Chapter 6 - The Price of Being a Moretti
Luca Russo wanted me to trade myself for Elena.
Adrian’s answer was no.
Mine was also no.
Not because I did not care about Elena.
Because by then, I finally understood Luca.
He did not want fair exchanges.
He wanted people to enter rooms already believing he controlled the outcome.
The video arrived at 9:14 p.m.
Elena sat in a chair inside what looked like an abandoned church basement.
No visible injuries.
No restraints.
That frightened me more.
Luca stepped into frame.
He was thirty-five, handsome in the way cruel men sometimes are, with dark hair and a narrow smile.
“Claire,” he said.
Not Adrian.
Me.
“Congratulations on the baby.”
Adrian nearly broke the phone.
I took it from him.
Luca continued.
“I’ve always believed children reveal what adults truly value.”
Elena looked directly at the camera.
Her expression was furious rather than afraid.
“That woman had steel in her veins,” my mother whispered.
Luca smiled.
“Come to St. Gabriel’s at midnight tomorrow. Alone.”
Adrian swore.
“If you don’t, Elena dies.”
Elena suddenly laughed.
Luca’s smile disappeared.
She leaned toward the camera.
“Claire, if you come here, I will personally haunt you.”
The video cut.
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
Adrian didn’t.
He looked destroyed.
“She’s buying time.”
Marco nodded.
“St. Gabriel’s closed fifteen years ago.”
“Luca knows we’ll surround it.”
“So it’s not the real location.”
“No.”
I sat down.
“He wants me moving.”
Adrian looked at me.
“What?”
“He wants us focused on me. Elena is leverage, but I’m not the real target.”
“What is?”
I thought about bloodlines.
The ledger.
My father.
Carlo.
“Information.”
My mother leaned forward.
“What information?”
“Something Elena knows.”
Adrian went still.
“About my father.”
Exactly.
Elena knew more about Carlo’s death than we did.
Maybe Luca believed she knew where additional evidence existed.
Adrian called the FBI contact handling his cooperation.
For the first time in my life, I watched a Mafia boss coordinate a kidnapping response with federal agents.
The world had truly turned upside down.
At eleven, Daniel arrived.
Sofia remained in the hospital under protection.
Daniel looked exhausted.
Adrian did not attack him this time.
Progress.
“We found something,” Daniel said.
He placed blueprints on the table.
“St. Gabriel’s has old utility tunnels.”
Marco studied them.
“Connected to what?”
“Former parish school. Boiler system. A condemned community center.”
Adrian pointed.
“He’ll use this.”
“Probably.”
I looked at the map.
The community center stood two blocks away.
“Then that’s where Elena is.”
Everyone looked at me.
“Why?”
“Because Luca wants us searching the church.”
Marco nodded.
“Could be.”
Adrian looked at me.
“You’re staying here.”
I stared.
He sighed.
“Right. Asking, not ordering.”
“Better.”
“Will you please stay here?”
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“Claire.”
“I’m not going inside.”
“That’s not enough.”
“I’m part of this.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“So is Sofia, and nobody stopped using her.”
That silenced him.
Daniel looked guilty.
Good.
“I’ll stay with the federal command vehicle,” I said.
Adrian considered.
Finally nodded.
“Fine.”
At 11:45, we reached the neighborhood.
Rain fell softly.
Streetlights reflected across broken pavement.
St. Gabriel’s tower rose against the cloudy sky.
Federal agents spread through alleys.
Moretti security remained back by agreement.
Adrian wore a bulletproof vest beneath his coat.
Before leaving the command vehicle, he turned toward me.
“If something happens—”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“Don’t give me a goodbye speech.”
“It wasn’t.”
“It sounded like one.”
He looked at me for a long time.
Then nodded.
“I’ll see you in twenty minutes.”
“Good.”
He opened the door.
“Adrian.”
He turned.
“Be careful.”
The words escaped before I could stop them.
His face changed.
Just slightly.
“I will.”
Then he left.
Nineteen minutes later, gunfire erupted.
Agents shouted.
The command radio exploded with voices.
Movement in the tunnel.
Suspect fleeing north.
Woman located.
Officer down.
My heart pounded.
“Where’s Adrian?”
Nobody answered.
“Where is Adrian?”
An agent turned.
“He went after the suspect.”
Of course he did.
I wanted to kill him myself.
Then the command vehicle door opened.
Elena Moretti climbed inside.
Her coat was dirty.
Hair loose.
Eyes blazing.
“Where is my idiot son?”
“Chasing Luca.”
“Of course he is.”
She sat beside me.
I grabbed her hand.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“What did Luca want?”
Her expression changed.
“Carlo’s confession.”
I stared.
“What confession?”
She looked at me.
“Your father wasn’t the only one who left evidence.”
Adrian’s father had recorded a statement before his death.
Names.
Crimes.
Victor Russo’s trafficking network.
Police corruption.
Everything.
Carlo entrusted it to Elena.
“Where is it?”
She hesitated.
“In Adrian’s childhood home.”
Adrian had grown up in a mansion outside Highland Park.
Empty for years.
Then Elena said, “Inside his father’s grave.”
I blinked.
“What?”
“Carlo wanted it buried with him.”
“That’s dramatic.”
“He was Sicilian.”
Fair enough.
The radio crackled.
Suspect escaped.
One injured.
I grabbed the receiver.
“Adrian?”
Static.
Then Marco’s voice.
“We have him.”
Relief hit me.
“He’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“Put him on.”
A pause.
Then Adrian.
“I’m fine.”
“You said twenty minutes.”
“It’s been twenty-six.”
“I noticed.”
A faint sound.
Was he laughing?
“Claire.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
“For being late?”
“For everything.”
My throat tightened.
“Come back.”
“I am.”
He returned ten minutes later with blood on his sleeve.
Not his.
I checked anyway.
He let me.
Neither of us commented on it.
Elena slapped him.
Hard.
Marco looked away.
Daniel suddenly became interested in the floor.
Adrian rubbed his cheek.
“Good to see you too, Ma.”
“You chased him?”
“Yes.”
“You absolute idiot.”
“Yes.”
“Your wife is pregnant.”
“Estranged wife.”
Elena slapped him again.
I covered my mouth.
Adrian glared at me.
“Are you laughing?”
“No.”
“You are.”
“Maybe.”
For one strange second, the room felt almost normal.
Then Elena told him about Carlo’s confession.
We went to the cemetery at dawn.
Federal agents accompanied us.
Carlo Moretti’s grave sat beneath a stone angel.
Adrian stood beside it silently.
Workers opened the sealed compartment beneath the monument.
Inside, behind a marble panel, they found a rusted metal cylinder.
A microcassette.
Old photographs.
Documents.
Carlo’s voice, when played later, sounded eerily like Adrian’s.
Not identical.
But close enough that Adrian closed his eyes when he heard it.
Carlo confessed to crimes.
He also confessed to allowing crimes because he believed controlling evil was better than surrendering power.
Then he spoke about Victor.
“If I die suddenly,” Carlo said on the recording, “Victor Russo killed me.”
Adrian’s hand curled into a fist.
The recording continued.
“And if my son hears this, Adrian, I failed you.”
Adrian’s face broke.
Not dramatically.
No tears at first.
Just a slight collapse in his posture.
A son becoming twenty again.
Carlo’s voice continued.
“I taught you power before I taught you peace. I taught you loyalty before I taught you choice. If you inherit my chair, burn it before it burns you.”
Adrian looked at me.
I looked away.
Because suddenly his entire life made terrible sense.
Not an excuse.
Context.
There was a difference.
Carlo’s final words were quieter.
“And if Margaret Bennett ever hears this, tell her Thomas was the bravest man I knew.”
My mother cried.
After the recording ended, no one spoke.
Then Adrian walked outside alone.
I followed five minutes later.
He stood beneath a tree.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
Honesty again.
I stood beside him.
He did not touch me.
“My father knew,” he said.
“Knew what?”
“That the life was poison.”
“Yes.”
“And I became him anyway.”
“Not exactly.”
He looked at me.
“He cheated too?”
“I don’t know.”
That almost made him smile.
I sighed.
“You handed over the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“You’re dismantling the illegal side.”
“Yes.”
“You signed the divorce papers.”
Pain crossed his face.
“Yes.”
“Your father didn’t do those things.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“You hurt me, Adrian.”
“I know.”
“I may never trust you again.”
His eyes reddened.
“I know.”
“But you’re not doomed to become the worst thing you inherited.”
He stared at me.
“Why are you telling me that?”
“Because it’s true.”
“Not because you forgive me?”
“No.”
He nodded.
“Okay.”
That mattered too.
Then Marco ran toward us.
“Boss!”
Adrian turned.
“What?”
“Luca hit the hospital.”
My heart stopped.
“Sofia?”
Marco’s face was pale.
“Missing.”
Daniel came running behind him.
“What about the baby?”
May you like
Marco looked at him.
“We don’t know.”
