Chapter 5 - LORENZO’S SON
His name was Adrian Vale.
Thirty-six years old.
Legitimate businessman on paper.
Restaurant investor.
Real-estate developer.
Graduate degree from Northwestern.
Never arrested.
Never photographed beside a Moretti captain.
Exactly the kind of man no one would connect to organized crime unless somebody handed them the connection.
Nicholas did.
Dante stood inside the boxing club staring at a photograph.
Adrian Vale beside Matteo Moretti.
Taken twenty years earlier.
Adrian was sixteen.
Matteo had one hand on his shoulder.
Not casually.
Paternally.
Dante looked at Nick.
“Matteo has a son.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew.”
“For eleven years.”
Dante’s anger flared again.
“Everyone knows everything except me.”
Nick’s expression hardened.
“That was the point.”
Dante laughed bitterly.
“Wonderful.”
Nick continued.
“Matteo had an affair when he was twenty-five. Adrian’s mother married Lorenzo two years later.”
“Lorenzo raised him.”
“Yes.”
“Does Adrian know?”
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“Since he was eighteen.”
Dante stared toward the dusty ring.
Matteo Moretti had spent decades beside his brother Vittorio.
Never married.
No acknowledged children.
Always loyal.
Always content being the uncle.
Apparently not.
“What did Dad know?”
“Everything.”
Dante closed his eyes.
Of course.
Vittorio always knew.
Nick continued.
“Dad refused to bring Adrian into the family.”
“Why?”
“Because Lorenzo wanted it too badly.”
Dante looked over.
Nick explained.
Lorenzo had spent years positioning Adrian as a clean alternative to Moretti leadership.
Educated.
Legitimate.
No criminal record.
Related by blood through Matteo.
Raised by the family lawyer who knew every legitimate company and every vulnerable secret.
Dante understood the appeal.
Especially to older captains tired of police pressure and unstable alliances.
“So Lorenzo wants me publicly weakened.”
“Yes.”
“Then Adrian steps forward.”
“Not immediately.”
Nick shook his head.
“Matteo would become interim leader.”
Dante’s expression changed.
“Then Adrian eventually inherits.”
“Exactly.”
Grant crossed his arms.
“Does Matteo know?”
Nick hesitated.
“That’s what I’ve never been sure about.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“My uncle is sitting beside my daughter right now.”
Nick looked up sharply.
Dante was already reaching for his phone.
No answer from Matteo.
He called Mara.
She answered immediately.
“Dante?”
“Where is Matteo?”
A pause.
“He left twenty minutes ago.”
Dante’s stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“He said Grant called him.”
Grant stared.
“I didn’t.”
Mara heard that.
Her voice changed.
“Dante.”
“Listen carefully.”
He forced calm.
“Do not leave Ava.”
“I won’t.”
“Lock the room.”
“Already did.”
Good.
“What happened before Matteo left?”
“He got a message.”
“From who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he say anything?”
Mara thought.
“He said, ‘That idiot finally found him.’”
Dante looked at Nick.
Found who?
Nick understood.
“Me.”
Matteo knew Nick was alive.
Dante’s face changed.
At least now he did.
Maybe longer.
Mara continued.
“Then he asked if Ava remembered the man from the hospital.”
“What did she say?”
“She said no.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
Mara hesitated.
“She asked him why he smelled like birthday candles.”
Silence.
Dante’s pulse slowed.
“What?”
“She said his coat smelled like the candles from the restaurant.”
Grant looked at Dante.
Nick went still.
Dante remembered Ava’s birthday candles.
Custom vanilla-and-orange scent because Ava had chosen them.
Strong enough that the smell lingered on the cake table.
The disguised man who switched the glass had stood beside that cake.
Eddie Sarto.
But Matteo had been at the birthday dinner too.
Could have picked up the scent normally.
Except Matteo left before cake.
He had told Dante his back was hurting.
He departed at 8:35.
Twenty minutes before the candles were lit.
Dante whispered:
“He came back.”
Nick looked at him.
“Who?”
“Matteo.”
The betrayal felt different.
Matteo had been family longer than Dante had been alive.
The uncle who took him to Cubs games.
Who taught him cards.
Who sat beside Ava at every Christmas dinner.
Dante called the hospital security detail.
“No one in or out.”
Then he looked at Nick.
“Where would Matteo go if he knows you’re alive?”
Nick answered immediately.
“Old freight yard.”
Grant frowned.
“Why?”
“That’s where Dad confronted him years ago.”
Dante turned.
“Confronted him about Adrian?”
“Yes.”
They moved.
On the drive, Nicholas told the rest.
Vittorio learned Lorenzo was quietly gathering captains around Adrian.
Matteo denied participating.
Said he loved his son but never wanted him inside the Moretti organization.
Vittorio believed him.
Mostly.
Then Nick discovered money moving from Matteo’s businesses into accounts Lorenzo controlled.
Matteo claimed Lorenzo manipulated the transfers.
Nobody proved otherwise.
That was when Vittorio created Nick’s disappearance.
“Why you?”
Dante asked.
“Because I found the accounts.”
“And?”
“Because Dad thought Lorenzo would eventually come after me.”
Dante looked at him.
“So he erased you.”
“Yes.”
“And told you to stay dead.”
“Until we could prove the whole structure.”
“Eleven years?”
Nick’s face tightened.
“I thought it would take months.”
“What happened?”
“Dad died.”
Dante went still.
Vittorio Moretti died four years after Nicholas disappeared.
Stroke.
At sixty-eight.
Natural.
Supposedly.
Nick continued.
“After Dad died, I lost the only person who knew where half the evidence was.”
“And you stayed away.”
“If I returned, Lorenzo would know I had something.”
“You had me.”
Nick laughed bitterly.
“You hated me when I left.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“Before that.”
Dante looked out the window.
True.
Their final fight had been ugly.
Pride had done what enemies could not.
Separated brothers.
The freight yard appeared ahead.
Abandoned warehouse.
Old rail lines.
A Moretti property nobody used anymore.
Grant’s men spread quietly.
Dante and Nick entered through the side.
Voices echoed.
Matteo.
And Lorenzo.
Dante stopped behind stacked pallets.
Lorenzo’s voice:
“You were supposed to keep Dante calm.”
Matteo answered:
“I didn’t know you were going to use Ava.”
“You knew the plan.”
“I knew Dante would be drugged.”
“And if he collapsed?”
“We force him to step back temporarily.”
Nick closed his eyes.
Dante felt the words like a punch.
Matteo knew.
Maybe not about Ava specifically.
But enough.
Lorenzo continued.
“Adrian becomes visible. The captains get used to him.”
Matteo said, “My son is not joining this.”
Lorenzo laughed.
“He already has.”
“You promised me he would remain legitimate.”
“I promised you a future.”
“I never asked for Dante’s daughter to be hurt.”
“No. You only asked for Dante to be humiliated.”
Silence.
Dante stepped out.
“Then let’s discuss the difference.”
Both men turned.
Matteo went pale.
Lorenzo did not.
That calmness told Dante everything.
“Dante.”
Matteo’s voice cracked.
Dante looked at his uncle.
“Did you know?”
“Not about Ava.”
“Did you know they were drugging me?”
Matteo looked down.
“Yes.”
Nick emerged beside Dante.
Matteo’s face shattered.
“Nicky.”
Nick stared.
“Don’t.”
Lorenzo looked between the brothers.
Then smiled.
“Beautiful.”
Grant entered behind them.
Lorenzo had nowhere obvious to run.
Dante looked at Matteo.
“Why?”
Matteo’s eyes filled.
“You don’t understand what happened after your father died.”
“Then explain.”
“You became harder.”
Dante laughed.
“So you drug me.”
“I wanted you to step away for a month.”
“To install your son.”
“No!”
Matteo shouted.
“I wanted the captains to stop depending on one man.”
Dante stared.
“This family has survived because every decision becomes your decision. Every dispute waits for Dante. Every business waits for Dante. Every threat becomes Dante’s threat.”
Matteo’s voice lowered.
“I watched Vittorio do the same thing. It killed him.”
Dante stopped.
“Dad had a stroke.”
Matteo’s expression changed.
Too late.
Nick saw it.
“What?”
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
Dante turned toward his uncle.
“What did you just mean?”
Matteo backed up.
“Nothing.”
Nick stepped forward.
“You know something about Dad.”
Lorenzo suddenly moved.
Grant intercepted him.
A struggle.
Brief.
Controlled.
Lorenzo was pinned against a crate.
Nobody was seriously hurt.
Dante barely looked.
His eyes remained on Matteo.
“What happened to my father?”
Matteo’s face collapsed.
“I didn’t kill him.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I didn’t.”
Nick whispered:
“But Lorenzo did.”
Lorenzo laughed from where Grant held him.
“Oh, grow up.”
Dante turned.
Lorenzo’s composure had finally cracked.
“You think Vittorio’s death was some grand conspiracy?”
His smile sharpened.
“He discovered Adrian.”
Dante’s pulse changed.
“What?”
“Not that Adrian existed. That Adrian was organizing support.”
Matteo stared.
“You told me he wasn’t.”
Lorenzo ignored him.
“Vittorio planned to expose everything. Strip Matteo of authority. Destroy Adrian’s future.”
Dante’s voice became cold.
“So you killed him.”
Lorenzo smiled.
“Prove it.”
Nick stepped forward.
“We can.”
Everyone turned.
Nick pulled a small recorder from his coat.
Lorenzo’s face changed for the first time.
Nick smiled without humor.
“You really should stop talking around men you think are dead.”
Grant tightened his hold.
Matteo sat heavily on an old crate.
Everything had collapsed.
But then Dante’s phone rang.
Mara.
He answered.
Her voice was breathless.
“Dante, someone is here.”
His stomach dropped.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do they want?”
Ava’s voice sounded faintly in the background.
Then Mara whispered:
“They say their name is Adrian Vale.”
Dante looked at Lorenzo.
May you like
Lorenzo smiled again.
And suddenly the man behind the plan looked far less defeated.
