Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT DANTE CHOSE HER SIDE
Dante arrived twenty minutes later.
He found Nora sitting on the kitchen floor.
The letter lay beside her.
He didn't ask questions immediately.
He sat down.
Waited.
After several minutes, Nora handed him the pages.
He read them carefully.
His expression darkened.
When he finished, he looked at her.
“We need to verify this.”
Nora nodded.
“I know.”
He hesitated.
“But if it's true—”
She looked up.
“If it's true, Vincenzo killed my mother.”
Dante said nothing.
Nora wiped her face.
“And your father protected him.”
Dante flinched.
She continued.
“Maybe not deliberately. Maybe he didn't know. But he helped build the world that let men like Vincenzo do whatever they wanted.”
Dante lowered his head.
“You're right.”
Nora stared.
She hadn't expected agreement.
Dante looked at her.
“I can't change what my family did.”
He paused.
“But I can decide what happens next.”
Nora swallowed.
“What are you going to do?”
“Give the evidence to investigators.”
She studied him.
“And if your father objects?”
Dante's expression hardened.
“Then he'll have to live with being disappointed.”
Nora looked down.
For the first time since reading the letter, she felt something other than grief.
Hope.
Dante reached toward her.
Then stopped.
“May I?”
Nora nodded.
He took her hand.
And for a long moment, they sat together on the kitchen floor.
May you like
Not as a Mafia boss and a waitress.
But as two people whose families had left them wounds they hadn't chosen.
