Chapter 12 - The Choice Money Couldn't Make
Natalie screamed Luca's name.
No answer.
Fifteen seconds.
Marco tried opening the hatch.
Jammed.
Ten.
Samuel dragged Natalie backward.
Five.
Natalie stopped breathing.
Zero.
Nothing happened.
Then the hatch opened.
Luca climbed out.
Grease covered his shirt.
Blood marked his knuckles.
Natalie threw herself at him.
"You look terrible."
"I carried heavier things than groceries."
She laughed and cried simultaneously.
Gabriel was arrested.
For the first time, truly arrested.
The evidence was overwhelming.
Enzo testified.
Daniel survived his gunshot and made a deal with prosecutors.
Gabriel's network collapsed.
It should have ended there.
It didn't.
Luca now faced his own choice.
Federal investigators offered immunity for certain inherited Moretti operations if Luca surrendered everything he knew about the remaining criminal structure.
Doing so would permanently end the old Moretti organization.
Some of his father's men considered that betrayal.
Luca signed.
He chose freedom.
Not only his.
Everyone's.
Weeks passed.
Natalie returned to work.
David recovered.
His relationship with Natalie remained fragile.
She didn't forgive twenty years in twenty days.
But she began listening.
Samuel moved into Elena's spare room temporarily.
A thirty-year-old feared former criminal living with his mother produced unexpected comedy.
Elena made him take out garbage.
Natalie considered it justice.
Luca became quieter.
Without the organization, he had to discover who he was.
Moretti Holdings remained legitimate and enormous.
He was still rich.
Still handsome enough to be annoying.
But humility?
Work in progress.
One afternoon Natalie found him helping Elena assemble a bookshelf.
Backward.
"You're doing it wrong."
Luca stared at the instructions.
"They're badly written."
"They're pictures."
He glared.
Natalie kissed him.
For a while, happiness seemed possible.
Then Isabella arrived.
She carried an envelope.
"For Luca."
Inside was a legal document.
Luca read it twice.
His father had created a secret trust.
Its beneficiary was Samuel Moretti.
Samuel wasn't merely Antonio's son.
He owned thirty percent of Moretti Holdings.
Samuel stared at Luca.
"I don't want it."
"That's irrelevant."
"It could destroy your company."
"Our company."
Samuel looked stunned.
Luca offered his hand.
Samuel took it.
Natalie smiled.
Then Isabella spoke.
"There's another page."
Luca turned it over.
His expression changed.
The trust contained one final condition.
Control transferred only if Samuel proved his identity.
The required witness was Sofia Moretti.
A woman dead for fourteen years.
Except attached to the document was a photograph taken three months ago.
May you like
Sofia was standing in a train station.
Alive.
