Chapter 6 - THE LAST MORETTI BROTHER
Adriano’s car was found beside the Hudson.
Driver’s door open.
Blood on the steering wheel.
No body.
Lorenzo stared at the photographs while Elena stood across from him.
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Victor wants something.”
“The trust?”
“No.”
“What else?”
Lorenzo looked at Thomas’s files.
“Me.”
Victor called at noon.
“Your brother screams less than he used to.”
Lorenzo’s face became stone.
“Touch him again.”
“You’ll what?”
“I’ll find you.”
“You’ve been trying for years.”
“You were hiding behind Marco.”
Victor laughed.
“Bring the original trust documents.”
“Why?”
“Because with the right originals destroyed and the right copies created, guardianship becomes negotiable.”
“You’ll never get Mia.”
“Not while you’re alive.”
There it was.
Victor wanted Lorenzo removed.
Then Elena.
Then legal confusion.
Enough time for corrupt attorneys and judges to manufacture a claim.
“How long?”
“Tonight.”
“Where?”
“The old Fulton terminal.”
Lorenzo knew it.
Abandoned freight property.
Open river access.
Perfect for a trap.
“Adriano first.”
“Half brother at best.”
Lorenzo stiffened.
“What?”
Victor laughed.
“You really don’t know.”
The line ended.
Lorenzo stared at his phone.
Elena approached.
“What did he mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Mrs. Caruso did.
Her face had gone white.
Lorenzo noticed.
“Teresa.”
She looked away.
“What?”
“You know.”
“No.”
“Do not lie to me.”
The old woman closed her eyes.
“Your mother had Adriano before she married Vittorio.”
Lorenzo stared.
“What?”
“Your father adopted him privately.”
Lorenzo looked stunned.
“He was three?”
“Yes.”
“Who was his father?”
Mrs. Caruso hesitated.
“Victor Salerno’s older brother.”
Silence.
Elena whispered, “Oh my God.”
Lorenzo sat.
That explained decades.
Adriano never resembled Vittorio fully.
The arguments.
The favoritism.
Their father’s resentment.
Victor’s interest.
Mrs. Caruso continued.
“Your mother begged Vittorio never to tell Adriano.”
“Did Adriano know?”
“I don’t think so.”
Lorenzo laughed without humor.
“My family never met a secret it didn’t enjoy.”
Elena sat beside him.
“What are you going to do?”
“Get him back.”
“You’re walking into another trap.”
“Yes.”
“You cannot keep doing that.”
He looked at her.
“What would you do if it were Mia?”
She had no answer.
Exactly.
Marco agreed to cooperate that afternoon.
Not for Lorenzo.
For Paolo.
He gave investigators names, locations, accounts, and one crucial fact.
Victor’s Fulton terminal had an underground service corridor connected to an old rail tunnel.
Lorenzo assembled men.
Then he did something nobody expected.
He called Detective Marcus Shaw.
Shaw had spent twelve years trying to put Lorenzo in prison.
“Moretti.”
“Detective.”
“If this is about your gate incident—”
“I have Victor Salerno.”
Silence.
“Say that again.”
“His location. Evidence connecting him to Thomas Voss’s murder, attempted kidnapping, conspiracy.”
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“Because I want him arrested.”
Shaw laughed.
“That’s new.”
“It gets newer.”
Lorenzo looked at Elena through the office glass.
“I’m giving you financial records too.”
“How many?”
“All.”
Shaw went silent.
“You understand what that means?”
“Yes.”
“For you?”
“Yes.”
“You could go away for a long time.”
Lorenzo stared at Mia playing with wooden blocks.
“I know.”
Elena entered after the call.
“What did you do?”
“Something overdue.”
Her face changed.
“You’re turning yourself in.”
“Eventually.”
“No.”
“I’m not asking.”
“You just found her.”
“I know.”
“And now you’re going to prison?”
“Maybe.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“This isn’t noble.”
“I know.”
“She needs you.”
“She needs someone she doesn’t have to lie about.”
Elena stared.
Lorenzo continued.
“I could protect her with money and guns for twenty years.”
He looked at Mia.
“Or I could end the reason she needs them.”
Elena touched his face.
“When did you become this person?”
He smiled sadly.
“Apparently sometime between being called Daddy and discovering the man who raised my daughter was better than me.”
Elena kissed him.
Quickly.
Desperately.
He froze.
She pulled back.
“Come back.”
“I intend to.”
“Good.”
At midnight, Lorenzo entered Fulton terminal carrying a document case.
Victor waited beneath hanging industrial lights.
Adriano sat tied to a chair.
Bruised.
Alive.
He laughed when he saw Lorenzo.
“You look terrible.”
Lorenzo almost smiled.
“You too.”
Victor stood nearby.
“Touching.”
Lorenzo held up the case.
“Documents.”
Victor nodded.
“Bring them.”
Lorenzo walked forward.
“Release him.”
“No.”
“The deal.”
“There is no deal.”
Victor smiled.
“You should know that.”
Lorenzo stopped.
Victor approached Adriano.
“Did Teresa tell you?”
Adriano frowned.
“Tell me what?”
“That you’re not a Moretti.”
Lorenzo’s jaw tightened.
Victor smiled wider.
“Your real father was my brother.”
Adriano stared.
“No.”
“Oh yes.”
“Lorenzo?”
Lorenzo met his eyes.
“I learned today.”
Adriano laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Victor crouched beside him.
“You spent your life begging a Moretti to see you as family when you belonged to us.”
Adriano spat blood onto Victor’s shoe.
“I’d rather belong to nobody.”
Victor struck him.
Lorenzo stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Victor pulled a gun.
“Documents.”
Lorenzo tossed the case.
Victor opened it.
Blank paper.
He looked up.
Sirens exploded outside.
Victor’s face twisted.
“You called police.”
“Yes.”
“You coward.”
“No.”
Lorenzo looked at Adriano.
“I finally got tired of solving everything with funerals.”
Gunfire erupted outside.
Victor’s men moved.
Lorenzo dove toward Adriano.
A bullet hit the floor near them.
Adriano shouted.
Lorenzo cut his restraints with a hidden blade.
“Tunnel.”
“How?”
“Marco.”
Adriano stared.
“He flipped?”
“For his brother.”
They ran.
Victor fired.
A bullet struck Lorenzo’s shoulder.
He went down.
Adriano turned back.
“Lorenzo!”
“Go!”
“No.”
Adriano dragged him toward cover.
Victor approached.
“You always were the weaker brother.”
Adriano laughed.
“Which brother?”
Victor’s face changed.
That second was enough.
Detective Shaw entered from the side corridor.
“Drop it!”
Victor turned.
Gunfire.
One shot.
Victor fell.
Alive.
Wounded.
Police swarmed.
Lorenzo sat against the wall, blood spreading through his shirt.
Adriano knelt beside him.
“You idiot.”
“You came back.”
“So did you.”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“Still my brother.”
Adriano’s expression cracked.
“Even if—”
“I don’t care whose blood you have.”
Silence.
Then Adriano laughed softly.
“That sounds almost healthy.”
Lorenzo smiled.
“Don’t tell anyone.”
Paramedics arrived.
As they lifted him, Lorenzo’s phone vibrated.
Elena.
He answered.
“Daddy?”
Mia’s voice.
His eyes closed.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
“Mommy says you got boo-boo.”
“Small one.”
Elena shouted in the background, “He was shot.”
Mia gasped.
“That’s big boo-boo.”
Lorenzo laughed despite the pain.
“Okay. Medium.”
“You come home?”
He looked at police surrounding Victor.
Then Detective Shaw holding sealed evidence that could dismantle Lorenzo’s own organization.
Home.
For the first time, that word meant people.
Not property.
“Yes.”
He smiled.
“I’m coming home.”
May you like
But when Lorenzo returned two days later, federal agents were waiting at the mansion.
And Mia was standing at the top of the staircase when they placed her father in handcuffs.
