Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
Luca Moretti walked into Dante’s house at 9:12 that morning.
No kidnapping.
No dramatic rescue.
He simply appeared at the front gate and asked to see his brother.
Dante stood in the foyer.
Emma stayed beside Lucia.
Luca entered wearing a black coat and carrying nothing.
He looked at Dante.
Dante looked at him.
Sixteen years collapsed between them.
Then Dante punched him.
Emma gasped.
Lucia signed angrily:
DANTE!
Luca staggered, wiped blood from his lip, and laughed.
“I deserved that.”
Dante hit him again.
This time Luca did not laugh.
“Sixteen years.”
“I know.”
“You were alive.”
“I know.”
“Mom buried an empty coffin!”
Luca’s face broke.
“I know.”
Dante grabbed his coat.
“Why?”
Luca whispered:
“Because if I came back, they would kill you.”
Silence.
Dante released him.
Luca explained.
He had been taken by Matteo’s network.
Not because he knew where the evidence was.
Because they wanted leverage against Lucia.
At sixteen, he escaped during a transfer near the Canadian border.
A retired police officer found him and hid him.
“Why not call?”
“Because the officer discovered Moretti contacts inside New York police.”
Dante looked toward the ledger.
“And you stayed hidden sixteen years?”
“No.”
Luca’s eyes hardened.
“I spent sixteen years finding everyone involved.”
He had worked under false names.
Montreal.
Boston.
Detroit.
Shipping yards.
Private security firms.
Quietly mapping the network.
“How did Mom get your picture?”
“I sent it.”
Lucia started crying.
Luca crossed the room.
He fell to his knees in front of her.
She touched his face.
Then slapped him.
Hard.
Emma nearly smiled.
Luca did too.
Lucia signed:
That is for sixteen years.
Then she pulled him into her arms.
Dante looked away.
Emma saw his eyes shine.
She pretended not to.
Later, Luca studied Emma.
“So you’re the waitress.”
Emma frowned.
“I apparently have a reputation.”
“The woman who made my brother realize Mom has opinions.”
Dante glared.
Luca grinned.
“I’ve missed this.”
Emma liked him immediately.
That was probably dangerous.
Then Luca grew serious.
“There’s someone you need to remove from the house.”
Dante’s expression tightened.
“Who?”
“Marco Santini.”
The same man Dante’s father warned about.
Dante went still.
“Why?”
“His father worked for Matteo.”
“That does not make Marco guilty.”
“No.”
Luca looked directly at him.
“But Marco is the person who told Matteo you opened the box at St. Agnes.”
Silence.
Dante whispered:
“How do you know?”
Luca placed a phone on the table.
An intercepted text conversation.
MARCO: HE HAS THE LEDGER.
MATTEO: AND THE GIRL?
MARCO: STILL WITH HIM.
Emma’s blood chilled.
“The girl?”
Luca looked at her.
“You.”
“Why do they care about me?”
Luca’s face changed.
“Because Lucia isn’t the only person who knows sign language.”
Emma frowned.
“What does that mean?”
He opened another file.
Surveillance photographs.
Emma leaving her apartment.
Lily entering NYU.
Lucia dining at Aurelia.
All taken before Emma ever approached table twelve.
Someone had been watching Emma for months.
Then Luca showed them the final photograph.
Emma’s younger sister Lily speaking with Matteo Moretti outside NYU.
May you like
Emma stopped breathing.
Lily had never told her she knew him.
