Chapter 9
Stefano Moretti had been the family ghost nobody discussed.
Dante remembered him as loud.
Beautiful.
Dangerous.
His father’s youngest brother.
Then one winter Stefano disappeared during a boat trip.
No body.
Another convenient death.
Dante should have learned to distrust those by now.
Stefano looked down from the balcony.
“Hello, Dante.”
Dante stared.
“You’re alive.”
“Disappointed?”
“Confused.”
“Better.”
Rafael descended first.
Gabriel’s face had changed.
“You told me he was dead.”
Rafael smiled.
“I tell people many things.”
There.
Gabriel’s alliance with Rafael was older than Vanessa knew.
Dante felt the structure appear.
“Rafael fed you the story about Marcus.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“Some true.”
“Some not.”
Rafael looked amused.
“You’re improving.”
Dante ignored him.
“Father ordered Marcus killed.”
“Yes.”
“You carried it out.”
“Yes.”
“Stefano?”
Rafael looked toward his younger brother.
“He arranged the circumstances.”
Stefano descended.
“Marcus was not innocent.”
Dante almost laughed.
“Nobody here is.”
Stefano smiled.
“Good.”
Gabriel raised his gun.
“You used me.”
Rafael looked at him.
“For years.”
Vanessa stared.
Gabriel’s face twisted.
“Why?”
“Because angry sons are cheap soldiers.”
The sentence hit everyone.
Dante’s father had done the same.
Rafael continued:
“Marcus wanted out.”
“Angelo wanted him dead.”
“Stefano wanted a war.”
“Why?” Dante asked.
Stefano answered:
“Because war moved money.”
Simple.
Ugly.
Two smaller families collapsed after Marcus died.
The Morettis absorbed routes.
Cole survivors blamed Moretti.
Rafael and Stefano profited.
Gabriel spent decades focused on Dante’s family instead of the men engineering events.
Gabriel looked destroyed.
Then angry.
“Why Sofia?”
Dante turned.
Rafael’s expression changed.
Not enough.
Stefano answered:
“She found us.”
Silence.
“Did you kill her?”
Stefano smiled faintly.
“I arranged the road.”
Dante’s body changed.
Nico stepped closer.
Vanessa whispered:
“Dante…”
He did not move.
That was the victory.
Not forgiveness.
Control.
“Why?”
Stefano continued:
“She had spoken to too many old people.”
“Marcus’s driver.”
“Two dockworkers.”
“A woman who saw Rafael meet Angelo after Marcus died.”
“She was building a story.”
Rafael looked toward Dante.
“She wanted to tell you.”
Dante’s chest tightened.
“Then why didn’t she?”
“Because she discovered Gabriel.”
Gabriel looked away.
Rafael continued:
“She realized giving you the truth about Marcus would point you toward Gabriel.”
“You would kill him.”
“Then Gabriel would retaliate.”
“War again.”
Sofia saw the trap.
So she hid pieces.
Waited.
Tried to separate truth from revenge.
They killed her before she finished.
Dante looked at Stefano.
“You killed my wife because she refused to start your war.”
“Yes.”
No remorse.
Darkness settled.
Gabriel aimed at Stefano.
Dante moved between them.
Gabriel stared.
“Move.”
“No.”
“He killed Sofia.”
“Yes.”
“He killed my father.”
“He helped.”
“Move.”
Dante looked at him.
“What happens after?”
Gabriel’s eyes burned.
“What?”
“You kill Stefano.”
“Rafael shoots you.”
“Nico shoots Rafael.”
“Vanessa screams.”
“Someone tells Ethan his father died fighting Morettis.”
“Lily grows up hearing I stood over bodies.”
“Then what?”
Gabriel’s gun trembled.
Dante continued:
“Stefano wins.”
Stefano’s smile disappeared.
There.
The point.
His business was cycles.
Not survival alone.
War continuing validated every old act.
Gabriel lowered the weapon one inch.
Stefano suddenly fired.
Nico shoved Dante aside.
The shot struck stone.
Gabriel returned fire.
Rafael moved.
Vanessa screamed.
The chapel erupted.
But Dante saw one thing clearly.
Stefano was running toward a side passage.
Not fighting.
Escaping.
May you like
He knew a route.
Dante followed.
