Chapter 12 - ADRIAN’S LAST NIGHT
The morning before the meeting, Anthony found a man waiting near the estate gate.
Seventy years old.
Thin.
Dark coat.
Burn scars covering one side of his neck.
Not Rocco.
He gave his name as Father Michael Crane.
He had once served as priest at the Moretti chapel.
Sebastian remembered him.
Barely.
Michael refused to enter.
“I came because Adrian asked me.”
Sebastian’s chest tightened.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Alive.
Again.
“Where?”
“I won’t tell you.”
Sebastian stepped closer.
Michael did not move.
“He may still be there.”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Rocco came afterward.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened.
“What did Adrian say?”
Michael looked toward the windows.
“First, he asked about Leo.”
Of course.
“Then Nicholas.”
Sebastian glanced toward the house where his newly discovered son remained under guard.
“What else?”
“He asked whether you had become kinder.”
Sebastian almost laughed.
“That sounds like Adrian.”
“I told him no.”
The old priest smiled faintly.
“Then I told him less cruel.”
Sebastian looked away.
Michael continued:
“He said that might be enough.”
“For what?”
“To end the cycle.”
Sebastian’s expression hardened.
“Everyone keeps saying cycle.”
“Because your family keeps repeating one.”
“Fear.”
“Yes.”
Michael looked at him.
“Your grandfather used it on Vittorio.”
“Vittorio used it on you.”
“You used it on Adrian.”
“Helena used it on Chad.”
“Chad used it on Leo.”
Sebastian felt each name land.
“Adrian believed Leo had to be the first Moretti boy raised without being taught that fear equals respect.”
Sebastian looked toward the house.
“That was his plan?”
“Part of it.”
“What else?”
Michael took a small object from his coat.
Adrian’s family signet ring.
Sebastian stared.
The ring supposedly recovered from the burned car had been buried in the empty coffin.
This was Adrian’s second ring.
Simpler.
Private.
Leo’s birthdate engraved inside.
“He gave me this.”
“Why?”
“He said you would know he was alive when you saw it.”
Sebastian closed his fist around it.
“Why not come home?”
Michael’s face darkened.
“Because he believed the Shadow had moved into your council.”
“Rocco?”
“No.”
Sebastian froze.
“Then who?”
“He would not tell me.”
“Why?”
“He said names were dangerous until he knew whether you could resist killing first.”
Sebastian felt anger.
Then stopped.
Adrian knew him.
Too well.
Michael continued:
“He was building a way to expose the person without starting an internal war.”
“What way?”
“Tonight.”
Sebastian stared.
“The first Moretti house.”
“Yes.”
“Rocco’s meeting.”
Michael nodded.
“Adrian arranged it.”
Silence.
Sebastian felt the floor shift.
“Rocco thinks he arranged it.”
“Yes.”
“Helena thinks Rocco did.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Adrian needed everyone who had lied to gather in one place.”
Sebastian almost smiled.
His brother.
Still manipulating rooms.
But for truth rather than power.
“Will Adrian be there?”
Michael’s expression became sad.
“I don’t know.”
“What happened three months ago?”
“Rocco found him.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Fight?”
“I heard one shot.”
Sebastian stopped.
“Then?”
“Adrian disappeared.”
“Blood?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Enough to frighten me.”
Not enough to confirm death.
Again uncertainty.
Michael stepped closer.
“Sebastian.”
“What?”
“Adrian told me something about your father.”
Sebastian sighed.
“What now?”
“Vittorio did not create your council.”
“I know.”
“He did not inherit it either.”
Sebastian frowned.
“What?”
“He stole it.”
“From who?”
Michael looked toward Nicholas through the window.
“Rebecca’s family.”
Sebastian stared.
The mother of his hidden son.
“What are you saying?”
“The Morettis were not the original family behind the fifth seat.”
“Then who?”
Michael’s answer came softly.
“The Hales.”
Helena’s maiden family.
Rebecca Hale.
Chad’s maternal line.
Branches tangled.
Sebastian felt another pattern.
Helena had more claim to the old system than he did.
Michael continued:
“Rocco wants you staring at Moretti blood.”
“Adrian wanted you to ask who benefits when every Moretti man fights over the Moretti name.”
Sebastian understood.
Someone outside the male line.
Someone close.
Someone overlooked.
Then Michael said:
“Your brother’s last words to me were, ‘Tell Sebastian the Shadow never wanted his chair.’”
“What did it want?”
May you like
Michael looked toward Leo’s nursery window.
“His family.”
