Chapter 9 - THE MOTHER WHO CAME BACK
Sarah read the line three times.
Delivery of Sarah confirmed.
"No."
Dante didn't speak.
"My mother didn't sell me."
"I didn't say she did."
"You thought it."
"I thought someone wants us to think she did."
Sarah looked at him.
That answer surprised her.
A week earlier, Dante Moretti would have put Elena in a locked room first and asked questions second.
Now he was questioning the evidence.
Isabella had changed him even after death.
His daughters had changed him.
Perhaps Sarah had too.
They confronted Elena together.
She looked at the transaction and closed her eyes.
"I wondered when you'd find it."
Sarah's heart sank.
"Tell me it's fake."
"It isn't."
"You took five million dollars?"
"Yes."
"From Salvatore?"
"Yes."
Sarah stepped backward.
Toby cursed.
Dante remained still.
"Why?"
Elena looked at her daughter.
"Because he believed I was delivering you."
Sarah laughed in disbelief.
"You did deliver me. I ended up here."
"Exactly where Isabella wanted you."
Silence.
Elena explained.
For years she had been searching for a way to bring Salvatore out of hiding.
He eventually contacted her.
He knew Sarah existed.
He knew her legal claim could disrupt his plans for the Moretti businesses.
Elena pretended to cooperate.
She told Salvatore Sarah could be manipulated through Toby.
The fake debt forced Sarah to seek high-paying work.
Then Elena anonymously steered the employment agency toward Dante's household.
"You manufactured all of this?"
Sarah whispered.
"The job, yes."
"Toby being beaten?"
"No. Victor escalated it. That was never supposed to happen."
"You gambled with us."
"I know."
"You don't know anything!"
Sarah's voice cracked.
"You disappeared when I was nine. I buried an empty coffin. I raised Toby. I worked two jobs. I spent years thinking I wasn't worth staying for, and now you come back and tell me you've been moving us around like pieces on a chessboard?"
Elena cried silently.
Sarah didn't stop.
"You don't get to call that love."
"No."
The answer disarmed her.
Elena looked at her.
"I don't."
Sarah's eyes filled.
"I made choices for you because I was afraid. Isabella did the same thing with Dante. We told ourselves secrecy was protection."
She looked toward Dante.
"We were wrong."
Dante lowered his gaze.
Elena continued.
"Salvatore sent five million as proof of trust. I never touched it."
"Where is it?"
"In an account federal investigators control."
Dante frowned.
"You're working with them?"
"For seventeen years."
Arthur exhaled.
That explained witness protection.
Elena had never simply hidden.
She had been helping build a case against Salvatore Moretti.
"Then why isn't he arrested?" Toby asked.
"Because nobody knows where he is."
Dante looked toward the transaction.
"He'll contact you."
Elena nodded.
"He already did."
Sarah stiffened.
"When?"
"Ten minutes ago."
Elena placed a phone on the table.
A message displayed an address.
An abandoned Moretti family estate outside Lake Geneva.
COME ALONE. BRING SARAH.
"No," Dante said.
Elena looked at him.
"It's our chance."
"He's expecting a trap."
"Of course."
Sarah read the message.
"I'm going."
Three people said no simultaneously.
She looked at them.
"I am done being the person everybody protects by lying to her."
Dante studied her.
Then nodded.
Elena objected.
Dante raised a hand.
"She's right."
Sarah looked at him.
"You don't have to sound so surprised."
"I'm adjusting."
Despite everything, she almost smiled.
The plan was simple.
And therefore likely to go wrong.
Elena and Sarah would enter the estate.
Federal tactical teams would wait beyond the property.
Dante would remain with them.
At least officially.
Salvatore stood in the old library when Sarah entered.
He was seventy-six.
White-haired.
Elegant.
He looked disturbingly like Dante around the eyes.
"So," he said, "Gabriel's daughter."
Sarah held his gaze.
"So you're the grandfather everyone pretended was dead."
He smiled.
"You have his mouth."
"I hope that bothers you."
"It does."
Elena entered behind her.
Salvatore looked at her.
"You've aged."
"You haven't improved."
He laughed.
Then two armed men appeared.
"Phones."
They surrendered them.
Salvatore approached Sarah.
"You own something that belongs to me."
"I own fourteen dollars."
"Two hundred eighty-seven million, actually."
"I've had a busy week."
He almost smiled.
"I can see why Dante likes you."
Sarah's expression hardened.
"Leave his family alone."
"His family?"
Salvatore tilted his head.
"You mean our family."
"I don't consider you family."
His smile vanished.
"Blood doesn't care."
"No. People do."
Salvatore lifted his hand.
One guard brought Toby into the room.
Sarah's heart stopped.
"Toby?"
Her brother's face was bruised.
Again.
Elena whispered, "How?"
Salvatore smiled.
"You thought the boy was safe with federal agents?"
A second figure entered.
One of the agents.
Corrupt.
Elena closed her eyes.
Salvatore had infiltrated the operation.
Again.
"Sign the trust transfer," he told Sarah, "or your brother dies."
Sarah looked at the papers.
Then at Toby.
"Okay."
"No!" Toby shouted.
Sarah picked up the pen.
Salvatore smiled.
A gunshot shattered the window.
Lights went out.
Sarah dropped.
Chaos exploded.
She knew immediately who had done it.
Dante.
Salvatore screamed orders.
Elena tackled the nearest guard.
Toby kicked his chair backward.
Sarah crawled behind the desk.
Dante came through the side door with Arthur and federal tactical officers.
Salvatore grabbed Sarah.
His gun pressed against her temple.
"Back!"
Everyone stopped.
Dante raised his weapon.
Salvatore smiled.
"There you are, son."
"Let her go."
"You said that about Isabella too."
Dante's face changed.
Salvatore saw it and smiled wider.
"She begged me, you know."
Sarah felt Dante's restraint breaking.
Salvatore continued.
"She begged me to spare the twins."
Dante's gun trembled.
Sarah looked at him.
"Dante."
His eyes found hers.
"Don't become him."
Silence.
Salvatore's finger tightened.
Then Toby launched himself from the floor and hit Salvatore's knee.
Sarah twisted away.
Dante fired.
The bullet struck Salvatore's gun hand.
Federal agents swarmed him.
Within seconds, Salvatore Moretti was on the floor in handcuffs.
Dante stood above his father.
Salvatore looked up.
"You're weak."
Dante lowered his weapon.
"No."
He looked toward Sarah.
Then toward Toby and Elena.
Then he thought about his daughters waiting at home.
May you like
"I finally have something stronger than fear."
He walked away.
