Chapter 14 - THE LAST THREAT
Luca did not come for Lily.
He came for me.
At 2:07 a.m., he walked into Moretti Holdings carrying no weapon.
Security nearly tackled him.
I stopped them.
Naomi was upstairs in the residential suite with Lily.
“What do you want?”
Luca looked exhausted.
“To finish this.”
“Bad choice of words.”
“I’m not here to hurt anyone.”
“Then why disappear?”
“Because Victor Carbone’s men were going to kill me before I testified.”
I studied him.
“Prove it.”
He handed me a phone.
Messages.
Photos.
Bank transfers.
Victor had planned a final strike against me.
Not because of the trust.
Because dismantling the old businesses cost him millions.
Luca had agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
He ran because Victor discovered it.
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Where?”
“Federal courthouse.”
“And you came here?”
“You have the best security in Manhattan.”
At least he was honest.
Then alarms sounded.
Marco entered.
“Possible breach. Loading dock.”
There it was.
Victor.
The final ghost of an empire refusing to die.
I moved toward the elevator.
Naomi appeared.
“No.”
“You should be upstairs.”
“I heard alarms.”
“Take Lily.”
“I already sent her with Julie through the secure tunnel.”
Smart.
Always.
I looked at Marco.
He nodded.
Lily was already moving toward another safe property.
Then Naomi grabbed my sleeve.
“Don’t go downstairs trying to prove what kind of man you are.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the old Matteo solves this with blood.”
“And the new one?”
“Lets the police do their jobs.”
That was deeply irritating.
Because she was right.
So I did something the men who raised me would have considered weakness.
I called federal agents.
Victor and four armed men were arrested in the loading bay before reaching an elevator.
No shootout.
No bodies.
No revenge.
Just handcuffs.
Hours later, I stood in the empty lobby.
Naomi joined me.
“That felt strange.”
“What?”
“Letting someone else handle it.”
“You survived.”
“Barely.”
She smiled.
Then became serious.
“It’s really over?”
“Yes.”
Luca testified.
Victor was charged.
Antonio cooperated.
Salvatore remained in federal custody.
Every hidden branch was finally exposed.
I looked at Naomi.
“There’s one thing that isn’t over.”
Her expression changed.
“Matteo.”
“I spent five years believing you chose to leave me.”
“You spent five years.”
“You spent five years believing I rejected you and Lily.”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“We can’t pretend that didn’t happen.”
“No.”
“But I don’t want the people who lied to us to decide what happens next.”
She stared at me.
“What are you asking?”
“Dinner.”
She blinked.
“What?”
“Dinner.”
“After murder plots, fake deaths, forged marriages, and federal investigations, your grand gesture is dinner?”
“Yes.”
She laughed.
A real laugh.
The one I remembered from the airplane five years earlier.
“Okay.”
“One dinner.”
“One.”
“No security at the table.”
“Unreasonable.”
“Matteo.”
“Fine.”
“No buying the restaurant.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You were.”
“Yes.”
She smiled.
Then Lily came running from the elevator with Julie.
“Daddy Matteo!”
I caught her.
She wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Mommy says you and her are going on a date.”
Naomi covered her face.
Julie looked innocent.
I whispered to Lily:
“Apparently.”
“Are you gonna kiss?”
“Lily.”
She giggled.
Then pulled something from her pocket.
A folded paper.
“I found this in Grandpa Antonio’s box.”
Naomi opened it.
A letter.
Written by me five years earlier.
One my mother had intercepted.
At the bottom I had written:
Naomi, if you’re carrying something you’re afraid to tell me, tell me anyway. There is nothing you could bring into my life that would make me leave you.
Naomi read it twice.
Then looked at me with tears in her eyes.
May you like
Five years too late, she finally received the answer she had needed.
And for the first time, I believed we might actually get another chance.
