Chapter 7
Blackwood Farm had been empty for fifteen years.
That was the official version.
Vincent arrived with Emma and four bodyguards before dawn.
He did not bring Dominic.
Peter remained at the estate under watch.
Leo stayed with an older woman Vincent trusted.
Not family.
That distinction mattered now.
The farmhouse looked abandoned.
Peeling paint.
Dead vines.
Barn doors hanging crooked.
But smoke rose from one chimney.
Vincent entered without knocking.
A man sat at the kitchen table.
Late thirties.
Broad shoulders.
Dark sweater.
Scar along his jaw.
Nico Moretti.
He looked up.
“Vincent.”
No surprise.
Vincent closed the door.
Emma remained near him.
“You knew we were coming.”
Nico looked at her.
“Sofia said Emma was stubborn.”
Emma’s face tightened.
“You knew Sofia.”
“Yes.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“My wife is dead.”
Nico looked at him.
“I know.”
“Did Matteo kill her?”
“No.”
The answer came too fast to be invented.
“Who?”
Nico looked toward the window.
“You won’t like it.”
“I’m done choosing truths by comfort.”
Nico almost smiled.
“Sofia would be relieved.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“Name.”
“Not yet.”
Vincent laughed softly.
“Wrong start.”
Nico rose.
At thirty-nine, he carried something of Matteo.
Not the face.
The posture.
Always angled toward an exit.
“My father wants you angry.”
“So do you.”
“No.”
Nico looked at Vincent.
“I want you awake.”
Silence.
“What did Sofia find?”
“The old network.”
“What network?”
“Matteo’s Loyalists.”
Vincent frowned.
“Dominic.”
“One.”
“Peter?”
“Compromised, not loyal.”
“Others?”
“Yes.”
“Names.”
Nico shook his head.
“I don’t know all.”
Vincent almost moved toward him.
Nico continued.
“That’s the point.”
Matteo did not build a traditional crew.
He built obligations.
A man with gambling debt.
A woman hiding an affair.
A guard with a sick brother.
A cousin resenting Vincent.
People who could be moved.
Not commanded.
“Like Dominic.”
“Yes.”
“Why Leo?”
Nico looked toward Emma.
“Sofia figured it out first.”
Vincent waited.
“My father lost me because your mother hid me.”
“Isabella.”
“Yes.”
“He blamed her.”
“For saving you.”
Nico laughed bitterly.
“She saved me from him.”
“What was he doing?”
“Training.”
Nico touched the scar near his jaw.
“Same things he later taught Dominic. Worse.”
Vincent looked toward the table.
“You escaped.”
“My aunt Isabella arranged it.”
“Where?”
“Different places.”
“Why tell everyone you died?”
“Because Matteo kept looking.”
Vincent understood.
Another false death used as protection.
“How did Sofia find you?”
“She found my mother’s necklace in the Silence Room.”
“Your mother?”
“Matteo’s wife.”
Vincent barely remembered her.
Died young.
Nico continued.
“Sofia traced the necklace through an old family woman who helped me disappear.”
“Then?”
“She asked me what Matteo wanted.”
“What did you say?”
“That he wanted the Morettis back the way they were.”
“Fear.”
“Hierarchy.”
“Children trained early.”
“Women kept quiet.”
“Blood deciding worth.”
Nico’s mouth hardened.
“Your changes insult him.”
Vincent almost smiled.
“Good.”
Nico continued.
“But revenge is personal.”
“Leo.”
“Yes.”
“He wants my son to become what you were.”
“No.”
Nico’s eyes hardened.
“He wants Leo to become what Matteo wanted me to be.”
A successor raised through fear.
Not to Vincent.
To Matteo’s philosophy.
Vincent felt sick.
“Why would Dominic help?”
“He thinks Matteo will give him the family.”
“He won’t.”
“No.”
“Dominic is bait.”
“Yes.”
Vincent looked at Emma.
“And Sofia?”
Nico’s expression changed.
He did not want to answer.
“Say it.”
“She discovered someone closer to you was helping Matteo.”
“Peter.”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“No.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Nico looked directly at him.
“Your wife’s brother.”
Vincent froze.
Sofia had one brother.
Gabriel Romano.
Dead two years before Sofia.
Shot outside a restaurant.
Vincent had avenged that death too.
“No.”
Nico almost laughed.
“Your family loves graves.”
“Gabriel is dead.”
“I met him six months before Sofia died.”
Vincent stared.
“Why would her brother fake his death?”
“To work for Matteo without you watching him.”
Emma whispered:
“Sofia knew?”
“Yes.”
“Did Gabriel kill her?”
Nico shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
Nico’s eyes went cold.
“Gabriel tried to save her.”
Vincent stopped breathing.
Nico continued.
“The person who killed Sofia was someone she trusted enough to get into the car with willingly.”
The room went silent.
Vincent asked:
“Who?”
Nico looked toward Emma.
May you like
Then back.
“Dominic.”
