Chapter 7 - THE LAST MORETTI LIE
Adrian was already seated when I entered the restaurant.
Same table our father used for Sunday dinners.
The irony felt deliberate.
He poured wine.
I did not touch it.
“Still suspicious?”
“Yes.”
He smiled.
“You look better.”
“Disappointing?”
His eyes hardened.
“There’s no reason for this to become ugly.”
I looked around the empty room.
“It became ugly three years ago.”
He leaned back.
“You brought the documents?”
“Yes.”
“Sign them.”
“No.”
His smile disappeared.
“Dominic.”
“First tell me the truth.”
“I already did.”
“Some of it.”
“What do you want?”
“Alan Reese.”
Adrian sighed.
“Coward.”
“He refused to kill my family.”
“He accepted my money for years.”
“Then developed a conscience.”
“Conveniently.”
“What happened the night of the crash?”
Adrian lifted his glass.
“He was told to drive a particular route.”
“Why?”
“To intersect with Isabella’s car.”
“You sabotaged his steering.”
“A mechanic did.”
“On your order.”
He looked at me.
“You really want confession?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“So Mateo hears it somewhere.”
That changed him.
Just slightly.
Adrian put down the glass.
“You were always too sentimental about that boy.”
My hands clenched under the table.
“He was your nephew.”
“He was going to inherit everything.”
I breathed.
Keep him talking.
Federal agents listened from two buildings away.
“What about Isabella?”
“She pushed you away from us.”
“She pushed me toward legal businesses.”
“Exactly.”
“You hated her.”
“I respected her enough to know she was dangerous.”
I almost laughed.
A woman who organized school fundraisers and hated guns had terrified him more than rival crews.
“Then me.”
Adrian smiled.
“You did half the work.”
“What?”
“When Enrico told you there was treatment, you refused.”
He leaned forward.
“You made it easy.”
That hurt because it was true.
“You expected grief to kill me.”
“I expected exhaustion to.”
“And when Lily showed up?”
His face changed.
There.
That fear again.
“She was noise.”
“Lily?”
“Hope.”
The word surprised me.
Adrian continued bitterly.
“You had nothing to live for. Then a child walks in and suddenly you’re taking treatment, changing wills, asking questions.”
He laughed.
“I almost admired her.”
My voice turned cold.
“Almost?”
“She became a problem.”
I stood halfway before forcing myself back down.
“What did you plan?”
“Nothing if you cooperated.”
“And if I didn’t?”
He smiled.
That was enough.
I heard the signal through my earpiece.
Agents were moving.
Then Adrian’s smile widened.
“You think I don’t know you’re wired?”
My blood went cold.
He tapped his own ear.
“Marco always breathes too loudly when he’s nervous.”
I looked toward the kitchen.
Three armed men emerged.
Adrian stood.
“Take it off.”
I did not move.
“Now.”
He lifted a gun.
I removed the wire.
Placed it on the table.
Adrian crushed it beneath his shoe.
“Where are the agents?”
“Close.”
“Then we’re leaving.”
“You won’t make it.”
“That depends.”
A side door opened.
Two more men entered.
Between them—
Lily.
My entire world stopped.
Her mouth was taped.
Eyes huge.
Marco was behind her.
Blood at his forehead.
Handcuffed.
Adrian smiled.
“You should really rotate your security.”
I could not breathe.
“How?”
Marco’s face twisted.
“Teresa’s nephew.”
Inside contact.
One of the guards.
Bought.
Lily looked at me.
Terrified.
I stood slowly.
“Let her go.”
Adrian laughed.
“You never learn.”
“Take me.”
“I already have you.”
He pointed at Lily.
“This is leverage.”
She started struggling.
Adrian looked at her.
“You really should have stayed under the bakery awning.”
My vision narrowed.
He knew exactly where she had been.
Maybe even helped push her there.
I asked:
“Did you know she’d find me?”
“No.”
He looked almost annoyed.
“Pure bad luck.”
Good.
At least that part belonged to fate.
Or Lily.
Police sirens sounded faintly outside.
Adrian grabbed Lily by the shoulder.
“Back exit.”
She bit him.
Hard.
Adrian screamed.
Lily tore the tape off her mouth.
“Dad!”
Everything moved.
Marco slammed backward into one guard.
I hit the second.
A gun fired.
Pain tore through my shoulder.
Lily dropped.
Adrian ran.
I went after him.
Not because of revenge.
Because he still had a weapon and Lily was behind me.
We reached the kitchen.
Adrian turned.
Gun raised.
I stopped.
Blood ran down my arm.
He stared.
“You always were the stronger one.”
“No.”
I breathed hard.
“Just slower to understand.”
“What?”
“That power isn’t what survives.”
He laughed.
“You think that child makes you good?”
“No.”
Sirens grew louder.
“She makes me want to try.”
Adrian’s face twisted.
Then he raised the gun.
A shot cracked.
Not mine.
Not his.
Adrian dropped.
Detective Elena Ortiz stood in the service doorway.
“Weapon down!”
His gun skidded beneath a table.
He was alive.
Shot through the leg.
Furious.
Arrested.
I almost collapsed.
Then Lily hit me.
Actually hit me.
Right in the chest.
“You got shot!”
“I noticed.”
“You promised!”
“I promised to try.”
“That’s bad promise!”
She cried.
I knelt despite the pain.
“I came back.”
Her arms went around me.
Marco sat against the wall nearby.
“Technically none of us have left yet.”
Lily glared.
“Shut up, Marco.”
He laughed.
So did I.
Then darkness came.
I woke in a hospital.
Again.
But this time, when I opened my eyes, Lily was asleep in a chair beside the bed.
Her hand wrapped around mine.
Enrico stood near the window.
“You’re difficult to keep alive.”
“I’m hearing that a lot.”
“Bullet missed major vessels.”
“Cancer?”
He smiled.
“Responding.”
I stared.
“How much?”
“Enough that I’m willing to use the word remission as a future possibility.”
My throat closed.
Future.
Possibility.
Both words had once meant nothing.
May you like
Now Lily shifted beside me.
Future had a face.
