Chapter 7
Vanessa broke before midnight.
Not dramatically.
She simply stopped defending Gabriel.
“I knew he loved Sofia.”
Dante stood near the library window.
“How long?”
“Before I married you.”
“And married me anyway.”
“Yes.”
“To help him reach what belonged to her.”
“Yes.”
“Did Gabriel kill her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you suspect?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“Yes.”
The word changed everything.
“Why?”
“Because the night Sofia died, Gabriel came to me.”
“Where?”
“My old apartment.”
“Condition?”
“Wet.”
“Blood?”
“No.”
“Angry?”
Vanessa nodded.
“He said she betrayed him.”
Dante’s hand tightened.
“What else?”
“He said, ‘Now Dante gets to lose what I lost.’”
Silence.
Nico stood by the door.
Dante looked at him.
“Find Gabriel.”
Vanessa grabbed Dante’s sleeve.
“Wait.”
He looked down at her hand.
She released him.
“If you hunt him now, he’ll take Ethan.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“Why?”
“He told me if I ever turned against him, Ethan would become ‘a Cole before a Moretti could corrupt him.’”
Dante almost laughed.
“Corrupt.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“He has been teaching Ethan things.”
“What things?”
“To lie.”
“To watch doors.”
“To remember license plates.”
“To keep secrets from me.”
Dante’s anger changed.
Gabriel had not merely used Vanessa.
He was already shaping his son.
The same way mafia fathers shaped boys for wars they had not chosen.
Dante looked toward the ceiling.
Ethan slept one room from Lily.
Two children in the middle.
Again.
“No one takes either child.”
Vanessa stared.
“You still care what happens to Ethan?”
“He is seven.”
“That is not an answer.”
“Yes.”
Dante’s voice remained cold.
“Whatever you did, Ethan did not.”
Vanessa’s face broke.
For the first time since the dining room, she looked at him without performance.
“I’m sorry.”
Dante said nothing.
She continued:
“For Lily.”
“I know that doesn’t fix it.”
“No.”
“I thought making her small would make Gabriel ignore her.”
Dante looked at her.
“Did it?”
“No.”
“So you hurt her for nothing.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Good.
Truth without decoration.
Dante left.
He found Ethan awake.
Sitting on the floor near Lily’s bedroom.
“What are you doing?”
Ethan looked up.
“Watching.”
“For who?”
“My dad.”
Dante sat on the floor opposite him.
A mafia boss in a three-piece suit sitting beside a seven-year-old in a dark hallway.
“Do you want him to come?”
Ethan thought.
“Yes.”
Then:
“No.”
Dante nodded.
Both could be true.
“What does he tell you?”
“That Mom is weak.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“What else?”
“That Morettis stole our life.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I don’t know.”
Good answer.
Ethan continued:
“He says you’re bad.”
Dante almost smiled.
“Sometimes.”
Ethan stared.
“You admit?”
“Yes.”
“My dad says bad men always say they’re good.”
“Your dad is right about that.”
The boy looked confused.
Dante continued:
“I’ve hurt people.”
“I’ve scared people.”
“I’ve made choices I wouldn’t make again.”
Ethan absorbed it.
“Did you kill Grandpa Marcus?”
“No.”
“Your dad?”
“Did.”
Ethan frowned.
“You’re saying your dad was bad.”
“Yes.”
Again confusion.
Adults in Ethan’s world rarely criticized their own blood.
Dante continued:
“Family names don’t make truth.”
Ethan looked toward Lily’s door.
“Mom says Lily gets everything because she’s yours.”
“She gets what?”
“Rooms.”
“Guards.”
“You.”
Dante felt the accusation hidden inside the child’s sadness.
Ethan had a living father who came in shadows.
Lily had a dead mother and a father who stood in daylight.
“Do you want me?”
Ethan looked shocked.
“As what?”
Dante almost smiled.
“You tell me.”
Ethan thought.
“Can I still have my dad?”
“Yes.”
“If he’s bad?”
“If you want to love him, yes.”
Ethan’s eyes filled.
Dante continued:
“But loving him does not mean obeying everything he asks.”
The lesson took effort for adults.
The boy nodded.
Then whispered:
“He told me where he’s going.”
Dante’s face did not change.
“Where?”
“The bell house.”
“What bell house?”
May you like
Ethan pointed toward the dark window.
“The place where Lily’s mommy stopped singing.”
