Chapter 9 - THE FATHER I THOUGHT I NEVER HAD
Matteo Moretti was alive.
The man everyone said disappeared twenty-eight years ago.
The man my mother spent her life protecting me from searching for.
My father.
Alive.
Inside Victor's property.
The police operation lasted three hours.
Victor eventually surrendered after negotiators convinced him the evidence against him had already been secured.
Leo was recovered unharmed.
My mother was found in an upstairs room.
And in a locked medical suite behind the main house, paramedics discovered Matteo.
He was fifty-nine.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
His left leg damaged from an old injury.
But alive.
I saw him first through a hospital-room window.
For twenty-seven years, my father had existed as a fake name and one blurry photograph.
Now he was sitting in a bed talking to a nurse.
I stopped at the door.
My mother stood beside me.
Older.
More fragile.
But unmistakably Mom.
She took my hand.
"You don't have to go in."
I looked at her.
For once, someone was giving me a choice.
I swallowed.
"I want to."
Matteo looked up when I entered.
His eyes were the same gray-blue as Luca's.
Leo's.
Mine had always been hazel.
But suddenly I saw myself in his face anyway.
The shape of his mouth.
The way his left eyebrow lifted.
He whispered:
"Avery?"
I couldn't speak.
Tears filled his eyes.
"My little girl."
That broke me.
I crossed the room.
He opened his arms.
I let him hold me.
For the first time in my life, I knew what my father's heartbeat sounded like.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
I cried against his shoulder.
"Where were you?"
"Trapped."
Victor had kept him alive because Matteo controlled access to old financial trusts and overseas accounts.
For years, Victor used forged signatures and threats.
Marianne had found Matteo once.
Then lost contact after Victor moved him.
"Did you know about me?" I asked.
"Every birthday."
He smiled through tears.
"Your mother sent photographs whenever she could."
I looked toward Mom.
She was crying.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Her expression broke.
"Because I thought knowing would make you search for him."
"And searching would've put you in danger," Matteo finished.
I laughed through tears.
"Apparently being ignorant didn't keep me very safe."
They both looked ashamed.
Good.
I loved them.
I was furious with them.
Both things could exist.
Then the hospital door opened.
Luca stood there holding Leo.
The baby saw me.
His entire face lit up.
He reached.
I laughed.
"Seriously?"
Luca smiled.
"He has terrible boundaries."
I took Leo.
He grabbed my necklace.
Again.
Matteo stared.
Then began crying.
"That was mine."
I looked down.
"The pendant?"
He nodded.
"I gave it to Marianne the night we decided to run."
Luca stepped closer.
Matteo looked at him.
"Gianni's boy."
Luca swallowed.
"Uncle Matteo."
They embraced.
Family returning from the dead seemed to be becoming a Moretti tradition.
Then Matteo looked toward Leo.
His expression changed.
"Where's Sofia?"
The room went silent.
Luca's face broke.
"She died."
Matteo closed his eyes.
"I'm sorry."
Then he said something none of us expected.
"Sofia came to see me before the accident."
Luca stared.
"What?"
"She brought documents."
Matteo looked toward Rebecca.
"Documents proving Victor didn't act alone."
My stomach tightened.
"Who helped him?"
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Matteo looked directly at Frank DeSantis.
And Frank went completely pale.
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