Chapter 15 - The Last MorettiThe family was never what Dominic believedFor six years, I believed I had lost Elena.
For six years, I believed my father was dead.
For six years, I believed I was the only Moretti heir.
Every belief had been a lie.
The man standing in front of me looked exactly like me.
Except his eyes had no warmth.
“Roman.”
He smiled.
“That's what Victor called me.”
“You killed him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he was going to kill Luca.”
I looked at the boy.
Luca was crying.
I stepped toward him.
Roman shook his head.
“He's mine.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“His blood is my blood.”
Elena moved between us.
“Roman, please.”
He looked at her.
“You lied too.”
She began crying.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You were trying to protect Dominic.”
I lowered my weapon.
“Why?”
Roman stared at me.
“Because our father taught you to survive.”
He looked at himself.
“He taught me to obey.”
Silence.
“Then he taught me to hate you.”
I swallowed.
“I never knew you existed.”
“I know.”
He stepped closer.
“You didn't know about me.”
He looked toward the other boys.
“You didn't know about them.”
He looked at Elena.
“You didn't know what Victor did.”
Then he looked back at me.
“But you're here now.”
I glanced at the evidence scattered around the room.
The ledger.
The will.
The photographs.
The hospital records.
Six years of secrets.
All leading here.
“What happens now?”
Roman smiled.
“You choose.”
“Choose what?”
“The empire.”
He placed the Black Ledger in my hand.
“Burn it.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“Because every person in this city is trapped inside it.”
He looked toward the children.
“They'll spend their lives fighting over a throne built from corpses.”
I looked at Elena.
She nodded through her tears.
“Burn it, Dominic.”
I opened the ledger.
Names filled page after page.
Judges.
Police commanders.
Politicians.
Businessmen.
People who had protected my family.
People who had destroyed others.
Then I reached the final page.
There was one name.
DOMINIC MORETTI.
Under it was a note.
THE LAST HEIR MUST KILL HIS BROTHER.
I looked at Roman.
He was waiting.
“You knew about this.”
“Yes.”
“And you came here expecting me to kill you.”
He smiled.
“I came here expecting you to prove our father wrong.”
I looked at my four sons.
At Gabriel.
At Elena.
At the life I had lost and somehow found again.
Then I tore the final page from the ledger.
Roman stared.
“What are you doing?”
I dropped it into the fire.
“I refuse.”
The flames swallowed the page.
Then the rest.
One by one.
The Black Ledger became ash.
Roman stared at me.
“You just destroyed the Moretti empire.”
“No.”
I looked at Elena.
“I destroyed the version of it that belonged to the dead.”
She walked toward me.
“What happens to us?”
I took her hand.
“For once, we decide.”
Behind us, the boys were laughing.
Five little voices.
Five versions of a future nobody had planned.
I looked at Luca.
He stared back at me.
Then he ran into my arms.
“Daddy.”
This time I didn't freeze.
I held him.
I held all of them.
And for the first time in my life, I understood something my father had never learned.
Blood could build a dynasty.
But love could destroy one.
Three months later, the Moretti empire was gone.
The companies were sold.
The corrupt accounts were exposed.
The Barrett family collapsed.
Victor's network was dismantled.
Sloane testified.
Marco's secrets were buried with him.
Elena and I left Boston with the boys.
We bought a quiet house far from the city.
No guards.
No guns.
No family council.
No conservatory.
Only six bedrooms.
A backyard.
And five boys who fought over pancakes every Sunday morning.
I thought that was the end of the story.
I was wrong.
One rainy evening, I found an envelope pushed beneath our front door.
No stamp.
No address.
Just my name.
DOMINIC MORETTI.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Six children stood together.
Five were my sons.
The sixth was a little girl.
Dark hair.
Green eyes.
And the same crooked crease between her eyebrows.
On the back, someone had written:
YOU FOUND THE FIVE.
NOW FIND THEIR SISTER.
I stared at the photograph.
Behind me, Elena whispered:
“Dominic…”
I turned.
She had gone completely white.
“You know her.”
Elena nodded.
Tears filled her eyes.
“She was born the night I escaped.”
My heart stopped.
“Where is she?”
Elena looked toward the window.
Outside, across the road, a black car sat beneath the rain.
Its headlights flicked on.
And inside the car was a woman holding a little girl.
The woman slowly lowered the window.
It was Sloane.
She smiled at me.
Then she mouthed four words.
She's coming for you.
The car disappeared into the rain.
And my phone rang.
Unknown number.
A child's voice whispered:
“Daddy…”
The line went dead.
I looked at Elena.
She was trembling.
“Who was that?”
Elena closed her eyes.
Then she whispered:
“Our daughter.”
And six years after I thought I had lost my family forever, I realized the truth.
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I hadn't found the end of the Moretti story.
I had only found the first five chapters.
