Chapter 7 - The House Without Windows
The address led to an abandoned rehabilitation facility outside Richmond.
Paul’s network had used it as a transit site.
Federal agents should have handled it.
Vincent trusted too few of them.
So Elena contacted the one person her father’s recordings repeatedly described as honest: retired federal investigator Rebecca Shaw.
Rebecca listened.
Then she said, “Thomas Marlowe saved twenty-seven lives without ever knowing it.”
Elena cried after hearing that.
Not dramatically.
Just quietly, sitting inside Vincent’s car.
He didn’t tell her to stop.
He simply handed her a handkerchief.
“People still carry these?”
“My mother buys my clothes.”
Elena laughed through tears.
“There’s the terrifying Vincent Moretti.”
“I have never claimed control over Sofia Moretti.”
Rebecca organized a legitimate federal operation.
The facility was raided before dawn.
Seven victims were rescued.
And among them was Isabella Bellini.
Marco collapsed when he saw his daughter.
Vincent turned away, giving them privacy.
Elena stood beside him.
“You forgave him.”
“No.”
“You helped him.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“Maybe not.”
Her hand brushed his.
Neither moved away.
Then Rebecca approached.
“We found something.”
Paul had maintained records on everyone.
Including Vincent.
But the file revealed something unexpected.
Vincent’s father had discovered the trafficking network years earlier.
He had planned to expose it.
That was why he was murdered.
Thomas Marlowe had later discovered the same conspiracy independently.
Two fathers.
Two murders.
One enemy.
Vincent looked at Elena.
For the first time, neither of them stood alone inside their grief.
Then Rebecca delivered the final shock.
“Paul isn’t running the network.”
Vincent frowned.
“Who is?”
Rebecca placed a photograph on the hood of the car.
Sofia Moretti stood beside a distinguished Baltimore judge.
Elena recognized him from television.
Judge Arthur Vance.
Rebecca said, “Paul answers to him.”
Vincent stared at the photograph.
May you like
Vance had been his father’s closest friend.
And Vincent’s godfather.
