Chapter 10 - THE TRIALLucian Moretti’s trial began eight months later.
Chicago turned it into a spectacle.
Satellite trucks filled the courthouse street.
Reporters shouted questions.
HEAD OF MORETTI DYNASTY TESTIFIES AGAINST BROTHER.
Sofia hated the headline.
“You’re not the head of a dynasty.”
Adrian adjusted his tie.
“What am I?”
She smiled.
“A man who forgot Emma’s lunchbox yesterday.”
He frowned.
“That was one time.”
“Three.”
“Allegedly.”
Emma sat at the kitchen counter.
“Three.”
Adrian stared at her.
“Traitor.”
She grinned.
Life at the estate had changed beyond recognition.
Half of Adrian’s businesses had been sold.
The freight company became fully legitimate.
The gambling rooms closed.
Several former crew members entered union construction jobs Adrian helped create.
Marco became head of corporate security.
Mrs. Delaney complained the mansion had become too noisy.
She smiled every time she said it.
And Sofia no longer worked as a maid.
She had enrolled in nursing school.
Adrian paid tuition.
She made him sign a written agreement allowing her to repay him.
He secretly suspected she actually would.
The only unresolved wound remained Lucian.
His defense team argued Daniel’s recording was manipulated.
Experts proved otherwise.
They claimed Hale acted independently.
Hale accepted a plea deal and testified against Lucian.
Then Sofia took the stand.
Lucian watched her from the defense table.
She described Daniel.
The threats.
Rossi.
Emma eating moldy bread while saving the good portion for her mother.
Several jurors cried.
Adrian sat behind prosecutors.
His hands remained clenched.
Lucian looked at him only once.
When Sofia described the night at the warehouse.
Then Adrian testified.
The prosecutor asked, “Mr. Moretti, when did you first suspect your brother’s involvement?”
Adrian answered.
“The night Vittorio Rossi told me to look inside my own family.”
“What did you feel?”
“Disbelief.”
“Anger?”
“Yes.”
“Did you intend to kill Lucian Moretti?”
The defense objected.
Overruled.
Adrian looked at Lucian.
“Yes.”
The courtroom murmured.
The prosecutor paused.
“What stopped you?”
Adrian looked toward Sofia.
Then Emma.
The judge had permitted Emma to sit only during limited testimony.
She wore a blue dress and held Daisy.
“A little girl needed me to come home.”
Silence.
The prosecutor asked, “Do you still want to kill your brother?”
Lucian stared.
Adrian thought carefully.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because death would be easier for him.”
The defense objected again.
Sustained.
Adrian almost smiled.
Three weeks later, the jury returned.
Guilty on eighteen federal counts.
Guilty of conspiracy related to Daniel Romano’s murder.
State prosecutors separately announced murder charges connected to Elena and Claire’s deaths.
Lucian stood as officers approached.
Then suddenly he turned.
“Adrian!”
The courtroom froze.
Adrian looked at him.
“You think she replaces Elena?”
Sofia stiffened.
Lucian smiled viciously.
“You think that child replaces Claire?”
Adrian went still.
Security moved toward Lucian.
He shouted louder.
“Every time you look at them, you know they’re substitutes!”
Emma began crying.
Adrian stood.
Sofia grabbed his wrist.
Lucian laughed.
“See? Stone is still there.”
Adrian looked at his brother.
Then he did the one thing Lucian did not expect.
Nothing.
He turned away.
He crouched in front of Emma.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“You are not replacing anybody.”
Her lip trembled.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Claire is still yours?”
“Always.”
“And me?”
Adrian’s eyes filled.
“You’re you.”
Emma wrapped her arms around his neck.
Behind them, Lucian’s shouting disappeared as marshals dragged him away.
Outside the courthouse, reporters waited.
Adrian ignored them.
He carried Emma down the steps.
Sofia walked beside him.
A reporter shouted, “Mr. Moretti! What happens now?”
Adrian stopped.
Dozens of cameras turned.
He had spent years avoiding public questions.
This time, he answered.
“I go home.”
That evening, they visited three graves.
Elena Moretti.
Claire Moretti.
Daniel Romano.
Emma placed blue flowers on her father’s grave.
“Hi, Daddy.”
Adrian stood several steps away.
Sofia crouched beside her daughter.
“We got the bad people.”
Emma nodded.
“Mr. Stone helped.”
Adrian looked away.
Emma turned.
“Come.”
He hesitated.
“This is for you.”
“Come.”
He joined them.
Emma touched Daniel’s headstone.
“Daddy, this is Adrian.”
Sofia covered her mouth.
Emma continued.
“He takes care of Mommy when she forgets.”
Adrian glanced at Sofia.
Her eyes narrowed.
“I do not forget.”
“You forget lunch.”
Adrian coughed to hide a laugh.
Emma leaned toward the stone.
“And he makes pancakes wrong.”
“Mrs. Delaney makes pancakes.”
“He burned them once.”
Sofia laughed.
Adrian surrendered.
Daniel’s grave no longer felt like a place belonging only to death.
It felt like introduction.
On the drive home, Emma fell asleep.
Sofia sat in the passenger seat.
Adrian drove.
“You okay?” she asked.
“No.”
She waited.
“But I think I will be.”
She smiled.
“That’s new.”
“Yes.”
He reached across and took her hand.
A month later, Adrian reopened Claire’s garden.
Not as it had been.
He built something new.
A small greenhouse.
Benches.
A children’s reading corner.
A stone plaque near the roses read:
FOR CLAIRE AND DANIEL,
WHO LEFT LOVE BEHIND STRONGER THAN FEAR.
Emma sounded out the words.
“Stronger than fear.”
Adrian nodded.
She looked up.
“What is?”
“What?”
“Stronger than fear?”
Adrian looked toward Sofia.
She stood in the garden sunlight.
May you like
He smiled.
“Family.”
