Chapter 8 - THE ENEMY WE NEVER SAW
Michael arrived seven minutes after I called.
He read the message once.
Then again.
“Pack a bag.”
“No.”
“Aurora.”
“We tried hiding.”
“This is different.”
“It always is.”
He looked ready to argue.
I held up the photograph.
“Whoever sent this knows where I live. Running just proves they control where we go.”
He hated that I was right.
The federal investigation had uncovered payments to someone identified only as “R.”
For years, investigators assumed R meant Regina.
It didn’t.
A second ledger proved Regina had been receiving orders too.
The actual organizer was Richard Vale, a respected property developer whose company owned half a dozen buildings tied to Tony’s operation.
Including Bellarosa.
The restaurant where Zach and I had met.
“That wasn’t random,” I whispered.
Michael looked at the documents.
“What?”
“Bellarosa.”
I remembered Regina forcing me toward the restaurant.
Tony’s men outside.
Zach somehow appearing inside.
“What if someone wanted me there?”
Michael’s expression changed.
We checked security footage.
And found something impossible.
Twenty minutes before I entered Bellarosa, Richard Vale had been there.
He met with Regina.
Then left.
An hour later, Michael arrived searching for Zach.
Someone had known Michael’s son was missing.
Someone had put us all in the same place.
But why?
The answer arrived through an old recording on my father’s flash drive.
Richard Vale’s voice.
He and Tony had built their empire together.
My father had discovered it.
Matteo Moretti had discovered part of it too.
Then Matteo died.
Officially, a heart attack.
Michael listened to the recording without moving.
“My father was murdered.”
The words came quietly.
Now everything was personal.
But instead of going after Vale himself, Michael did something I never expected.
He turned everything over to federal investigators.
“All of it?” I asked.
“All.”
“That must be difficult.”
He smiled without humor.
“My younger self would’ve handled this differently.”
“How?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Probably not.”
He looked at me.
“I have Zach now.”
Then his gaze softened.
“And you.”
Richard Vale was arrested forty-eight hours later.
His empire collapsed quickly once accountants began following the money.
Tony cooperated to reduce his sentence.
Regina tried the same.
Neither escaped prosecution.
Months of fear ended not with gunfire, but with court documents, frozen accounts and handcuffs.
The night Vale was charged, Michael came to my apartment.
No security entourage.
No expensive suit.
Jeans.
Black sweater.
Pizza.
I stared.
“Who are you?”
“I was told normal people bring food.”
“Who told you?”
“Teresa.”
“Smart woman.”
We ate on my couch.
Then Michael became serious.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“Aurora.”
“Sorry.”
He took my hand.
“I spent years believing protection meant controlling every variable.”
“That sounds like you.”
“I was wrong.”
I stared at him.
He continued.
“I don’t want you in my house because you need protection.”
My heart began pounding.
“I want you there because when you’re gone, it doesn’t feel like home.”
I couldn’t speak.
He swallowed.
“I love you.”
There it was.
No orchestra.
No perfect speech.
Just Michael Moretti looking more frightened by three words than by armed men.
I touched his face.
“I love you too.”
He kissed me.
Then someone knocked.
Michael groaned.
I opened the door.
Zach stood there with Elias.
He wore a tiny suit.
Again.
And held the plastic diamond ring.
“Seriously?” Michael muttered.
Zach marched inside.
“I have an announcement.”
“Of course you do.”
He looked at me solemnly.
“Aurora, I think we need to break up.”
I gasped theatrically.
Michael covered his mouth.
“Why?”
Zach sighed.
“This relationship is complicated.”
“Understandable.”
“Also, I found someone better for you.”
He turned toward Michael.
My heart stopped.
Michael stared at his son.
May you like
Zach handed him the ring.
“Your turn.”
