Chapter 8 - THE LAST MAN VITTORIO BOUGHT
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Shaw had built his career prosecuting organized crime.
Newspapers called him Chicago’s cleanest prosecutor.
His office wall displayed photographs of criminals he had convicted.
What the public didn’t know was that several of those prosecutions had eliminated competitors for Vittorio Moretti and Anthony Castellano.
Shaw had never been fighting organized crime.
He had been managing it.
Dominic uncovered twenty years of payments.
Silana could have used the evidence as leverage.
The old Silana probably would have.
Instead, he did something that shocked everyone.
He contacted the Department of Justice.
Bella watched him make the call.
“You realize what happens when they start digging?” she asked afterward.
“Yes.”
“They’ll find your crimes too.”
“Yes.”
“You could go to prison.”
“Yes.”
She stared.
“And you’re just accepting that?”
Silana looked toward Leo playing on the rug.
“I spent my life believing fear could protect everything I cared about.”
He paused.
“Fear killed everything I cared about.”
Bella felt the words settle between them.
“Not everything.”
Silana looked at her.
She suddenly became very aware of what she had said.
Neither spoke.
The following forty-eight hours turned the Moretti estate upside down.
Federal investigators arrived quietly.
Silana provided documents.
Dominic negotiated immunity for lower-level employees who cooperated.
Several violent operations were dismantled.
Accounts were frozen.
Weapons routes were surrendered.
Beatatrice walked through the mansion in disbelief.
“What happens to us?” she asked Bella.
“I don’t know.”
For the first time, nobody did.
David agreed to testify.
His cooperation could expose both Castellano and Shaw.
It also meant entering witness protection.
He asked Bella to join him.
They spoke in the garden while Leo slept in a stroller nearby.
“We could disappear,” David said.
Bella looked at him.
“That’s your solution to everything.”
He smiled sadly.
“I guess it is.”
“You’ll be a good father someday.”
His eyes filled.
“To Leo?”
“If you make the effort.”
Hope flickered.
Bella added, “But not my husband.”
David nodded.
“I know.”
He did.
That was what made the goodbye hurt.
Not because Bella wanted him back.
Because she finally understood the man she had loved.
David had been frightened long before she knew there was danger.
And frightened people sometimes mistook secrecy for protection.
He kissed Leo’s forehead.
“I’ll write when I’m allowed.”
Bella touched his arm.
“Don’t disappear from him.”
“I won’t.”
David entered federal custody that evening.
The case against Shaw moved rapidly.
Too rapidly.
On Sunday morning, Shaw vanished.
His office was empty.
His phones disabled.
His passport remained at home.
Dominic knew what that meant.
“He’s not running from the country.”
Silana agreed.
“He’s finishing something first.”
They doubled security around Bella.
She hated it.
But she understood.
Shaw knew David had a child.
A child was leverage.
That afternoon, Leo developed a fever.
Bella’s old nursing instincts immediately activated.
“Probably teething,” Beatatrice said.
“His temperature is 102.4.”
Silana appeared in the doorway.
“Hospital.”
Bella shook her head.
“We can manage—”
“Hospital.”
She glared.
Silana raised both hands.
“You can argue with me in the car.”
Twenty minutes later, they entered a private pediatric wing under heavy security.
The diagnosis was simple.
Ear infection.
Bella nearly cried from relief.
Silana sat beside Leo’s hospital crib.
The baby pulled his finger.
The pediatrician smiled.
“He clearly likes you.”
Silana looked uncomfortable.
“He has poor judgment.”
Bella laughed.
The phrase had become familiar.
The pediatrician left.
Silana watched Leo sleep.
“I missed this.”
Bella sat beside him.
“Ear infections?”
He almost smiled.
“No.”
He looked at the crib.
“Being needed.”
Bella’s chest tightened.
“You’re needed by hundreds of people.”
“They need Moretti.”
His voice softened.
“He doesn’t know who Moretti is.”
Leo shifted.
Silana adjusted the blanket with surprising tenderness.
“He just knows Silana.”
Bella looked at him.
“So do I.”
Silana turned.
They were too close.
For months Bella had seen him as a monster she needed to hide from.
Then as a grieving father.
Then a protector.
Now she saw something more dangerous.
A man trying to become someone different.
Silana leaned toward her.
Then stopped.
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Bella whispered, “Neither do I.”
Their lips were inches apart.
The hospital lights went out.
Bella’s blood froze.
Backup lights immediately activated.
Silana stood.
His hand went toward his jacket.
“Stay here.”
A security guard entered.
“Mr. Moretti, electrical failure on this floor.”
Silana’s eyes narrowed.
“Hospitals have generators.”
“Yes, sir.”
Then Bella smelled something.
Smoke.
Not much.
But unmistakable.
A fire alarm began.
Nurses rushed down the corridor.
“Evacuate!”
Bella grabbed Leo.
Silana opened the door.
Smoke poured from a utility room.
His guards moved them toward the emergency stairs.
Bella’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered without thinking.
Michael Shaw’s voice whispered:
“Going somewhere?”
Her blood turned cold.
Silana grabbed the phone.
“Shaw.”
Shaw laughed.
“You destroyed twenty years of work.”
“You did that yourself.”
“Bring me the drive.”
Silana looked around.
“What drive?”
“The original Vittorio archive.”
“It’s with federal investigators.”
“Wrong answer.”
A scream echoed from the stairwell.
One of Silana’s guards fell backward.
Someone had attacked him from below.
Dominic shouted through the radio.
“Use the north stairs! North stairs!”
Silana pushed Bella toward another corridor.
Shaw spoke again through the phone.
“I don’t need the drive anymore.”
Silana stopped.
“Then what do you want?”
Shaw’s voice became quiet.
“I want the Moretti bloodline to end where Vittorio’s should have.”
Silana looked at Leo.
Bella felt his entire body change.
“He isn’t a Moretti.”
Shaw laughed.
“I know.”
Silana’s confusion lasted only a second.
Then Shaw continued.
“But you love him like one.”
The line disconnected.
Silana stared at Bella.
“We need to move.”
They rushed toward a service elevator.
Smoke thickened.
The doors opened.
Empty.
Silana pushed Bella inside.
Before he could follow, a man in hospital scrubs stepped from a doorway.
Gun raised.
Bella screamed.
Silana turned.
The shot cracked.
He stumbled.
The elevator doors began closing.
“Silana!”
He shoved his arm between them.
“Go!”
“No!”
“Bella, go!”
May you like
The doors closed.
The last thing Bella saw was Silana Moretti collapsing onto the hospital floor while the armed man walked toward him.
