not:
bad men stole charity.
It was:
good intentions became leverage.
bad incentives became policy.
one man falsified.
another profited.
others failed to ask.
some families felt grateful.
some coerced.
some both.
Harder to fit into a headline.
More useful.
Then Matteo asked her:
“What does testa di ferro really mean to you?”
She smiled.
“My grandmother says it when someone is too stubborn to hear the room.”
He looked toward the cultural center’s glass wall.
“Then I’ve earned it.”
“Yes.”
He held her gaze.
“Again.”
This time Isabella said it softly.
Not as curse.
Not as flirtation exactly.
As warning.
“Testa di ferro.”
Matteo smiled.
The relationship pause revealed something Isabella had not admitted.
She liked being wanted by Matteo Romano.
Not because he was feared.
At least not only.
Because a man who could call almost anyone had learned he could not call her into agreement.
That felt powerful.
Also dangerous.
Power can become addictive even when it is the power to say no.
Her therapist—recommended by no Romano, paid by Isabella—asked:
“What happens if he stops pursuing?”
Isabella had no answer.
Then Matteo did stop.
No flowers.
No surprise car.
No table at Luna.
He sent only information she had a legitimate reason to receive and one birthday message:
Hope the year is kind to you.
Isabella felt abandoned for six hours.
Then embarrassed.
She had asked for space.
He gave it.
Receiving a boundary can feel different from imagining it.
That was her work, not his.
Then Rosalia noticed.
“You look angry.”
“I’m not.”
“Good. Then chop garlic.”
Grandmothers understand therapy too cheaply.
Then Isabella began building a life that did not need Matteo waiting outside it.
She accepted a weeklong conference in Chicago.
She stayed out late with editors.
She dated one man twice.
An architect named Julian.
Kind.
Funny.
No criminal history she could find.
She did not feel chemistry.
That did not make Matteo destiny.
It made Julian a man she did not want to date again.
She told him.
He said:
“Fair.”
No drama.
Good reminder.
Then Matteo and Isabella crossed paths at a public archive panel after months apart.
He did not corner her.
He nodded from across room.
Afterward, she approached him.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“How are you?”
“Under investigation.”
She laughed despite herself.
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
“I know.”
Then they spoke five minutes about Rosalia’s latest fight with museum labeling.
No longing speech.
When Isabella left, she realized something.
She wanted him because she knew more now, not because she knew less.
That still did not make the choice safe automatically.
May you like
But it made it hers.
And listened.
