Chapter 5 - What a Father Is Willing to Lose
Lorenzo did not sleep.
Neither did Elena.
By midnight, every window was covered, every entrance guarded, and Mia had been moved to a secure bedroom in the center of the mansion.
Elena sat beside her until she fell asleep.
Then she found Lorenzo in the library.
The daisy Mia had given him that morning was lying on his desk.
He had placed it in a glass of water.
For reasons Elena could not explain, that nearly made her cry.
Marco stood beside a digital map.
“Victor wants the flash drive,” he said.
Lorenzo stared at the screen.
“He doesn’t know we copied it.”
“We haven’t.”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“Then copy it.”
Marco blinked.
“You always said copies create vulnerabilities.”
“Three days ago, I didn’t know I had a daughter.”
Marco nodded once.
Everything had changed.
Elena stood near the fireplace.
“What happens after you give Victor the original?”
“We see what he does.”
“And if he realizes it’s a trap?”
“He probably will.”
“That’s your plan?”
“No.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“That’s the part I’m telling you.”
Elena folded her arms.
“I hate when you do that.”
“Do what?”
“Act like controlling information makes you invincible.”
Something flickered in his eyes.
“You think that’s what I’m doing?”
“I think it’s what your family has done for years.”
Marco wisely found something fascinating on the opposite wall.
Elena stepped closer.
“Victor controlled what you knew. Adrian kept secrets because he thought he was protecting you. Daniel kept secrets because he was protecting me. I kept Mia secret because I was protecting her.”
She looked at the men.
“And where did all that protecting get us?”
Nobody answered.
“Adrian is dead. Daniel is dead. Mia is being threatened. Maybe secrecy isn’t protecting anybody anymore.”
Lorenzo considered her words.
“What do you suggest?”
“The truth.”
Marco almost laughed.
“In this family?”
“Yes.”
Elena pointed to the flash drive.
“If Victor’s power comes from secrets, stop letting them be secret.”
Lorenzo understood.
“Send copies to people he can’t control.”
“Attorneys,” Elena said. “Federal investigators. Journalists if necessary.”
Marco looked impressed.
“Remind me never to make the maid angry.”
Elena gave him a look.
“I was an ER nurse for eight years. I’ve handled drunk men twice your size.”
Marco nodded solemnly.
“I withdraw my comment.”
Even Lorenzo smiled.
The plan changed.
Copies of Daniel’s files went to three attorneys under timed release instructions.
Another encrypted copy went to a retired federal prosecutor Lorenzo trusted.
If anything happened to Elena or Mia, everything would become public.
Victor’s leverage disappeared.
At 12:17 a.m., Lorenzo called him.
Victor answered immediately.
“Nephew.”
“Stay away from my daughter.”
Silence.
Then Victor chuckled.
“So it’s true.”
Lorenzo’s hand tightened around the phone.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You intercepted Elena’s letter.”
“I protected the family.”
“You murdered my brother.”
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“You murdered Daniel Voss.”
Another pause.
Victor’s voice became colder.
“Careful.”
“No. You be careful.”
Lorenzo looked at Elena.
For the first time, he did exactly what she had asked.
He stopped hiding the truth.
“The files are copied. If Elena or Mia is touched, they go everywhere.”
Victor was silent.
“You’ve become sentimental.”
“I’ve become a father.”
The difference was enormous.
Victor laughed softly.
“Do you really think that child makes you stronger?”
Lorenzo’s eyes rested on the daisy.
“Yes.”
He ended the call.
For two days, nothing happened.
That was worse.
Lorenzo remained close to Mia.
He learned how to pour cereal without giving her too much milk.
He learned that “the purple cup” meant one specific purple cup and that substituting another purple cup was apparently unacceptable.
He learned that bedtime stories required voices.
His dragon voice was terrible.
Mia loved it.
Elena watched from doorways.
Against every instinct she had, she began seeing the man beneath the reputation.
He was patient with Mia.
Not naturally.
Deliberately.
He would start to answer a phone call, then stop when she asked him something.
He put his phone facedown during breakfast.
He moved meetings when they interfered with bedtime.
On the third morning, Mia handed him a drawing.
Three stick figures.
One had curly hair.
One wore a yellow dress.
One was enormous and black because Mia had colored over the lines.
“That’s you,” she told Lorenzo.
“I gathered.”
“That’s Mommy.”
“I see.”
“And that’s me.”
Lorenzo studied it.
“What are we doing?”
“Family.”
He stopped breathing.
Elena turned toward the sink so neither of them would see her face.
Later, Lorenzo found her in the greenhouse.
“You’re avoiding me.”
“I’m working.”
“You reorganized the same flowers three times.”
She sighed.
“What do you want?”
“To know what happens when this is over.”
Elena stared at him.
“We survive.”
“After that.”
“I don’t know.”
“I do.”
Her heart sped up.
“I want Mia in my life.”
“I know.”
“I want you in it too.”
Elena looked away.
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re frightened. Because someone threatened our daughter. Because we’re remembering one night from four years ago as if it was something bigger.”
“It was bigger.”
“You disappeared.”
“My father was shot.”
“And I understand that now. But back then, I woke up alone.”
Lorenzo’s expression tightened.
“I came back.”
“What?”
“Three weeks later.”
Elena stared.
“You had moved.”
“My lease ended.”
“I went to the hospital. They said you had left.”
“I changed jobs.”
“I looked for you.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you find me?”
“Because someone told me you were engaged.”
Elena frowned.
“To Daniel?”
“Apparently.”
“We weren’t even dating then.”
Lorenzo’s expression hardened with realization.
“Victor.”
Another manipulation.
Another stolen possibility.
Elena sat on a bench.
“How much of our lives did that man control?”
“Too much.”
Lorenzo sat beside her.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then Elena said, “Daniel knew I still wondered about you.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“He never resented Mia for it.”
“He sounds like a better man than me.”
“He was a different man.”
“That’s a polite answer.”
“It’s an honest one.”
Lorenzo studied his hands.
“I cannot become Daniel.”
“I don’t want you to.”
He looked at her.
“I want Mia to know who you are. But if you want us in your life, things have to change.”
“My business.”
“Parts of it.”
He did not pretend not to understand.
The Moretti organization had legal companies and criminal operations tangled together.
Walking away would not be simple.
But neither was fatherhood.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” he said.
Elena blinked.
“For three days?”
“For years.”
That surprised her.
“Adrian wanted out. Not from the family. From the criminal side. He thought we could turn everything legitimate within a decade.”
“And you?”
“I told him he was naive.”
“Was he?”
Lorenzo looked toward the mansion.
“No.”
Before Elena could answer, an explosion shattered the morning.
Glass trembled.
Birds erupted from the trees.
Lorenzo threw himself over Elena.
A column of smoke rose near the front gate.
Gunfire followed.
“Stay down!”
He pulled her behind a stone planter.
Guards rushed across the grounds.
Elena’s first thought was Mia.
“My baby!”
She ran.
Lorenzo caught her.
“Marco has her.”
“I need her!”
“So do I.”
They sprinted toward the house.
Inside, alarms screamed.
A guard appeared.
“Mr. Moretti, east entrance compromised.”
“Where’s Mia?”
“With Bellini.”
“Where?”
“Safe room.”
They reached the hallway.
Marco came around the corner.
Alone.
Lorenzo stopped.
“Where is she?”
Marco’s face was bloodless.
“She was with Mrs. Caruso.”
Elena screamed, “Where is my daughter?”
Marco grabbed his radio.
Static.
Then Mrs. Caruso’s frightened voice came through.
“They took her.”
The world stopped.
Lorenzo’s face became something Elena would remember for the rest of her life.
Not rage.
Not violence.
Pure terror.
“Who?”
“Anthony.”
Elena staggered.
“No.”
Mrs. Caruso was crying.
“He came through the service tunnel. He knew the old access code.”
Lorenzo grabbed the radio.
“Which vehicle?”
“Black SUV.”
Marco looked at the security feed.
“Already through the secondary gate.”
Elena turned on Lorenzo.
“You said she was safe!”
The accusation struck him like a bullet.
He did not defend himself.
He grabbed his coat.
“Marco, track every camera between here and Victor’s properties.”
Elena followed.
“You’re not leaving me.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No.”
“Elena—”
“She is my daughter.”
“And mine.”
“Then stop trying to protect me by shutting me out.”
Lorenzo stared at her.
That sentence changed his decision.
“Stay beside me.”
They entered the SUV together.
Ten minutes later, Marco found the vehicle.
It was heading toward an abandoned Moretti shipping terminal in Brooklyn.
Lorenzo’s phone rang.
Victor.
He answered on speaker.
A child was crying in the background.
Elena’s blood turned to ice.
“Mia!”
“Mommy!”
Elena lunged toward the phone.
Victor’s voice came calmly.
“Bring the original drive.”
Lorenzo’s expression went dead.
“If you hurt her—”
“You have thirty minutes.”
The line disconnected.
Elena stared at Lorenzo.
He looked at her.
May you like
And for the first time since she had known him, the ruthless Lorenzo Moretti did not look powerful.
He looked like a father who would trade everything he owned for one more chance to hear his little girl call him Daddy.
