Chapter 14 - THE WORKSHOP WITH THE BLUE SIGN
Six months later, Dominic Moretti no longer lived behind twenty armed men.
He still had security.
He wasn't stupid.
But the gates were usually open during the day.
The illegal operations were gone.
His construction companies remained.
So did his logistics business.
And, strangely, three neighborhood grocery stores Anthony had once bought because he didn't want them closed.
Dominic kept those too.
My life changed more slowly.
Insurance replaced my van.
Mostly.
The insurance company tried very hard not to understand the phrase intentional brake-line sabotage.
I rebuilt Hodge Electrical Services.
Then one morning, Dominic drove me to my father's old workshop.
A new sign hung outside.
HODGE ELECTRICAL & SAFETY.
I stared.
“No.”
He looked confused.
“No?”
“You bought my father's building?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You said that already.”
“I don't accept buildings from men I'm dating.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“We're dating?”
I stared at him.
“You have taken me to dinner fourteen times.”
“I thought you liked the restaurants.”
“Dominic.”
He smiled.
It was unfair how different he looked when he forgot to be frightening.
“I didn't buy it for you.”
I folded my arms.
“Explain quickly.”
“The building was owned by a shell company Vincent controlled.”
That changed everything.
“He took it after my father died?”
“Yes.”
Dominic handed me a folder.
“Federal forfeiture released it to Walter Hodge's estate after proving the purchase was tied to fraud.”
I opened the papers.
My name was there.
Not Dominic's.
“He didn't give it to me.”
“No.”
“You just helped recover it.”
“Yes.”
I looked at him.
“That is annoyingly acceptable.”
He kissed me.
It wasn't our first kiss.
But it was the first one beneath my father's blue company sign.
Inside, we rebuilt the workshop.
I hired two apprentices.
Then four.
One was a nineteen-year-old woman whose first employer had told her electrical work was “too physical for girls.”
I hired her before he finished regretting the sentence.
Dominic funded nothing.
By my request.
Instead, he introduced me to legitimate commercial contracts.
I won some.
Lost others.
That mattered.
I wanted a life beside him, not beneath his name.
He understood.
One afternoon, Maria arrived carrying my father's restored toolbox.
“We found something.”
Inside the lid, beneath a replacement strip of felt, was a sealed envelope.
PENNY.
I opened it.
My father's handwriting covered one page.
If you're reading this, kid, you probably ignored somebody who told you not to touch something dangerous.
I laughed through tears.
Then I read the final lines.
The world is full of people who stare at problems and wait for someone more important to solve them.
Don't be one of them.
Notice what others miss.
That's your gift.
At the bottom, he'd written one more sentence.
And if that Moretti boy is still alive, tell him his brother wanted him free.
Dominic read it beside me.
May you like
Then whispered:
“I think your father saved me before you ever did.”
