Chapter 7 - The Secret Our Families Buried
My father finally told me the truth.
Thirty years earlier, my mother had worked as a seamstress for the Moretti family.
She had fallen in love with Noah's father.
But the Moretti organization had been involved in a violent feud.
My mother discovered that Noah's father planned to leave the business.
Someone killed him before he could.
My mother witnessed it.
She ran.
My father helped her disappear.
But years later, she was found.
She died protecting me.
I couldn't breathe.
Noah arrived that evening.
I told him everything.
He listened.
His face became unreadable.
"My father killed your mother?"
"No."
"Someone in his organization did."
He looked at my father.
"Who?"
My father shook his head.
"I never knew."
Noah spent the night investigating.
The next morning, he found the answer.
Vincent's father.
The same family that had been fighting the Morettis for decades.
But there was more.
Vincent had known.
He had used the secret to manipulate Noah.
He wanted Noah unstable.
Distracted.
Angry.
Noah confronted him.
I begged him not to kill him.
He listened.
Instead, Noah turned over the evidence to federal investigators.
Vincent was arrested.
Noah came home exhausted.
I wrapped my arms around him.
"You chose me."
He nodded.
"I always will."
He kissed my forehead.
"I spent my life believing power meant making people afraid."
"And now?"
May you like
He looked at me.
"Now I think power means having something worth protecting."
