Chapter 6 - The Night Lorenzo Chose a Family
They reached the underground garage.
Rain pounded the street above.
Sophie was still holding his hand.
Lorenzo opened the armored SUV.
“Inside.”
She climbed in.
He closed the door.
Nolan entered the driver's seat.
“We need a location.”
Lorenzo thought.
Blackpine.
His father's old cabin.
Nobody knew about it.
Or so he hoped.
They drove for forty minutes.
No headlights.
No phone signals.
No contact.
Sophie sat in the back seat beside Lorenzo.
She had stopped asking questions.
That worried him more than crying would have.
“Are you scared?”
She nodded.
“So am I.”
She looked at him.
“You're not supposed to be.”
“Who told you that?”
“Mommy.”
Lorenzo smiled.
“Your mother is wrong.”
The little girl smiled.
That was enough.
They reached the cabin before dawn.
Elena was already waiting.
She hugged Sophie so tightly she started crying.
“My baby.”
Sophie buried her face against her.
Lorenzo stood back.
Seeing them together made something in his chest loosen.
Elena looked at him.
“Thank you.”
“Don't.”
She frowned.
“What?”
“Thank me when this is over.”
They entered the cabin.
Thomas arrived an hour later.
Ray came too.
Everyone sat around the wooden table.
The evidence was spread out.
Gideon's network.
Kane.
Mara.
The trust.
The final code.
Then something else.
A photograph of Lorenzo's mother.
Standing beside Gideon.
The date was two months before her death.
Lorenzo stared.
“What is this?”
Elena looked down.
“She was working with him.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
He laughed bitterly.
“Everyone protects me with lies.”
Elena didn't answer.
Thomas finally spoke.
“She made a deal.”
“What kind?”
“She agreed to move money through the foundation.”
“In exchange?”
“Your life.”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“What?”
“Gideon threatened to kill you and Luca.”
“Luca died anyway.”
Thomas nodded.
“She couldn't save both of you.”
Lorenzo turned away.
Grief became anger.
Anger became silence.
Claire, the Moretti family's physician, arrived unexpectedly.
She had treated Lorenzo's mother.
She sat beside him.
“Your mother did what she thought would work.”
“It didn't.”
“No.”
“Then why defend her?”
“Because she died believing she'd saved you.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
For years, he had hated his mother for leaving.
Now he didn't know what to feel.
Sophie climbed onto the couch beside him.
She placed her bear in his lap.
“You look sad.”
He looked at her.
“I am.”
“Don't be.”
He smiled weakly.
“That's not how it works.”
She leaned against him.
“Then be sad.”
The words broke something inside him.
He held her.
“Okay.”
Everyone in the room fell silent.
The mafia boss of Philadelphia sat on an old couch holding a three-year-old child while grieving the family he had lost.
For once, nobody expected him to be strong.
Later that morning, they created a plan.
They would release the evidence.
Not gradually.
All at once.
Federal authorities.
National media.
Multiple jurisdictions.
No single person could bury it.
But the plan required the original trust documents.
They had one chance.
Retrieve them from the Moretti family bank.
Gideon would expect them there.
Lorenzo volunteered.
Elena refused.
“You're the target.”
“Exactly.”
“We use someone else.”
“No.”
She stared.
“Why?”
“Because if I can draw him out, he stops looking for Sophie.”
Elena understood.
“No.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“I promised your daughter.”
“She needs you alive.”
“She needs me brave.”
That night, Lorenzo entered the bank.
He knew someone was watching.
He opened the vault.
Found the documents.
Then Gideon appeared.
Alone.
No guards.
No weapon.
“Lorenzo.”
“Gideon.”
“You look like your father.”
“You killed him.”
“Yes.”
The admission was almost casual.
Lorenzo's hands tightened.
“Why?”
“Because he chose you.”
“What?”
“He chose to protect you instead of the business.”
“You hated that.”
“I envied it.”
Gideon smiled sadly.
“He had a family.”
“You did too.”
“Not anymore.”
Gideon looked down.
“My daughter died.”
Lorenzo froze.
“What?”
“That's why I built the network.”
“You blame everyone else.”
“I blame myself.”
It was the first honest thing Lorenzo had heard him say.
Then Gideon pulled out a photograph.
A little girl.
His daughter.
She had the same brown eyes as Sophie.
“Her name was Amelia.”
“What happened?”
“Cancer.”
Lorenzo stared.
“So you destroyed lives because you couldn't save hers.”
“Yes.”
Gideon looked exhausted.
“That doesn't make it right.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because I wanted the world to hurt too.”
Lorenzo shook his head.
“You're a monster.”
“Maybe.”
Gideon looked at the trust documents.
“But I'm not the one holding the final key.”
Lorenzo's jaw tightened.
“What do you mean?”
“Ask the child.”
Then Gideon vanished.
Lorenzo raced back to the cabin.
Sophie was gone.
Elena screamed.
The door stood open.
May you like
A small yellow sweater lay on the floor.
Lorenzo felt the world stop.
