Chapter 6 - The Father Who Never Died
The first shot struck the glass above the conservatory door.
Elena screamed and dropped behind a stone planter. I pulled her down beside me as another round shattered a pane overhead. Glass rained across the tiles.
"Stay down!" I shouted.
I reached for my weapon, but my security detail had been left outside the locked doors. The conservatory had no second entrance except the narrow storage passage behind us.
Marcus's voice came through the speakers again.
"Dante, don't make this worse. We only want to talk."
"Then open the door."
"Not until you've listened."
A panel beside the entrance clicked, and a monitor lit up.
My father appeared on the screen.
He looked older, his hair almost completely gray, but the face was unmistakable. The deep crease between his brows. The hard eyes. The mouth that had taught me to fear disappointment more than punishment.
For a moment, I was nineteen again, standing in his office while he explained that a Moretti never begged and never forgave weakness.
"Dante," he said. "You've become a powerful man."
I stared at the screen.
"You're supposed to be dead."
"I had to disappear."
"You let me bury you."
"I did what was necessary."
"Who was in the coffin?"
His expression barely changed.
"Someone whose death was already inevitable."
The casual cruelty of the answer made my stomach turn.
"Did you kill that woman?"
"Don't be sentimental. Sentiment is what got Elena into trouble."
Elena covered her mouth.
I stepped toward the monitor.
"You used my grief to control me."
"I used your grief to keep you focused. The family survived because you believed there was nothing left to lose."
"That isn't survival. It's manipulation."
"Call it whatever you like. You're alive. The business is thriving. Our enemies have been kept at bay."
"Until tonight."
His gaze sharpened.
"Tonight is a correction. Marcus has been patient for years. You have made decisions that weaken everything I built."
"Like refusing to let you use our businesses to launder money?"
"Like forgetting who made you."
The words landed with the familiar force of a childhood slap.
I had spent my entire life trying to prove I could stand without him. Even after his supposed death, I had measured every decision against the standards he'd left behind.
Now I understood that he'd never stopped holding the measuring stick.
"You don't get to tell me what I owe you," I said.
My father leaned closer to the camera.
"You owe me the family."
"No. I owe the family the truth."
For the first time, his expression changed.
The screen went black.
A loud metallic crash sounded behind the wall. Elena pointed toward the storage alcove.
"There's a maintenance tunnel. It connects to the old wine cellar."
"How do you know?"
"I used it the night I escaped."
We crawled through the narrow passage as the gunfire stopped. The tunnel smelled of damp earth and rust. I followed Elena down a short flight of stairs until we reached a wooden door.
On the other side was the old wine cellar.
I pushed it open.
Victor stood near the racks with four armed guards.
He aimed at me for half a second before recognizing my face.
"Boss!"
"Where's Marcus?"
"He's not here. We tracked a signal to the conservatory, but the security feeds went dark again."
I gave Victor the flash drive and told him to secure Elena.
"Get this to an independent investigator. Not one of our lawyers. Not one of the accountants. Someone outside the family."
Victor nodded, then hesitated.
"There's something else. We found a vehicle abandoned near the north gate. The driver was carrying a child's backpack."
Elena went pale.
"Lily."
I turned to her.
"Marcus's daughter?"
She nodded.
"Was anyone inside?"
"No. But there was a note."
Victor handed it to me.
The message was written in block letters.
BRING THE RECORDS TO THE OLD RAIL YARD. COME ALONE.
Below it was a photograph of a little girl with dark curls and a red coat.
On the back, someone had written another sentence.
SHE HAS YOUR MOTHER'S EYES.
I stared at the photograph.
The resemblance was striking. The same wide-set eyes, the same small dimple on the left cheek. But there was something else: a tiny silver bird pendant around the girl's neck.
The matching pendant had belonged to Elena.
"Why would Lily have this?" I asked.
Elena took the photograph with trembling fingers.
"Because Marcus told me the child was adopted."
"Adopted by whom?"
"I never knew."
I looked at the image again.
The little girl was holding a stuffed rabbit with one ear missing.
Suddenly, Elena began to cry.
"Dante, I think she's mine."
I couldn't speak.
She explained that years earlier, while hiding from Marcus, she'd given birth to a daughter. She had been told the baby died shortly after delivery. No body had been shown to her. No medical records had ever been provided.
Marcus had promised to investigate, then disappeared.
Now his daughter was wearing Elena's pendant.
"Why would he raise your child?" I asked.
"Because she was leverage. Because he knew I would do anything to protect her if I ever found out."
I looked toward Victor.
"How long until the authorities arrive?"
"Ten minutes, maybe less."
"Then we don't have ten minutes."
Victor stepped forward.
"Boss, you're not going to the rail yard alone."
"I said come alone. That's what the note demands."
"Which means it's a trap."
"Of course it's a trap."
I handed Victor the photograph.
"Get Elena somewhere safe. Keep the records moving. If I don't return, release everything to the authorities."
Elena grabbed my sleeve.
"Don't go. You don't know what he's capable of."
I looked at the woman I'd mourned for eleven years.
"I know exactly what he's capable of."
Then I turned toward the cellar exit.
Because for the first time in my life, I wasn't going to meet my father to ask for his approval.
I was going to meet him to end his control over us.
And when I stepped into the night, my phone buzzed with a final message.
It contained a live video of Lily sitting alone in a dark room.
A man leaned into the frame.
His face was hidden.
May you like
But his voice was unmistakable.
"Bring me the original records, Dante. Or the next person you bury will be a child."
