Chapter 5 - The Father in the Coffin
Vincent didn’t reach for a weapon.
He simply stared.
Salvatore Moretti had been dead for six years.
Yet there he stood.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
“Grandfather?” Ethan whispered.
Vincent stepped in front of both children.
“You stay behind me.”
Salvatore smiled.
“Still protecting everyone.”
Vincent’s voice was flat.
“You should have stayed dead.”
“I tried.”
“No. You hid.”
Salvatore glanced toward Elena.
“So did she.”
Vincent almost moved toward him.
Elena caught his arm.
Salvatore noticed.
“You still trust her?”
“I trust her more than you.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
Maria entered behind them.
Salvatore’s smile vanished.
For the first time, he looked genuinely shocked.
“Maria.”
She stood beside her son.
“You don’t get to say my name.”
Salvatore’s expression hardened.
“You should have disappeared permanently.”
“You tried.”
Vincent looked between his parents.
Every lie in his life had begun with the man standing before him.
“My mother. Elena. Sofia.”
His voice dropped.
“You took all of them.”
Salvatore shook his head.
“I protected this family.”
“You destroyed it.”
“I built everything you inherited.”
“And I spent eight years trying to make it legitimate.”
Salvatore laughed.
“You think restaurants and real estate erase blood?”
“No.”
Vincent looked at Ethan.
“But stopping men like you might.”
Salvatore’s eyes narrowed.
Then sirens sounded outside.
Not Moretti vehicles.
Federal agents.
Vincent looked at Dominic.
Dominic smiled faintly.
“The records from the watch.”
“You sent them?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
Salvatore’s composure cracked.
Maria stepped forward.
“I memorized the access sequence before I hid it.”
Vincent understood.
The watch had never truly been necessary.
It was insurance.
Salvatore turned toward the service corridor.
Dominic blocked him.
“You’re finished.”
“No.”
Gabriel’s voice came through the ballroom speakers.
Everyone looked upward.
“You’re all finished.”
The doors locked.
Smoke began leaking through the ventilation system.
Vincent grabbed Ethan.
Elena grabbed Sofia.
“Kitchen exit!” Dominic shouted.
They ran.
Guests and staff had already been evacuated, leaving the mansion mostly empty.
Anna appeared in the hallway carrying Lily.
Michael saw her.
He stopped.
Anna stopped too.
Three months of believing her husband had abandoned her crossed her face.
“Michael?”
He stepped toward her.
She slapped him.
Then she hugged him.
Lily screamed, “Daddy!”
Michael collapsed to his knees and held his daughter.
Vincent understood the reunion too well to interrupt it.
Dominic did.
“We move now.”
They reached the courtyard.
Agents surrounded Salvatore.
Maria watched as handcuffs closed around her husband’s wrists.
He looked at Vincent.
“You think this ends because they arrest me?”
Vincent said nothing.
“Gabriel knows everything.”
“Then he’ll join you.”
Salvatore smiled.
“You still don’t understand.”
He leaned closer as agents pulled him away.
“Gabriel never wanted the money.”
Vincent frowned.
“What did he want?”
Salvatore looked toward Ethan.
Then Sofia.
“My grandchildren.”
Vincent lunged.
Agents restrained him.
“Why?”
Salvatore laughed.
Then he was taken away.
The mansion filled with smoke, but firefighters quickly discovered it was another diversion.
No fire.
No poison.
Gabriel specialized in fear.
By afternoon, federal agents had taken statements.
Vincent sat with Elena in a private room.
For the first time since finding her alive, they were alone.
“I don’t know how to do this,” he admitted.
“Neither do I.”
“I loved you for eight years after you died.”
Elena cried.
“I loved you too.”
“I was angry at a ghost.”
“I know.”
“And now you’re sitting here.”
“I know.”
He looked at her.
“I’m still angry.”
“You should be.”
“But I don’t want to lose you again.”
Elena reached across the table.
He took her hand.
No promises.
Not yet.
But it was something.
Ethan entered.
“Sofia wants to know if she can stay.”
Vincent smiled sadly.
“This is her home.”
“Good.”
Ethan hesitated.
“Can Mom stay too?”
Vincent looked at Elena.
Ethan realized what he had said.
“I mean—”
Elena covered her mouth.
Ethan had been an infant when she disappeared.
He knew her only from photographs Vincent kept beside his bed.
“I’ve always called you Mom in my head,” Ethan whispered.
Elena stood and hugged him.
Vincent looked away because he couldn’t control his face.
Sofia entered next.
Then Maria.
For a brief moment, Vincent saw the family that should have existed all along.
His phone rang.
Dominic.
Vincent answered.
“We found Gabriel’s vehicle.”
“Where?”
“Airport parking garage.”
“Did he leave?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the vehicle contains something.”
Vincent’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“A file.”
“On whom?”
Dominic paused.
“Lily.”
Vincent looked toward the toddler.
She was sitting on Michael’s lap.
“Why Lily?”
“The file goes back to before she was born.”
“That’s impossible.”
“There’s more.”
Vincent left the room.
“What?”
“Gabriel funded Anna’s fertility clinic.”
Vincent stopped walking.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
“We did.”
Dominic’s next words changed everything.
“Lily’s biological father isn’t Michael.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“Who is?”
Dominic didn’t answer immediately.
Then he said a name Vincent never expected.
“Gabriel Vale.”
Behind Vincent, Anna screamed.
He turned.
The front door stood open.
May you like
Michael was on the floor.
And Lily was gone.
