Chapter 7 - The Father Luca Needed
Giovanni left Boston two weeks later.
Not to abandon them.
To end the war.
Lauren hated the plan.
“I don’t want you confronting Elena alone.”
“I won’t be alone.”
“That has never made me feel better.”
Giovanni gave a tired smile.
“I know.”
Before he left, he handed Lauren a folder.
Inside were documents transferring a large portion of his businesses into legal trusts, managed by independent boards.
“What is this?” she asked.
“My exit.”
“You’re walking away from your empire?”
“I’m walking away from the parts that made me believe power was more important than peace.”
Lauren stared at him.
“You’re doing this because of Luca?”
“I’m doing it because of both of you.”
Giovanni went to New York and arranged a meeting with Elena in the old Valenti restaurant where their fathers had once made deals.
Elena arrived armed.
So did Giovanni.
But he came with something she did not expect.
Evidence.
Proof that Carlo Valenti had been killed not by Giovanni’s order, but by Matteo Russo’s father—who had profited from keeping both families at war.
Elena did not believe him at first.
Then she saw the records.
The bank transfers.
The old witness statement.
The photographs.
Her father had been betrayed by his own allies.
And she had spent twelve years trying to destroy the wrong man.
Elena lowered her gun.
“I can never forgive you,” she said.
Giovanni nodded. “You don’t have to.”
“But I won’t touch your son.”
“That’s enough.”
It was not friendship.
It was not forgiveness.
But it was an ending.
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And sometimes, that was the closest thing to peace men like Giovanni Moretti were allowed to have.
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