Chapter 9 - LUCA’S LAST SECRET
The photograph showed Luca standing beside Roman’s car.
The date was the night he died.
Roman stared at it until Sadie took his hand.
“Who left this?”
David checked the restaurant cameras.
The elderly man had entered alone.
Nobody recognized him.
But the envelope contained an address.
Roman wanted to go immediately.
Sadie insisted they wait until morning.
For once, he agreed.
The address led to a nursing home outside the city.
The elderly man was waiting in the garden.
“My name is Daniel Mercer.”
Roman recognized the surname.
“Mercer Cold Storage.”
Daniel nodded.
“I owned it before your father.”
He had known Luca.
More importantly, Luca had trusted him.
Daniel explained that on the night Luca died, Roman had been the original target.
Victor knew Roman was reckless.
Easy to provoke.
Victor planned to lure him to Pier Nine and kill him, making the death appear to be a gang dispute.
Luca discovered the plan.
So he went instead.
Roman stopped breathing.
“No.”
Daniel handed him a sealed letter.
“He knew what might happen.”
Roman’s hands shook.
“He traded himself for me?”
“He tried to expose Victor and save you simultaneously.”
Daniel’s eyes softened.
“He was your brother.”
Roman walked away.
Sadie found him behind the building.
He was crying.
“I spent years wishing I’d gone with him.”
“I know.”
“He died because of me.”
“No.”
Roman looked at her.
Sadie approached.
“He died making his own choice.”
“If I wasn’t—”
“No.”
She held his face.
“You don't get to turn his sacrifice into another reason to hate yourself.”
Roman closed his eyes.
“He wanted you alive.”
Sadie pressed her forehead against his.
“So live.”
Roman opened Luca’s final letter.
His brother wrote about childhood summers.
Their first fight.
Their father.
Their mother.
Then the final paragraph.
If you’re reading this, I probably failed to come home. Do not make my death the center of your life. Build something good. Love somebody without owning them. Have kids if you want them. Grow old. Become boring. Every ordinary day you get is a day the men who wanted us destroyed failed.
Roman could not finish aloud.
Sadie did.
They sat together beneath an oak tree.
For the first time, Roman grieved his brother without rage.
Not as a weapon.
Not as punishment.
Just grief.
That evening, Roman visited Carmine.
He showed him the letter.
Carmine read it silently.
Then the old man wept.
Father and son sat across from each other separated by prison glass.
Neither tried to hide it.
“I’m sorry,” Carmine said.
Roman nodded.
“I know.”
It was not forgiveness for everything.
It was enough for that day.
Roman and Sadie married six months later.
They did not use the Costa estate.
They did not hire celebrities.
They did not sell photographs.
They held the ceremony inside Harbor Logistics.
The workers decorated the loading dock with string lights.
Wooden pallets became tables.
David catered dinner.
Luis gave a disastrous speech.
Emily served as maid of honor.
Carmine received permission to attend under supervision.
Roman waited at the end of the makeshift aisle.
When Sadie appeared, he forgot every word he had rehearsed.
She reached him.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He laughed.
Their vows were simple.
Sadie promised not to let him bleed on expensive rugs.
Everyone laughed.
Roman promised to replace every chair he ever broke.
David shouted, “You still owe me one!”
More laughter.
Then Roman became serious.
“I can’t promise I’ll never be angry.”
Sadie squeezed his hands.
“I can’t promise I’ll never be afraid.”
His voice shook.
“But I promise neither one gets to decide who I am.”
Sadie’s eyes filled.
“And I promise I will never ask you to save me from myself.”
He smiled.
“But I might occasionally need instructions for the coffee machine.”
“You definitely do.”
They kissed.
Carmine applauded.
For one evening, there were no Costa enemies.
No crime family.
No secrets.
Only people.
Later, Roman found his father standing alone outside.
“You happy?” Carmine asked.
Roman looked through the warehouse doors.
Sadie was laughing with Emily.
“Yes.”
Carmine smiled.
“Good.”
He hugged his son.
When Carmine returned to prison that night, Roman did not feel abandoned.
He understood something Luca had tried to teach him.
People could leave without love disappearing.
Three months later, Sadie stood inside their bathroom staring at two pink lines.
Roman was downstairs attempting pancakes.
Smoke already filled the kitchen.
She walked down slowly.
Roman looked at her.
“What?”
Sadie held up the test.
Roman stared.
The spatula fell from his hand.
“Is that…”
“Yes.”
He sat down.
Sadie suddenly panicked.
“Say something.”
Roman looked up.
Tears filled his eyes.
“I’m going to be somebody’s father?”
Sadie laughed.
“Yes.”
Roman covered his face.
Then he stood and wrapped her carefully in his arms.
“I don’t know how.”
“Nobody does.”
“What if I’m like Carmine?”
“You won’t be.”
“How do you know?”
Sadie smiled.
“Because you’re already worried about it.”
Roman kissed her forehead.
Behind them, the pancakes began burning.
Neither noticed.
And upstairs, inside Roman’s desk, Luca’s letter waited.
One sentence now mattered more than all the others.
May you like
Grow old. Become boring.
Roman Costa was finally learning how.
