Chapter 5 - THE MAN DOMINIC TRUSTED MOST
Rocco killed the lights.
Dominic moved Sophia behind a concrete support.
Henry whispered:
“I have a shotgun in the truck.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You left it in the truck?”
“I thought your people would have enough guns.”
“This is the strangest criticism I’ve received all year.”
Sophia grabbed both their sleeves.
“Could we save the male competition for after we’re not surrounded?”
Matteo almost laughed.
Then glass shattered.
A bullet struck the far wall.
Nobody laughed again.
Rocco returned fire through a narrow opening.
“Three vehicles.”
Dominic looked toward the rear loading bay.
“Tunnel?”
Henry nodded.
“Old maintenance access behind the warehouse.”
“Still open?”
“It was when I was sixteen.”
“That was forty-six years ago.”
Henry looked offended.
“Stone ages well.”
Sophia would have laughed under different circumstances.
They moved through the warehouse.
Another burst of gunfire hit the front doors.
Dominic stayed behind Sophia.
Not in front.
Behind.
She noticed.
He was protecting without blocking her path.
Margaret’s promise already changing things.
Henry found the maintenance entrance hidden beneath rotting boards.
The old rail tunnel smelled of water and limestone.
They entered.
Rocco stayed near the rear.
Matteo beside Dominic.
Sophia used her phone flashlight.
Fifty yards in, Dominic stopped.
Voices echoed behind them.
Then ahead.
Sophia whispered:
“They knew about the tunnel.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Marco.”
A flashlight appeared in the darkness ahead.
Then a voice.
“Boss.”
Marco Bellini stepped into view.
He was forty-one.
Dark-haired.
Perfect suit despite the quarry dust.
Sophia had seen him in the Moretti house hundreds of times.
He had always been polite.
Always called Lily principessa.
Now he held a pistol.
Dominic stared.
“Your father killed my mother.”
Marco’s face remained unreadable.
“You found the letter.”
“You knew it existed.”
“I suspected.”
“And the trafficking ledger?”
Marco sighed.
“My father made mistakes.”
Sophia felt rage.
“Mistakes?”
Marco glanced at her.
“You should have stayed out of this.”
Dominic moved one step.
Marco’s gun lifted.
“Stop.”
Dominic stopped.
Marco looked almost sad.
“You were my brother.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
“That is what makes this difficult.”
“You used my name.”
“I protected your empire.”
“You profited from women being trafficked through my companies.”
“That ended years ago.”
“Because?”
“My father died.”
“And you?”
Marco smiled faintly.
“I modernized.”
Matteo whispered:
“You’re disgusting.”
Marco shrugged.
“You all benefit from dirty money and then become moral when the numbers embarrass you.”
Dominic did not flinch.
“True.”
Everyone looked at him.
He continued.
“My hands aren’t clean.”
Marco’s smile widened.
“There he is.”
“But that doesn’t make yours cleaner.”
The smile disappeared.
Dominic glanced toward Sophia.
Then Henry.
“My mother discovered what your father did. Carlo tried to shut it down. Your father killed her.”
Marco said nothing.
“Then you spent years beside me making sure I never found out.”
“I spent years making you powerful.”
“For what?”
“So Moretti could survive.”
Dominic laughed once.
“My mother died because your family wanted my name.”
“No. She died because she was going to destroy everyone.”
Sophia said:
“She was going to expose criminals.”
Marco looked at her.
“You think the world rewards women who tell inconvenient truths?”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Do not speak to her.”
Marco smiled.
“Still pretending this weekend?”
Silence.
Sophia felt Dominic’s gaze.
Marco continued.
“Everyone in Manhattan knows you left town with your maid.”
Henry growled:
“She has a name.”
Marco looked amused.
Sophia almost liked her father again.
Then Marco said:
“Give me the ledger.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
“Then this ends badly.”
“Probably.”
Marco’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re willing to die over evidence about dead men?”
“No.”
Dominic looked at Sophia.
“I’m willing to stop becoming one of them.”
That changed something.
Marco’s face hardened.
He raised the gun.
Then a voice came from behind him.
“Federal agents! Drop it!”
Marco spun.
Chaos exploded.
Rocco had activated an emergency tracker before entering the tunnel.
State police and federal agents had followed Dominic’s vehicle after he quietly contacted an investigator in Manhattan.
Sophia learned that later.
In the moment, everything became light, shouting, and movement.
Marco fired.
Dominic shoved Sophia down.
A shot cracked.
Matteo tackled Henry behind stone.
Agents returned fire.
Marco ran deeper into the tunnel.
Rocco pursued.
Dominic started after him.
Sophia grabbed his coat.
“No.”
He turned.
“Rocco—”
“No.”
“Sophia.”
“My mother asked you to build something safer.”
His face changed.
“You cannot start by running into gunfire because your pride needs the last word.”
Silence.
Then Dominic stopped.
For one second, she saw exactly how difficult that was.
Every instinct his father had built into him screamed pursuit.
Control.
Finish it yourself.
He stayed.
Agents captured Marco twelve minutes later near the river exit.
Alive.
That mattered more than Sophia expected.
Back at the farmhouse, Lily ran into Dominic’s arms.
He froze.
Then lifted her.
“You were gone forever.”
“Three hours.”
“Forever.”
“Fair.”
Sophia watched.
Dominic closed his eyes briefly against Lily’s hair.
Later, police questioned everyone.
The ledger went into federal evidence.
The tapes were digitized.
One showed Dominic’s mother.
Maria Moretti.
Young.
Terrified.
Looking directly into a camera.
If my son ever sees this, I want him to know one thing.
Dominic stopped the video.
Couldn’t continue.
Sophia sat beside him.
He stared at the screen.
“I’ve heard her voice in my head for eighteen years.”
“Do you want me to leave?”
“No.”
He pressed play.
Maria continued.
Power is not keeping everyone afraid of you.
Carlo will teach you that.
Your father will teach you the opposite.
Choose carefully.
Dominic covered his mouth.
Sophia took his hand.
No performance.
No fake boyfriend.
No employee.
Just one person sitting beside another while the dead spoke.
Maria continued.
If the Bellinis are still inside this family when you are grown, remove them.
Not with blood.
With daylight.
Expose everything.
Even us.
Even your father.
Dominic’s eyes filled.
Sophia squeezed his hand.
Maria smiled faintly at the camera.
And Dominic—
Please become the kind of man who can be loved without anyone being afraid of him.
The tape ended.
Dominic bowed his head.
Sophia did not tell him he was good.
Did not tell him his mother would be proud.
Those were conclusions he had to earn for himself.
After several minutes, he whispered:
“My entire life, I thought fear kept people loyal.”
Sophia looked toward the kitchen.
Lily was helping Henry shape leftover pie dough.
“No.”
Dominic followed her gaze.
“No?”
“Fear keeps people nearby.”
She looked at him.
“That isn’t loyalty.”
He nodded slowly.
The next morning, federal investigators arrested six current Moretti executives tied to Marco Bellini’s network.
Then twelve.
Then nineteen.
News broke before noon.
MORETTI EMPIRE UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION.
DOMINIC MORETTI COOPERATING.
His lawyers called continuously.
Board members demanded meetings.
Old associates sent threats.
Dominic stood on the farmhouse porch reading messages.
Sophia joined him.
“You could lose everything.”
“Yes.”
“Are you going back?”
“To Manhattan?”
“Yes.”
“Today.”
Her chest tightened.
Of course.
The weekend was over.
The fake relationship had reached its natural end.
She nodded.
“Lily will be upset.”
“I know.”
“I’ll explain.”
Dominic looked at her.
“I wasn’t planning to go alone.”
Sophia frowned.
“What?”
He reached inside his coat.
Pulled out Lily’s drawing.
The one from the foyer.
Folded carefully.
Worn now at the edges.
“I made your mother a promise.”
Sophia looked at him.
“That does not bind me.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
“I also made myself one.”
“What?”
“That when I return to Manhattan, I start dismantling the part of my life that would make it dangerous to ask you for a real date.”
Sophia’s breath caught.
Dominic continued:
“I am not asking now.”
“Why?”
“Because right now you are grieving.”
Her eyes burned.
“Because you work for me.”
He added:
“And because my house may soon contain more federal agents than furniture.”
She laughed despite herself.
His mouth softened.
“When those things change, if you still want nothing from me, I accept that.”
“And if I don’t?”
He looked at her.
“Then I’ll ask properly.”
Sophia stared at the drawing in his hand.
“Mommy needs a boyfriend.”
Lily’s ridiculous declaration.
Margaret’s wish.
Maria Moretti’s warning.
Somehow three generations of women had shoved Dominic Moretti toward a door he had never planned to open.
He handed Sophia the drawing.
“You keep it.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“You picked it up.”
His gaze sharpened.
“So?”
May you like
“Maybe it was supposed to be yours.”
For once, Dominic had no answer.
