Chapter 15 - TWO FATHERS
At dawn, snow began falling again.
Sofia sat at the long kitchen table of the Bell estate ruins eating cereal from a chipped bowl.
She had rejected eggs, toast, fruit, and pastries.
She wanted cereal.
After learning she might own hundreds of millions of dollars, she chose cereal with marshmallows.
I respected that.
Gabriel sat across from her.
I sat beside him.
Elena watched us both.
The scene was so absurdly domestic that Luca took a photograph.
I threatened him.
He saved it anyway.
Mercer remained restrained upstairs.
Matteo was under guard.
Daniel had been transferred to a private clinic.
Maria stood near the window drinking coffee as if returning from the dead were an ordinary family inconvenience.
At seven, Anna Keller connected the trust system.
“The Monarch guardian decision must be completed by eight.”
Sofia groaned.
“I hate computers.”
“Finally,” I said, “something we agree on.”
Gabriel pointed at me.
“He owns six phones.”
“For business.”
“He types with one finger.”
Sofia laughed.
I considered killing him again.
Keller displayed two forms.
Candidate trustee:
Nicolas Moretti.
Candidate trustee:
Gabriel Santoro.
One must renounce.
Sofia stared.
“I said no.”
Keller nodded.
“Richard anticipated that.”
“Of course he did,” Gabriel said.
“He created a secondary provision.”
“What?”
“If both candidates voluntarily renounce financial benefit, an independent trust is established.”
I looked at Gabriel.
He looked at me.
“What does that mean?” Sofia asked.
Keller explained.
“Neither Nico nor Gabriel receives money.”
“Good.”
“The company will be managed professionally.”
“Good.”
“And when you become twenty-five, you may choose what to do with it.”
Sofia spooned cereal into her mouth.
“Can I give it away?”
“Some.”
“Can I help dogs?”
Keller smiled.
“Yes.”
Sofia looked at Bear.
“Then do that.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“Decision made.”
Keller shook her head.
“Both men must sign.”
I picked up the tablet.
Renounce financial benefit.
Six hundred million dollars.
Ports.
Land.
Control.
I signed.
No hesitation.
Gabriel did too.
Keller looked genuinely surprised.
Maria was not.
Matteo, watching from the doorway under guard, laughed bitterly.
“You gave it away.”
“No,” I said.
“It was never mine.”
He stared at me.
“All of this.”
His eyes moved around the estate.
“You could control half the state.”
“I already tried controlling too much.”
Sofia raised her spoon.
“I control Bear.”
The dog wagged his tail.
“Better system,” Gabriel said.
Matteo looked disgusted.
Maybe because the prize he destroyed lives for had been discarded in thirty seconds.
That was punishment better than death.
After the trust forms were completed, Keller confirmed Monarch would remain sealed.
Sofia’s financial identity would be protected by private guardianship structures until adulthood.
For the first time since she entered my alley, one major threat disappeared.
But not all.
Evelyn Shaw arrived before noon.
Federal agents arrested Mercer.
Not Daniel yet.
His role required investigation.
Matteo presented a larger problem.
He had committed murders.
Kidnapping conspiracies.
Corruption.
But handing him directly to federal agents could expose Sofia to public proceedings.
Evelyn offered sealed cooperation.
Matteo laughed when I told him.
“You want me to become an informant?”
“I want you to face consequences.”
“You’re one to talk.”
He was right.
That was the worst part.
I had done terrible things.
Some for survival.
Some for money.
Some because violence was easier than patience.
“You should arrest me too,” I told Evelyn.
Everyone stared.
Even she looked surprised.
“What?”
“I’m not confessing to things you can’t prove.”
Luca relaxed slightly.
“But I’m done buying police, judges, inspectors.”
Evelyn crossed her arms.
“That’s not exactly redemption.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Good start.”
I glared at him.
He smiled.
Matteo looked at me as if I had lost my mind.
“You’re dismantling everything Father built.”
“Yes.”
“For a child you met two days ago.”
I looked at Sofia, who was brushing Bear beside the fireplace.
“No.”
I turned back to him.
“For my daughter.”
Matteo lowered his gaze.
That afternoon, Elena and I walked through the ruined gardens.
Snow covered the dead roses.
“You really renounced it,” she said.
“Yes.”
“You used to count every dollar twice.”
“I was poor.”
“You’re still cheap.”
I almost smiled.
We walked silently.
Then she stopped.
“Nico.”
I knew the conversation.
“What are we?”
There it was.
Twelve years.
A child.
Love.
Betrayal.
Memory.
Time.
“I don’t know.”
She nodded.
“I don’t either.”
“I loved you.”
“Past tense?”
I looked at her.
“No.”
Her eyes filled.
“That scares me.”
“Good.”
She laughed softly.
“Still terrible at romance.”
“Never claimed otherwise.”
She looked toward the house.
“Sofia needs stability.”
“Yes.”
“She loves Gabriel.”
“I know.”
“You cannot resent him for that.”
“I don’t.”
That surprised her.
“He raised her,” I said. “He protected her when I couldn’t.”
“You didn’t know.”
“Doesn’t change what he did.”
Elena touched my hand.
“For years, I hated him.”
“You had reasons.”
“Bad reasons.”
“Still reasons.”
We stood beneath bare trees.
“Can we become a family?” she asked.
I looked at the ruined estate.
“Not the old kind.”
“What kind then?”
“The kind that survives the truth.”
She smiled.
“I’d like that.”
A scream came from the house.
“Sofia.”
We ran.
Inside, Bear barked furiously near the kitchen door.
Sofia stood frozen.
On the floor lay a package.
No return address.
Security had cleared all deliveries.
No one knew how it entered.
I pulled Sofia behind me.
Luca approached carefully.
He opened the box.
Inside was a red child’s mitten.
Sofia gasped.
“That’s mine.”
“From where?”
“Our house.”
Gabriel went pale.
She had lost one mitten during the attack.
Whoever sent it had been inside Gabriel’s safe house.
Beneath the mitten was a photograph.
A man standing beside Richard Bell two weeks before Bell’s death.
The second man was not Mercer.
Not Matteo.
Not Daniel.
Not anyone in our family.
But I knew him.
Everyone in organized crime knew him.
Arthur Vescari.
Head of the Vescari syndicate.
My father’s oldest enemy.
A man believed to have died in Sicily fifteen years ago.
Apparently death had become optional in our lives.
On the back of the photograph were six words.
THE MORETTIS NEVER OWNED THIS WAR.
Gabriel stared at me.
“Vescari.”
Maria entered the room.
When she saw the photograph, her coffee cup slipped from her hand and shattered.
For the first time since her return, she looked genuinely terrified.
“No.”
I turned.
“You know what this means.”
Maria stepped backward.
“We need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Now.”
“Mother.”
She looked at Sofia.
“Arthur Vescari doesn’t want her money.”
“What does he want?”
Maria’s voice dropped.
“Revenge.”
“For what?”
She stared at me.
Then at Matteo.
Then Elena.
Finally Sofia.
“Because Richard Bell ordered the murder of Arthur’s wife and son thirty years ago.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“And?”
Maria whispered,
“I was the one who carried it out.”
Sofia looked at her grandmother.
Everyone else looked toward the windows.
Outside, dark vehicles appeared beyond the gates.
Not police.
Not ours.
Ten.
Then fifteen.
Luca checked his rifle.
“Company.”
Maria closed her eyes.
“Arthur found us.”
I looked at Sofia.
“Basement. Now.”
She grabbed Bear.
“No.”
“Sofia.”
“I’m not hiding alone.”
“You won’t be alone.”
Gabriel stepped beside her.
“Come on.”
She hesitated.
Then wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Come back.”
I kissed the top of her head.
“I always will.”
As Gabriel led her away, I stood beside Luca, Elena, Maria, and even Matteo.
For the first time, the remaining Morettis faced an enemy together.
Headlights filled the windows.
A loudspeaker activated outside.
Arthur Vescari’s voice carried through the snow.
“Nicolas Moretti.”
I loaded my pistol.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
I stepped onto the ruined front porch.
“What?”
Arthur answered.
May you like
“The girl.”
And the first bullet shattered the window beside my head.
