Chapter 5 - The Night They Came for Giovanni Moretti
The attack began at 2:13 in the morning.
It did not begin with gunfire.
That would have been too obvious.
The lights went out.
Every light in the Moretti estate died at once.
The hallway lamps.
Security monitors.
Exterior floodlights.
Heating controls.
Nora woke immediately.
For half a second, she forgot where she was.
Then emergency lighting should have activated.
It did not.
Her bedroom remained black.
She heard footsteps outside.
Fast.
Then someone shouted.
"Generator!"
Another voice answered.
"Not responding!"
Nora sat up.
Lily moved inside her.
"Okay."
She whispered to her belly.
"We're okay."
A gunshot echoed from downstairs.
Nora froze.
Another.
Then three more.
She climbed from bed.
The doctor had ordered limited exertion.
The doctor had not included armed invasions.
Nora opened the door.
Smoke drifted through the corridor.
Not fire.
A tactical smoke device.
Someone had planned this.
A security guard appeared.
"Miss Bennett, stay inside."
"Where's Giovanni?"
"Secure wing."
"Is Lorenzo there?"
"No. Mr. Moretti left for Manhattan two hours ago."
Her stomach dropped.
Carlo had waited.
Of course he had.
Lorenzo had gone to meet federal investigators concerning the ledger.
The attack began only after his convoy left.
"Take me to Giovanni."
"No."
Nora stared.
"He trusts me."
"My orders are—"
A shot cracked downstairs.
The guard turned.
Nora slipped past him.
"Miss Bennett!"
She ran.
Not quickly.
Her body would not allow it.
But she moved.
Giovanni's room was empty.
The wheelchair was gone.
"Giovanni?"
No answer.
She heard a metallic sound from the adjoining medical suite.
Inside, Elena was pushing Giovanni's wheelchair toward a hidden service elevator.
"Thank God."
Elena looked furious.
"What are you doing out of your room?"
"Same thing you are."
"Being reckless?"
"Apparently."
Giovanni's tablet illuminated his face.
NORA GO.
"No."
GO.
"No."
Elena pressed the elevator button.
Nothing.
"No power."
Nora remembered the old servants' stairs.
"East laundry staircase."
Elena looked at her.
"Where?"
"Mrs. Gable used to send me through it because she didn't want maids using the main stairs."
For once, cruelty had given Nora useful knowledge.
They moved.
Two guards joined them.
The service corridor descended toward the basement.
Halfway down, Giovanni's tablet spoke.
STOP.
Nora turned.
"What?"
LISTEN.
Everyone became silent.
Footsteps below.
Not above.
Someone waited near the basement.
Elena whispered, "Back."
They reversed.
A man stepped into the corridor behind them.
One Moretti guard raised his weapon.
The stranger fired first.
The guard fell.
Elena screamed.
Chaos erupted.
The remaining guard returned fire.
Nora grabbed Giovanni's wheelchair and pulled it through the nearest door.
A linen storage room.
Elena followed.
"Lock it."
Nora turned the key.
Bullets struck the hallway wall outside.
Giovanni's eyes remained frighteningly calm.
Nora searched.
No second exit.
Small window.
Too narrow for wheelchair.
Elena checked the fallen guard's radio.
Dead.
Signal jammer.
"What do we do?"
Giovanni typed.
SHELF.
Nora looked.
"What?"
BOTTOM.
She crouched.
Pain moved through her back.
Behind folded linens, she found a small lever.
She pulled.
Part of the wall opened.
Nora stared.
"You people have secret passages everywhere?"
Giovanni's tablet spoke.
ITALIANS.
Despite everything, Elena laughed.
They moved through the opening.
An old passage descended toward the wine cellar.
Giovanni had designed the estate during the dangerous years of his life.
Of course he knew every hidden route.
Outside, the attack expanded.
Carlo's men had entered through a maintenance tunnel using codes obtained from Peter Marlow.
But Lorenzo had not left the property unprotected.
Moretti reinforcements arrived within minutes.
Still, the intruders had one advantage.
They knew Giovanni's wing.
Someone had given them current floor plans.
Brody.
Nora pushed the chair.
Her breathing became heavy.
Elena tried to take over.
"I can do it."
"I'm fine."
"Nora."
"I'm fine."
Giovanni typed:
LIAR.
"Not now."
They reached the wine cellar.
A hidden steel door opened toward an underground garage.
Three vehicles waited.
So did Peter Marlow.
Nora stopped.
Peter was in his forties.
Thin.
Expensive coat.
Pistol in hand.
"Hello, Giovanni."
Elena moved in front of the wheelchair.
Peter smiled.
"Move."
"No."
"You're a nurse."
"Very observant."
"Don't make this complicated."
Nora looked toward the garage entrance.
Two more men.
No escape.
Peter's gaze moved to her.
"The maid."
Nora felt cold.
"I've heard so much about you."
"I haven't."
"Brody talks."
"Where is he?"
"Close."
Peter looked at Giovanni.
"I spent five years cleaning up after you."
Giovanni's eyes burned.
"Do you know what your problem was?"
Peter stepped closer.
"You thought fear lasted forever."
Giovanni typed.
COWARD.
Peter laughed.
"Still dramatic."
Nora slowly moved one hand toward the emergency alarm panel behind her.
Peter noticed.
"Don't."
She stopped.
"You poisoned him."
"Adjusted medication."
Elena's face hardened.
"You nearly killed him."
"That was not the assignment."
"The assignment?"
Peter shrugged.
"Carlo wanted him quiet."
Nora looked at Giovanni.
"He could hear everything."
"I know."
Peter's smile disappeared.
"I learned that too late."
Giovanni typed:
YOU KNEW YEAR TWO.
Peter stared.
The old man remembered.
"You couldn't prove anything."
Giovanni typed:
LORENZO CAN.
Peter raised the gun.
Nora moved instinctively in front of Giovanni.
Elena grabbed her.
Peter stared.
"You're protecting him?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because somebody should."
He laughed.
"You don't even know what he did."
Nora's voice remained steady.
"I know what you did."
A car engine sounded outside.
Peter turned slightly.
Mistake.
Nora slammed her palm against the emergency alarm.
Steel shutters dropped across the garage entrance.
Peter cursed.
Elena pushed Giovanni behind a concrete pillar.
Gunfire erupted.
Nora dropped to the floor.
Her stomach tightened.
No.
Not now.
She crawled behind the pillar.
Lily kicked hard.
Peter fired toward the controls.
Then a voice thundered through the garage.
"Put it down."
Lorenzo.
He stood at the upper ramp with Marco and six men behind him.
Peter turned.
Everything stopped.
Lorenzo's gaze moved from Peter to Nora.
Then Giovanni.
Then the gun.
"Step away from my father."
Peter smiled nervously.
"Lorenzo."
"Do it."
"Carlo will—"
"I don't care about Carlo."
"You should."
Peter pressed the gun against Nora instead.
She froze.
Lorenzo's expression disappeared completely.
"Peter."
"Back up."
"Don't."
"Back up!"
Nora felt the barrel against her shoulder.
Giovanni's wheelchair moved.
He used the limited hand control.
Slow.
Peter looked toward him.
That distraction was enough.
Nora drove her elbow backward.
Peter stumbled.
Marco fired once.
The bullet struck Peter's gun hand.
The weapon fell.
Lorenzo crossed the distance with frightening speed.
He hit Peter once.
The accountant collapsed.
Lorenzo raised his fist again.
Nora shouted.
"Lorenzo!"
He stopped.
His entire body shook with rage.
"Don't."
Peter groaned beneath him.
"He poisoned my father."
"I know."
"He put a gun on you."
"I know."
"Then why?"
"Because Giovanni needs him alive."
Lorenzo looked toward his father.
Giovanni's tablet spoke.
POLICE.
Lorenzo stared.
Giovanni repeated.
POLICE.
For decades, Giovanni Moretti had lived by a different system.
But five silent years had changed him.
So had Nora.
Lorenzo stood.
"Call them."
Peter stared in disbelief.
"You serious?"
Lorenzo looked down.
"You should be grateful she was here."
Police and federal agents arrived before dawn.
Peter Marlow was arrested.
Three attackers died during the assault.
Seven were captured.
Two Moretti guards were wounded.
None fatally.
Carlo Vescari was not among them.
Neither was Brody.
By sunrise, the estate looked like a fortress after battle.
Broken windows.
Bullet impacts.
Blood on the garage floor.
Damaged doors.
Nora sat in the kitchen wrapped in a blanket.
Lorenzo crouched in front of her.
"Let me see your arm."
"I'm fine."
"That phrase has been permanently banned."
He inspected the bruise where Peter's weapon struck her.
"Any contractions?"
"No."
"Bleeding?"
"No."
"Lily moving?"
"Yes."
He closed his eyes briefly.
Nora studied him.
"You came back."
"I got the security alert."
"You were supposed to be in Manhattan."
"I turned around."
"How did you know where we were?"
"My father activated an old garage beacon."
Nora looked toward Giovanni.
He sat beside the fire with Elena.
"Of course he did."
Lorenzo remained quiet.
Then:
"You protected him."
Nora looked at him.
"I wasn't going to leave him."
"You could have been killed."
"So could he."
"You're pregnant."
"I am aware."
"Nora."
"What?"
His voice changed.
"You matter too."
She stopped.
He continued.
"You keep acting like your life is the acceptable price for everyone else's survival."
Nora stared at the blanket.
"That's not what I'm doing."
"Isn't it?"
"No."
"Mrs. Gable worked you until you bled."
"I needed the job."
"Brody used you."
"I didn't know."
"Tonight you stood between Peter and my father."
"What was I supposed to do?"
"Value yourself."
The words hurt.
Nora looked away.
"You don't understand."
"No."
Lorenzo sat beside her.
"So tell me."
She was silent.
Then:
"When nobody chooses you for long enough, you get used to earning the right to stay."
Lorenzo said nothing.
"My mother died when I was seventeen. My dad remarried and moved to Florida. Brody was the first person who made me feel like I belonged somewhere."
Her eyes filled.
"Then he left."
She looked at Giovanni.
"Your father needed me."
Lorenzo understood.
Being needed had become the closest thing Nora knew to being loved.
"Giovanni would care about you if you never lifted another spoon."
She laughed softly.
"You don't know that."
The tablet spoke from across the room.
TRUE.
Nora looked up.
Giovanni stared at her.
Then:
FAMILY.
Her face crumpled.
"No."
Giovanni typed:
YES.
She shook her head.
"You barely know me."
MORE THAN MOST.
Tears spilled down Nora's cheeks.
Giovanni continued.
YOU SAW ME.
The room became silent.
WHEN OTHERS SAW NOTHING.
Nora covered her mouth.
Giovanni typed one final sentence.
THAT IS FAMILY.
Lorenzo watched her cry.
Something shifted inside him.
He had spent years believing family came from blood.
Names.
Obligation.
Inheritance.
Giovanni, the man who built the Moretti empire around blood loyalty, was telling him something different.
Family was who remained when there was nothing to gain.
Then Marco entered.
He held a phone.
"We found Brody."
Nora wiped her eyes.
"Where?"
Marco looked at Lorenzo.
"He's requesting protection."
"From Carlo?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Marco's expression changed.
"Because Brody says Carlo Vescari is planning to kill Nora before the baby's born."
Lorenzo stood.
The room froze.
Nora placed both hands over Lily.
"Why?"
May you like
Marco answered carefully.
"Because Brody says Lily isn't his daughter."
