Chapter 8 - MATTEO’S VOICE
The locker contained one cassette recorder.
One photograph.
One revolver with no ammunition.
And a note:
FOR JAVIER. WITH DANTE PRESENT.
Javier looked at Dante.
“My father knew we’d be together.”
“Or hoped.”
They played the tape.
Static.
Then Matteo Romano’s voice.
Older.
Roughened.
Javier stopped breathing.
“Son.”
One word.
Thirty-seven years collapsed.
Javier sat.
Dante remained standing.
Matteo continued:
“If you hear this, then either I failed to come home or you finally learned I did not die in the fire.”
Javier closed his eyes.
“I need you to hear something before anger chooses for you.”
Dante looked toward him.
Matteo continued:
“Dante betrayed me.”
Javier opened his eyes.
Dante did not move.
“He chose Enzo when I asked him to choose truth.”
Silence.
“But he did not order the fire.”
Javier’s jaw tightened.
“He did not know Enzo would kill me.”
Dante exhaled slowly.
“I blamed him anyway.”
Javier stared at the recorder.
“Because blaming a younger man was easier than admitting I spent years obeying his father.”
The parallel was brutal.
Javier’s face changed.
“I helped make Dante what he became.”
Dante looked down.
Matteo continued:
“When Gabriel died, I stayed.”
“When Enzo broke Dante into obedience, I stayed.”
“When Javier was born, I finally found courage because fear had reached my own son.”
A pause.
“That made me a hypocrite.”
Javier’s eyes filled.
Dante understood.
Parents often discovered morality only when danger crossed their own doorstep.
It did not erase earlier silence.
“I tried to take Javier away.”
“Teresa refused.”
Javier whispered, “Mom…”
“She believed running would make us prey forever.”
“She was probably right.”
“Then I tried to remove Enzo.”
There.
The internal war.
“Dante stopped me at St. Agnes.”
Dante remembered.
Matteo had reached for Enzo.
Dante had put a gun against his uncle’s chest.
Twenty-eight years old.
Loyal.
Certain.
Enzo stood behind him smiling.
Matteo said:
“One day you’ll understand who you’re protecting.”
Dante thought he meant himself.
Now he knew better.
The tape continued:
“I hated Dante for years.”
Javier looked at him.
“Then I watched him become father to Leo.”
Dante froze.
Leo had been born ten years ago.
Matteo had been watching recently.
“He changed.”
“Slowly.”
“Not enough.”
Dante almost smiled at the dead man’s honesty.
“But enough that Enzo would have despised him.”
That felt strangely like praise.
Javier leaned closer.
Matteo continued:
“If Nico returns, do not let him turn you against Dante.”
There it was.
“Nico believes Enzo stole everything from him.”
“He is not wrong.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“But he has decided every Romano child must pay for Enzo’s sins.”
Javier looked toward Dante.
“Leo.”
“Yes.”
Matteo’s voice lowered.
“Nico does not want the family.”
“He wants the boys.”
“Javier.”
“Leo.”
“Any son born after.”
“He wants to teach them what Enzo taught us.”
Dante’s jaw clenched.
Fear.
Obedience.
Violence.
Inheritance.
“He calls it purification.”
Javier muttered, “Insane.”
Matteo answered from decades away:
“Do not underestimate a man simply because his grievance has made him insane.”
The tape continued.
“Nico has one weakness.”
“He wants to be recognized.”
Dante understood.
The bastard son denied a name.
Denied a seat.
Denied father.
Recognition could become hunger.
“He will come to Dante publicly.”
“Not to kill him.”
“To make him name Nico Romano before witnesses.”
Javier frowned.
“Why?”
Matteo answered:
“Because in Nico’s mind, being acknowledged by Dante makes him legitimate.”
The tape clicked.
Then continued:
“If he gets that recognition, he will ask for something else.”
A pause.
“Leo.”
Dante went completely still.
“He believes the next Romano son belongs to the man who understands fear.”
The tape ended.
Javier stared.
“He wants your son.”
Dante’s answer was immediate.
“No.”
Anthony picked up the photograph.
It showed Matteo older.
Taken less than a year earlier.
Standing beside another man.
Face partly hidden.
Dante looked closer.
Nico?
Maybe.
Then Javier noticed the background.
“That’s your estate.”
Dante felt cold.
The photograph had been taken from inside the property.
Not outside.
Matteo had been there.
Recently.
And whoever photographed him had access to Dante’s home.
Anthony turned the image.
One line:
THE GATE IS ALREADY OPEN.
Dante looked at Anthony.
May you like
His security chief understood.
Someone inside the estate belonged to Nico.
