Chapter 4 - The Man Who Knew Too Much
Marco slowly raised his hands.
Dante stood between Luca and the gun.
“Keller.”
“Don't move.”
Claire held Luca tightly.
Keller's weapon remained fixed on Marco.
“Tell him.”
Marco stared.
“Tell him what?”
Keller laughed.
“That you were there.”
Dante's face changed.
“Where?”
“The airport.”
Silence filled the garage.
Marco looked at Dante.
“I can explain.”
“Then start.”
Keller spoke first.
“He won't.”
Dante's voice became cold.
“Marco.”
Marco exhaled.
“I was at the airport.”
Claire felt her stomach twist.
“You helped them take him?”
“I helped keep him alive.”
Keller scoffed.
“That's one version.”
Marco ignored him.
“Adrian gave me an order. Put Dante on the plane or Claire died before sunrise.”
Dante stared.
“You never told me you were working for Adrian.”
“I was working for your father.”
“My father was dying.”
“Yes.”
“And Adrian?”
“Was paying half your father's captains.”
Dante seemed to absorb this.
“You knew about Claire.”
“I knew enough.”
“Luca?”
Marco looked toward the boy.
“Not until later.”
“How much later?”
“Four years ago.”
Claire stepped forward.
“You've watched him for four years?”
“Yes.”
Rage rose inside her.
“You came near my child?”
“Never directly.”
“You said you'd seen him.”
“From across the street. School pickup. Parks. Places where we could make sure nobody else got close.”
Claire almost hit him again.
“You had no right.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Marco looked at Dante.
“Because Adrian discovered the boy existed.”
Dante went still.
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“You were still trapped overseas.”
“I wasn't trapped for six years.”
“No.”
That answer changed everything.
Claire looked at Dante.
“What does that mean?”
Dante's jaw tightened.
Marco looked away.
Claire stepped closer.
“Dante.”
He didn't answer.
“Tell me.”
“I came back three years ago.”
The garage seemed to tilt.
“What?”
“I came back.”
“You were in Boston?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
Claire stared at him.
“You knew where I lived?”
“Yes.”
“You knew about Luca?”
Dante's silence answered.
Claire stepped backward.
“No.”
“Claire—”
“You said you didn't know.”
“I didn't know when I left.”
“But you knew three years ago.”
“Yes.”
The word broke something inside her.
“You saw him?”
“Yes.”
She slapped Dante.
Luca gasped.
Claire immediately looked at her son.
“I'm sorry.”
Dante didn't react.
He deserved it and knew it.
“You watched your son for three years and never came to him?”
“I couldn't.”
“Don't.”
“Adrian still had people around you.”
“Don't give me another noble explanation.”
“It isn't noble.”
“Then what is it?”
Dante looked toward Luca.
“Cowardice.”
Claire stopped.
“I stood across from his school one afternoon.”
His voice was low.
“He was wearing a red jacket. He dropped his backpack. You made him pick everything up himself.”
Claire remembered.
Luca had been three.
He had cried because his crayons spilled.
Dante continued.
“I wanted to cross the street.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because one of Adrian's men was in a car twenty yards behind me.”
Claire felt sick.
“So you left again.”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
Dante's eyes filled with shame.
“More than I can count.”
Luca looked at him.
“You saw me?”
Dante swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you say hi?”
Claire closed her eyes.
Dante crouched carefully despite his wound.
“Because there were bad people watching, and I thought saying hello might make them hurt you.”
Luca considered that.
“Did they hurt you?”
“Yes.”
“That's why you're bleeding?”
“Partly.”
Luca reached into his coat pocket.
He pulled out a small dinosaur Band-Aid.
“Mom says these don't fix big cuts.”
Dante accepted it.
“Your mom is usually right.”
“You can keep it.”
“Thank you.”
Claire turned away because she couldn't watch.
Keller's voice returned sharply.
“This touching reunion is wasting time.”
Dante stood.
“Why are you helping us?”
“I am helping myself.”
Keller looked at Claire.
“The flash drive proves Adrian has been buying cops, judges, union bosses, and Moretti captains for years.”
Hayes's words matched.
Claire held it tighter.
“And you?”
Keller smiled humorlessly.
“I took his money.”
Dante's expression hardened.
“At least you're honest.”
“I was dirty. Not stupid.”
“Difference?”
“Adrian is cleaning house.”
Keller nodded toward Marco.
“Everyone who knows what he did six years ago is dying.”
Claire remembered Dante's shooting.
“The warehouse.”
“Was a trap.”
Marco cursed.
Keller continued.
“Dante was supposed to die tonight. Then Adrian planned to leak Luca's identity and blame the kidnapping on a rival organization.”
Claire held Luca tighter.
“Kidnapping?”
Keller looked at her.
“You think the men upstairs wanted to scare him?”
Claire couldn't breathe.
Dante stepped closer.
“Where is Adrian?”
Keller shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“I know where he'll be tomorrow.”
“Where?”
“A memorial service.”
“For whom?”
Keller smiled.
“His mother.”
Dante stared.
“My mother is alive.”
Keller's expression changed.
“No.”
Dante went pale.
“What did you say?”
“Your mother died this afternoon.”
Marco looked shocked.
Dante shook his head.
“No.”
“Private hospice facility outside Providence.”
“No.”
“She left something for you.”
Keller reached inside his coat slowly.
Marco raised his weapon.
Keller stopped.
“Relax.”
He removed an envelope.
Dante recognized the handwriting immediately.
Claire saw it.
His mother's.
Keller handed it over.
Dante opened the envelope.
Inside was a single page.
His eyes moved across the writing.
Then stopped.
Claire touched his arm.
“What?”
Dante handed her the letter.
She read.
My son,
If this reaches you, Adrian knows the truth about Luca.
Do not trust the family records.
Do not trust the old will.
And whatever happens, do not let Adrian open the safe beneath the chapel floor.
Your father lied about who should inherit everything.
So did I.
Claire looked up.
“What does that mean?”
Marco swore quietly.
Dante folded the letter.
“My family's chapel.”
“Where?”
“Moretti estate.”
Keller nodded.
“Adrian's memorial is tomorrow afternoon.”
Claire stared.
“You're not going.”
Dante looked at her.
“I have to.”
“You just had surgery.”
“He knows about Luca.”
“And walking into a trap helps Luca how?”
“Because whatever is under that chapel might end this.”
Claire wanted to argue.
Then Luca tugged her sleeve.
“I want to go home.”
Claire looked down.
That was all she wanted too.
A normal home.
A locked door.
Cereal bowls.
Laundry.
Anything but this.
Dante touched her hand.
“I can give you that.”
She looked up.
“How?”
“By ending this.”
“Or dying.”
His silence hurt.
Claire shook her head.
“You don't get to disappear again.”
Dante's eyes met hers.
Something passed between them.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But the acknowledgment of something unfinished.
Marco moved toward the SUV.
“We need to leave before more police arrive.”
Keller nodded.
“I have a safe place.”
Marco laughed.
“No.”
Claire looked between them.
“Neither of you decides.”
Dante almost smiled.
“That sounds familiar.”
Claire ignored him.
“We go somewhere nobody in the Moretti organization knows.”
“I know somewhere,” Dante said.
“You just described yourself as the problem.”
“Not Moretti property.”
“Then where?”
His expression softened.
“The apartment where we met.”
Claire stared.
“That building was sold.”
“I bought it.”
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
“Why?”
He looked at her.
“I couldn't save our life.”
His voice became quieter.
“So I saved the place where it started.”
Claire didn't know what to say.
They drove there before sunrise.
The apartment looked almost unchanged.
Same brick walls.
Same narrow kitchen.
Same crooked window overlooking Beacon Street.
Claire walked through slowly.
“You kept it.”
Dante stood behind her.
“Yes.”
Luca found an old box beneath a shelf.
“What is this?”
Claire turned.
Inside were photographs.
Claire laughing at twenty-eight.
Claire asleep with textbooks.
Claire and Dante eating pizza on the floor.
Luca held one up.
“You guys were together?”
Claire nodded.
“Yes.”
“Like boyfriend and girlfriend?”
Dante smiled faintly.
“Something like that.”
Luca studied the photograph.
Then another object fell from the box.
A sealed envelope.
Dante's name was written on it.
Claire picked it up.
The handwriting wasn't hers.
Dante opened it.
Inside was a hospital report dated six years earlier.
Claire recognized the date immediately.
Two weeks after Dante vanished.
Her first pregnancy blood test.
She looked at him.
“I never gave this to anyone.”
Dante flipped the page.
On the bottom someone had handwritten a message.
Child confirmed.
Male probability 96%.
Prepare succession protocol.
Dante stared at Marco.
Marco's face drained of color.
Claire whispered, “What is succession protocol?”
Nobody answered.
Then someone knocked on the apartment door.
Three slow knocks.
A pause.
Two more.
Dante reached for a gun Marco had given him.
Claire pulled Luca behind her.
A woman's voice came through the door.
“Dante?”
He froze.
Claire looked at him.
May you like
Dante whispered a name she had heard only once before.
“Isabella?”
