Chapter 5
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Luca stared at Margaret as though she had changed into a stranger.
“My mother was buried.”
“A coffin was buried.”
“I was there.”
“You were nine.”
“I saw her body.”
“You saw a woman after a house fire.”
Luca stepped backward.
Memories crashed through him.
Smoke.
Adults whispering.
His father refusing to let him approach the coffin.
A funeral director telling him the burns were severe.
Margaret holding his shoulders while he cried.
He looked at her now.
“You knew then?”
“No.”
“When did you find out?”
“Years later.”
“How many years?”
Margaret’s silence answered.
Luca turned away.
Elena touched his shoulder.
He flinched.
Not from her.
From the realization that nearly every foundation of his life might have been manufactured.
Benjamin studied the address on the phone.
“The Connecticut estate property is still registered to a holding company.”
Luca looked at him.
“I thought it was sold.”
“So did I.”
Samuel stood carefully.
“We shouldn’t go.”
Luca laughed bitterly.
“You told me my dead father hired you and now you’re giving travel advice?”
Samuel accepted the anger.
“If Vittorio invited you, it’s because he controls the environment.”
“Then we change the environment.”
Elena stepped in front of Luca.
“You are not taking Maya.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“I’m not staying here either.”
Samuel nodded.
“This house is compromised.”
Benjamin offered a solution.
“I have a private residence no one at Moretti knows about.”
Luca looked at Elena.
“Take Maya there.”
Maya immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“Maya.”
“You’re going to Grandpa.”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m coming.”
“No.”
“You wouldn’t know you could walk if I didn’t tell you.”
The words hit him.
Maya’s chin trembled.
“Everyone lied to you because they thought you wouldn’t notice. I noticed.”
Luca knelt.
“And because you noticed, I need you safe.”
“What if they lie again?”
“Then I remember what you taught me.”
She stared at him.
“What?”
“To question everything.”
Maya hugged him.
Luca closed his eyes.
For twelve years he had imagined walking with his daughter.
Now that he finally could, he was leaving her behind to confront a father who should have been dead.
An hour later, Elena and Maya departed with Benjamin and two officers cleared personally by a federal contact.
Luca remained with Samuel and Margaret.
He changed into simple clothes.
No suit.
No cane.
He wanted Vittorio to see exactly what Voss had failed to destroy.
Margaret watched him lace his shoes.
“You look like him.”
Luca didn’t look up.
“That’s not a compliment anymore.”
They traveled north in an unmarked vehicle.
During the drive, Samuel explained what little he knew.
Vittorio’s network still operated through layers of corporations.
Several senior Moretti executives had been secretly taking instructions for years.
Voss had become more powerful than intended.
“He was supposed to monitor your health,” Samuel said.
“He poisoned me.”
“I believe he changed the plan.”
“Why?”
“Control.”
Margaret looked out the window.
“Adrian got greedy.”
Luca turned toward her.
“And you?”
She looked back.
“I got afraid.”
“Of my father?”
“Of what happened to people who disappointed him.”
The old estate appeared shortly before sunset.
Luca stared through the windshield.
The mansion had never burned.
Not completely.
The stone exterior remained almost exactly as he remembered.
Lights glowed inside.
The front gates opened automatically.
Samuel slowed the car.
“This is wrong.”
Luca nodded.
“Yes.”
“No guards.”
“I noticed.”
They stopped at the entrance.
The front door opened.
An elderly woman stood inside.
Luca forgot how to breathe.
Her hair was silver now.
Her body frail.
But the eyes were unmistakable.
The same eyes he saw every morning in the mirror.
“Luca?”
His knees nearly failed.
The woman covered her mouth.
“My boy.”
Luca walked toward her.
Each step felt impossible.
She reached for him.
Before their hands touched, a man’s voice came from inside.
“Teresa.”
The woman froze.
Luca looked past her.
An older man stepped from the shadows.
Vittorio Moretti.
His father.
Alive.
Vittorio looked at Luca’s legs.
May you like
Then smiled.
“So Adrian finally failed me.”
