Chapter 7 - THE MAN BEHIND BOTH FAMILIES
Chaos broke the terminal apart.
Dante grabbed Claire.
Marco tackled Sophia.
Adrian disappeared into the smoke.
Salvatore’s men fired toward an unknown attacker.
Dante pulled Claire behind a steel container.
“You hurt?”
“No.”
“Stay behind me.”
“I hate when you say that.”
“Complain later.”
They escaped through the southern loading bay.
Gabriel’s vehicles arrived.
Back at the estate, Lily was safe.
The “grandpa man” had vanished before security arrived.
But he left something behind.
A photograph.
Two young men.
Salvatore Moretti.
And another man.
Rafael Vescari.
Adrian and Michael’s father.
Officially dead twenty-six years.
Dante stared.
Claire whispered:
“Another fake death?”
Gabriel nodded.
The entire feud between the Moretti and Vescari families had begun after Rafael’s supposed murder.
Salvatore was blamed.
Retaliation followed.
Dozens of people died over twenty years.
But if Rafael never died…
Then the war itself might have been manufactured.
Marco entered with a bruised cheek.
Dante reached for his weapon.
“Explain.”
Marco lifted his hands.
“I was working for Salvatore.”
Claire stared.
Marco continued quickly.
“Because after he supposedly died, he contacted me.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“You knew he was alive.”
“Yes.”
“And didn’t tell me.”
“He threatened my wife.”
Dante stopped.
Marco’s wife had disappeared two years earlier.
Everyone believed she left him.
“She didn’t leave?”
“No.”
Salvatore had held her somewhere unknown.
Used her to control Marco.
The bomb under the car?
Marco had genuinely been trying to remove it.
The anonymous message came from Salvatore because Salvatore wanted Marco frightened and obedient.
But the device itself had been placed by Sophia under Rafael Vescari’s orders.
Different factions were now fighting each other.
Claire rubbed her temples.
“So who wants what?”
Gabriel answered.
“Salvatore wants Michael’s archive destroyed because it exposes his financial empire.”
“Adrian wants it because it gives him control over Salvatore.”
“Rafael?”
Dante looked at the old photograph.
“Rafael wants both families destroyed.”
Why?
Because decades earlier, Rafael and Salvatore had been partners.
They created illegal business networks together.
Then Salvatore tried to take control.
Rafael faked his death and used the resulting war to weaken both families.
Every retaliation enriched businesses secretly controlled by him.
He had been profiting from their hatred for twenty-six years.
Claire whispered:
“This is insane.”
Dante looked at her.
“It’s what happens when men inherit grudges instead of asking questions.”
The statement surprised Gabriel.
Maybe Dante was changing.
Michael’s archive contained references to Rafael.
Hidden shell companies.
Payments to both sides.
Claire found a file labeled:
ORIGIN.
It contained a recording Michael had obtained.
Rafael speaking.
“Let the Moretti boys believe we hate them. Let Dante grow angry. Angry men are easy to steer.”
Dante listened without reacting.
Then Rafael continued:
“One day he’ll become exactly like Salvatore.”
Dante shut off the recording.
Claire watched him.
“You’re not.”
He gave her a tired look.
“You don’t know everything I’ve done.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“But I know what you did today.”
“What?”
“You dropped your weapon for me.”
“That wasn’t difficult.”
“For a man like you?”
“It was the easiest decision I made all day.”
Claire’s breath caught.
Dante looked away first.
Gabriel cleared his throat loudly.
“Should I leave?”
“Yes,” Dante said.
“No,” Claire said simultaneously.
Gabriel smiled.
“Excellent.”
The moment vanished.
They needed Rafael.
The archive included one surviving company still making active payments.
Carraway Maritime.
An old shipping operation.
Dante traced it to a private harbor.
Then Lily walked into the office holding her stuffed rabbit.
“Mommy?”
Claire crouched.
“You should be asleep.”
“I had bad dream.”
Dante softened immediately.
Lily looked at his bruised hand.
“You got boo-boo.”
“I’m fine.”
She kissed his knuckles.
Every dangerous man in the room suddenly became interested in the floor.
Lily looked at the photograph of Rafael.
“That’s the grandpa man.”
Dante crouched.
“You saw him tonight?”
She nodded.
“What did he say?”
“He said he knew my daddy.”
Claire’s heart stopped.
“What else?”
“He gave me Bunny.”
Claire looked at the stuffed rabbit.
“That’s your rabbit.”
“No.”
Lily shook her head.
“My Bunny has blue bow.”
This rabbit had a red bow.
Claire grabbed it.
Dante sliced the stitching.
Inside was a tiny audio recorder.
Rafael’s voice played.
“Hello, Claire.”
Her skin crawled.
“Michael begged me to spare you.”
Claire stopped breathing.
Dante’s eyes turned black.
Rafael continued.
“I did.”
A pause.
“But Michael also made a promise before he died.”
Claire whispered:
“What promise?”
Rafael answered from the recording as if hearing her.
“He promised me that when Lily turned four, a second archive would automatically be released.”
Everyone went still.
Claire had never known.
Rafael continued.
“Your daughter turns four in six days.”
Dante looked at Lily.
“And when that happens, every secret I have spent twenty-six years protecting becomes public.”
Claire’s blood ran cold.
The message ended:
“Give me Lily before her birthday, and perhaps I allow you to keep breathing.”
Dante slowly stood.
“No.”
Claire looked at him.
His face had become terrifyingly calm.
“No one gives him Lily.”
Gabriel nodded.
Marco did too.
Claire held her daughter.
Dante looked around the room.
“For twenty-six years these men built power by making everyone afraid.”
He looked at Claire.
“At midnight on Lily’s birthday, we end it.”
“How?”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“We give Rafael exactly what he fears.”
“The archive?”
“No.”
Dante looked at the computer.
May you like
“The truth.”
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