Chapter 7 - THE SECRET ISABELLA DIED PROTECTING
Dante stared at Marco.
"I've never met Sarah before this week."
"I didn't say you were her father."
"Then what are you saying?"
Marco looked at Arthur.
"The old man knows."
Arthur's face revealed enough.
Sarah stepped toward him.
"Tell me."
Arthur hesitated.
"Now."
"Your father was Gabriel Moretti."
Dante went completely still.
"My brother?"
Sarah stared between them.
Dante had never mentioned a brother.
Arthur continued.
"Gabriel was your father's eldest son."
Dante's voice was barely audible.
"He died when I was six."
"No."
Dante looked at him.
Arthur swallowed.
"Your father erased him."
The truth came in pieces.
Gabriel Moretti had been nineteen when he fell in love with Elena Marino.
Unlike the rest of the family, Gabriel wanted nothing to do with organized crime.
He planned to leave Chicago with Elena.
Then Elena witnessed Dante's father murder an informant.
Gabriel helped her escape.
His father considered it betrayal.
A staged boating accident erased Gabriel Moretti from the family.
But he survived.
Years later, he secretly reunited with Elena.
Sarah was born.
"Where is he?" Sarah asked.
Arthur looked down.
"He died protecting your mother."
Sarah's eyes filled.
"When?"
"When you were two."
"So I'm a Moretti."
"By blood."
Dante sat slowly.
Sarah was his niece.
The revelation explained Isabella's connection to Elena.
It explained why Isabella had protected Sarah's identity.
And it explained Victor's desperation.
Under an old family trust, descendants of Dante's father could claim shares in several legitimate Moretti companies.
Sarah had never known she owned anything.
Victor had.
"If Dante and the twins died," Arthur explained, "you would become the controlling beneficiary."
Sarah laughed bitterly.
"I have fourteen dollars in my checking account."
"You have approximately two hundred and eighty million dollars in an unclaimed trust."
Silence.
Toby would have laughed.
Sarah nearly did.
Instead she thought about her brother tied to a chair.
"I don't care about the money."
"Victor does," Dante said.
They went to Pier Seventeen.
Not recklessly.
Dante planned the operation with men he still trusted while federal agents quietly approached from the river side.
Sarah objected when she learned about the FBI.
Dante looked at her.
"This ends tonight. Not with another Moretti revenge killing. With evidence."
That surprised her.
"You're trusting the law?"
"I'm trusting Isabella."
At 11:58, Sarah and Dante entered the abandoned warehouse.
Victor waited beneath one hanging industrial lamp.
Toby sat tied to a chair.
Beside him was a woman in her late fifties.
Sarah stopped.
She knew her immediately.
Age could change a face.
It could not change a mother's eyes.
"Mom?"
Elena broke.
"Sarah."
Sarah took a step.
Victor raised his gun.
"No reunions yet."
Dante moved slightly in front of Sarah.
Victor smiled.
"My favorite nephew."
"You killed Isabella."
Victor shrugged.
"Isabella killed herself. She could have walked away."
"You put a bomb in her car."
"Details."
Dante's hand tightened.
Sarah whispered, "Don't."
Victor laughed.
"She controls you already."
Dante ignored him.
"Release them."
"The evidence."
"We don't have it."
Victor's smile faded.
"Then you've wasted my time."
Elena suddenly spoke.
"He has it."
Everyone looked at her.
Victor frowned.
"What?"
Elena stared at Dante.
"Isabella gave you the evidence."
Dante shook his head.
"No."
"Yes."
"When?"
"Your wedding day."
Victor stepped toward her.
"Explain."
Elena smiled.
"No."
Victor struck her.
Sarah lunged.
Dante caught her.
Elena looked back at them.
"The vows."
Dante froze.
"What about them?"
"Isabella changed one line."
Dante remembered.
At their wedding, Isabella had whispered something strange while sliding the ring onto his finger.
What we build in love, no darkness can inherit.
He had assumed it was poetry.
Elena said, "The ring."
Dante looked at his left hand.
He still wore it.
Three years after Isabella's death.
Always.
He pulled it off.
Inside the thick platinum band was a nearly invisible seam.
Victor saw it.
His gun rose.
The warehouse erupted.
Toby threw himself sideways.
Elena ducked.
Dante shoved Sarah behind a steel pillar as gunfire exploded from the upper walkway.
Federal agents entered from the river entrance.
Victor ran.
Dante chased him.
Sarah crawled toward Toby.
She cut his restraints.
"Mom!"
They reached Elena.
For the first time in nineteen years, Sarah touched her mother's face.
Elena sobbed.
"I'm sorry."
Sarah wanted to scream at her.
Hit her.
Hold her.
She settled for:
"You have a lot of explaining to do."
A gunshot echoed outside.
Sarah ran.
"Dante!"
She found him near the river.
Victor stood at the edge of the dock.
Dante had his gun aimed at his uncle.
Victor's weapon lay several feet away.
"Do it," Victor said.
Dante didn't move.
"You've wanted this for three years."
Dante's finger rested on the trigger.
Victor smiled.
"Be your father's son."
Dante looked at him.
Then lowered the gun.
"No."
Victor's smile disappeared.
"Isabella spent her life trying to keep my daughters from becoming this family."
Sirens approached.
Dante stepped backward.
"I'm not wasting her death by becoming you."
Victor suddenly lunged for the discarded gun.
Sarah screamed.
A shot cracked.
Victor collapsed.
Dante hadn't fired.
Elena stood behind them holding a weapon.
Her hands shook.
Victor stared at her.
Elena whispered:
"That was for both my sisters."
Victor fell into the dark water.
For several seconds nobody moved.
Then federal agents rushed past.
Sarah looked at Dante.
He opened his hand.
The wedding ring rested in his palm.
Inside it was a microfilm capsule.
Isabella's evidence.
Enough to destroy Victor's entire network.
Dante stared at the ring.
Then at the river.
"It's over."
Elena shook her head.
"No."
Dante looked at her.
"What?"
"Victor wasn't the person who ordered Isabella's death."
Dante's face changed.
May you like
Elena looked terrified.
"He was protecting the man who did."
