Chapter 9 - THE STORY GREGORY CHOSE
Sofia returned to Gregory.
This time Thomas came with her.
Gregory saw his father through the open doorway.
Then stopped breathing.
Thomas looked at his son.
“Hello, Greg.”
Gregory stood.
One bodyguard immediately moved.
Sofia lifted a hand.
Gregory did not approach.
He simply stared.
Fifteen years of imagined death stood twenty feet away.
“You look old.”
Thomas almost smiled.
“So do you.”
Gregory’s face twisted.
“Where were you?”
“Alive.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
Thomas stepped into the room.
Gregory backed away.
That surprised everyone.
“You left me.”
“Yes.”
“Because of him?”
He pointed toward Lorenzo.
Thomas shook his head.
“Because I was afraid.”
Gregory stared.
“Cesare threatened you?”
“Yes.”
“And you believed him.”
“Yes.”
“You could have come back.”
“Yes.”
Each answer removed another place to hide.
Gregory’s anger rose.
“You let me think you were dead.”
Thomas’s face tightened.
“I sent messages.”
“One.”
“More than one.”
Gregory froze.
“What?”
Thomas had written through mutual friends.
Sent birthday cards without return addresses.
Asked Gregory’s mother, Elaine, to pass messages.
She did not.
Gregory stared.
“My mother said you never contacted her.”
Thomas looked sad.
“She lied.”
Another dead parent.
Another complicated truth.
Elaine Vale died six years earlier.
She had spent nine years raising Gregory alone.
Thomas believed she hid his messages because she feared Cesare would notice contact.
Maybe.
Maybe resentment played a role.
Nobody could ask her now.
Sofia watched Gregory.
His face moved between rage and grief.
Then Thomas said:
“But she did give you one.”
Gregory went still.
Seven years earlier.
The Philadelphia meeting.
The only time father and son saw each other.
Thomas had told Gregory immediately:
“Lorenzo didn’t kill me.”
Gregory left twenty minutes later.
Thomas called after him.
Gregory kept walking.
Sofia spoke.
“You had the truth.”
Gregory turned.
“No.”
“You had the beginning.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“It was enough to stop and listen.”
Silence.
Gregory looked away.
Thomas continued.
Then three weeks before the wedding, Thomas found Gregory again from a distance.
He saw the engagement announcement.
He panicked.
Not because Sofia was a Caruso.
Because he knew Cesare had once fed Gregory hatred toward her family.
Thomas sent the flower message.
Gregory destroyed it.
Another exit ignored.
Lorenzo entered.
Gregory’s body tightened.
Thomas saw.
“Stop.”
Gregory looked toward him.
Thomas continued.
“You’ve spent half your life making Lorenzo the wall between you and every choice you regret.”
Gregory stared at his father.
“He failed people.”
“Yes.”
“He believed Cesare.”
“Yes.”
“He wanted you hunted.”
“Yes.”
Lorenzo accepted every word.
Thomas stepped closer to his son.
“And none of that made you lock a door on Sofia.”
Gregory’s face collapsed.
For the first time, he had no answer at all.
Sofia stood.
She had heard enough.
Gregory looked at her.
“Is this the last time I see you?”
She considered.
“I don’t know.”
Hope moved across his face.
She stopped it.
“That is not a promise.”
He looked down.
“Understood.”
Then Thomas said something that made Lorenzo turn.
“There’s still one lie Cesare told all of us.”
“What?”
Thomas looked toward him.
“The fire.”
“You said it was an accident.”
“The beginning was.”
Lorenzo stared.
Thomas continued.
“The lamp fell by accident.”
Sofia felt cold.
“But?”
Thomas’s voice hardened.
“Cesare had time to get help.”
Silence.
“He didn’t.”
Lorenzo’s face changed.
Thomas explained.
There was a security alarm beside the back entrance.
Cesare reached it.
He could have triggered the estate response immediately.
Instead he spent several minutes searching Alessandra’s study.
“For what?” Sofia whispered.
Thomas looked toward the cedar box.
“For those pages.”
May you like
Cesare did not start the fire.
But while Alessandra was trapped inside, he chose the family secret over the fastest possible rescue.
