Chapter 10 - THE LAST WAR OF GIOVANNI MORETTI
Lorenzo wanted Nora moved immediately.
She refused immediately.
“We’re not doing this again.”
“There is a direct threat against you.”
“I understand English.”
“You are going somewhere secure.”
“I am already inside a hospital with police downstairs.”
“Nora.”
“Lorenzo.”
Matteo quietly left the room.
Lorenzo glared after him.
“Coward.”
Nora almost smiled.
Then she held up the photograph Marco had sent.
“I am tired of men deciding where I go because another man threatened me.”
“This is different.”
“Why?”
“Because I know what Marco Bellanti does to people.”
“And I know what fear does.”
Lorenzo stopped.
Nora continued.
“It made Brody disappear. It made Giovanni hide the fact that he was conscious. It made your father send you away. It made you stay in Manhattan for years because you thought distance was protection.”
She stepped closer.
“I am not going to live my entire life being moved from safe house to safe house because someone terrible might come looking for me.”
Lorenzo's voice lowered.
“What do you want?”
“A plan that involves me knowing what is happening.”
He stared.
Then nodded.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“You're right.”
She blinked.
“That was disturbingly easy.”
“I’m evolving.”
“Don't overdo it.”
The plan came from Giovanni.
When Lorenzo returned to the estate, his father had already studied the threat.
Using his communication board, he spelled:
MARCO WANTS POWER MORE THAN CARD.
Lorenzo frowned.
“He wants the ledger destroyed.”
NO.
“Then what?”
ME.
Silence.
Giovanni explained slowly.
Marco Bellanti had hated Giovanni for decades.
Before the stroke, their families had maintained a violent balance.
Giovanni controlled several ports and construction unions.
Bellanti controlled gambling and distribution routes.
Neither could destroy the other without attracting overwhelming government attention.
When Giovanni decided to dismantle the criminal operations, Marco saw weakness.
Antonio became his path inside.
But even after the stroke, Marco never gained what he wanted most.
Public proof that Giovanni Moretti had been defeated.
Lorenzo stared at his father.
“You think he'll come for you.”
YES.
“No.”
Giovanni moved one finger.
Lorenzo laughed bitterly.
“Absolutely not.”
The board:
MY PLAN.
“You spent five years trapped in a chair. You're not bait.”
Giovanni’s eyes hardened.
Nora stood near the doorway.
“He's not asking permission.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“This is not helping.”
Giovanni pointed at Nora.
SMART GIRL.
Nora smiled.
“Thank you.”
Lorenzo looked betrayed.
The plan was dangerous.
But it involved law enforcement.
For once, Giovanni Moretti intended to end a Mafia war without more bodies.
The ledger evidence had already been copied.
Marco was told the original card remained at the Moretti estate.
An anonymous message claimed Giovanni wanted to exchange it personally for peace.
Nobody expected Marco to trust the offer.
They expected arrogance to make him investigate.
It did.
Two nights later, a car approached the estate.
One car.
Three men.
Marco Bellanti was in the back seat.
He was sixty-five.
Silver hair.
Heavy coat.
Nothing about him looked extraordinary.
Nora watched security footage from an upstairs room with Lily asleep in a portable bassinet beside her.
Lorenzo had wanted her nowhere near the property.
She had compromised by staying in the secured residential wing.
Giovanni waited in the library.
Communication board on his lap.
Lorenzo stood behind him.
Hidden microphones transmitted everything to investigators monitoring from another building on the grounds.
Marco entered.
He looked at Giovanni.
Then laughed.
“So the corpse lives.”
Giovanni's finger moved across the board.
The computerized voice read:
DISAPPOINTED?
Marco's smile vanished.
“You always were difficult.”
Giovanni responded:
YOU FAILED.
Marco sat.
“No. Your own brother finished you.”
The words cut Lorenzo.
Giovanni did not react.
Marco continued.
“You should have stayed in the old world, Giovanni. You wanted clean money. Respectability. Politicians smiling at you without envelopes beneath the table.”
He laughed.
“You thought your son could become a businessman.”
Giovanni selected letters.
HE WILL.
Marco looked at Lorenzo.
“Is that what you want now?”
Lorenzo replied, “Yes.”
“After everything your family built?”
“We built fear.”
Marco smiled.
“Fear is stronger than love.”
Giovanni typed:
NO.
Marco leaned toward him.
“You've spent five years in a chair and learned nothing.”
Giovanni stared directly at him.
Then typed:
I LEARNED WHO STAYED.
Marco frowned.
Giovanni continued.
NOT MEN I PAID.
NOT MEN I THREATENED.
He looked toward the ceiling.
Toward the room where Nora sat with Lily.
A POOR PREGNANT GIRL WITH NOTHING.
Lorenzo's throat tightened.
Giovanni typed:
SHE GAVE KINDNESS FREELY.
He looked at Marco.
THAT IS POWER YOU NEVER HAD.
Marco's face darkened.
“You think sentiment makes you strong?”
Giovanni answered:
IT MADE ME HUMAN AGAIN.
For a second, even Marco had no reply.
Then he reached inside his coat.
Lorenzo moved.
Marco froze.
“Relax.”
He slowly pulled out a phone.
On the screen was an image.
Nora stared at the security monitor.
Her heart stopped.
The image showed the hospital parking lot from earlier that week.
Then another.
Her townhouse.
Then another.
Daniel?
No.
Wrong story—Nora blinked, shaken by the photographs.
Marco had surveillance on every place she had visited.
He looked at Lorenzo.
“You think police can watch every window forever?”
Lorenzo remained still.
Marco smiled.
“Give me the card.”
“No.”
“Then the girl will spend the rest of her life looking behind her.”
A voice came from the doorway.
“No, she won’t.”
Nora.
Lorenzo turned sharply.
“What are you doing here?”
She had left Lily with the secured nurse upstairs.
Two state investigators stood out of sight behind the corridor wall.
Marco stared at her.
Nora entered.
“You're Nora.”
“Yes.”
“The maid.”
“Former maid.”
Marco smiled.
“You caused quite a problem.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“People like you caused it years before I arrived.”
His smile faded.
Nora continued.
“You keep assuming the ledger is the thing protecting me.”
“It is.”
“No.”
She held up her phone.
“The ledger is already with prosecutors.”
Marco’s face changed.
“Copies exist in multiple places.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
Lorenzo stared at Nora.
She had not rehearsed this part.
Marco stood.
“Then why invite me here?”
Giovanni answered through the board.
TO HEAR YOU CONFESS.
Marco froze.
Police entered from both corridors.
“Marco Bellanti, don't move.”
For one second, the old Mafia boss looked almost amused.
Then he realized the microphones.
The cameras.
The witnesses.
His face collapsed.
“You brought police into your father's house,” he said to Lorenzo.
Lorenzo looked at Giovanni.
“My father asked me to.”
Giovanni moved one finger.
Yes.
Marco was arrested.
No shootout.
No massacre.
No bodies on marble floors.
Just handcuffs.
Evidence.
A war that had lasted decades ended with Giovanni Moretti sitting in a wheelchair beside the son he had once tried to protect from becoming him.
After Marco was taken away, Lorenzo turned on Nora.
“You were supposed to stay upstairs.”
“I improved the plan.”
“You walked into a room with Marco Bellanti.”
“Police were ten feet away.”
“You could have been killed.”
“So could you.”
“That is different.”
Nora crossed her arms.
“Careful.”
Lorenzo stared at her.
Then he laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because he had lost.
“You are impossible.”
“Yes.”
Giovanni made a rough vocal sound.
They turned.
He forced two broken words.
“Mar… ry… her.”
Silence.
Nora's mouth fell open.
Lorenzo stared at his father.
Giovanni's eyes gleamed.
Nora's face burned.
“Giovanni!”
He laughed.
Actually laughed.
Weak.
Broken.
But unmistakable.
Lorenzo looked at Nora.
She pointed at him.
“Don't even think about it.”
“I didn't say anything.”
“Your face did.”
His mouth curved.
For the first time, Nora saw what Lorenzo Moretti might look like if he stopped carrying the entire world like a weapon.
Then the phone in her pocket rang.
Matteo.
“Nora?”
“Yes?”
“We have Brody.”
Her smile disappeared.
“What does that mean?”
“He came voluntarily.”
“Where?”
“Outside the estate.”
Nora stared at Lorenzo.
After months of secrets, abandonment, threats, and lies, the father of her child had finally returned.
May you like
And Nora had no idea whether she wanted to hug him—
or tell him never to come near Lily again.
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