Chapter 5 - Selena’s SecretSelena Vale did not cry when Dante told her to leave.
The building belonged to one of his shell companies.
No cameras.
No employees.
No witnesses.
Marco followed him inside.
The metal door slammed.
Dante turned.
“Tell me.”
Marco remained silent.
Dante hit him.
One punch.
Hard enough to split Marco’s lip.
Marco stumbled but did not fight back.
“Twelve years,” Dante said. “I hunted the men who killed my brother for twelve years.”
“I know.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
Marco wiped blood from his mouth.
“Luca wanted out.”
Dante stared at him.
“What?”
“Your brother was planning to leave New York.”
“No.”
“He had a woman.”
Dante laughed bitterly.
“Luca had dozens of women.”
“This one was different.”
“Name.”
“Elena Rossi.”
Dante searched his memory.
Nothing.
“She worked at a hospital in Queens. Pediatric nurse. Luca met her after he was shot.”
Dante remembered that shooting.
His brother had disappeared emotionally afterward.
He assumed Luca was recovering.
Marco continued.
“She became pregnant.”
Dante froze.
“No.”
“Your father found out.”
“Why didn’t Luca tell me?”
“He was afraid you’d tell Lorenzo.”
“I would never—”
Marco’s silence stopped him.
At twenty-five, Dante had worshipped his father.
He might have told him.
Not because he wanted Luca punished.
Because Morettis didn’t keep secrets from the boss.
The realization sickened him.
“Lorenzo told Luca he could leave the organization if he surrendered the child.”
“What does that mean?”
“He wanted the baby raised inside the family.”
“And Luca refused.”
“Yes.”
Dante looked away.
The warehouse seemed smaller.
“So my father killed him?”
Marco shook his head.
“Not exactly.”
“Not exactly?”
“Luca arranged to disappear with Elena. Your father discovered the plan. He ordered me and three others to bring Luca home.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Marco’s face tightened.
“One of the men panicked. Luca pulled a weapon. Shots were fired.”
Dante’s voice became barely audible.
“Who fired?”
“Anthony Carbone.”
Dante knew the name.
He had promoted Carbone three times.
The man had died of cancer four years ago surrounded by family.
“Luca died before we reached the hospital.”
Dante turned away.
“And my father blamed the Russians.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To prevent a revolt. If people learned Lorenzo’s own order caused his heir’s death…”
Dante stared through the dirty windows.
“So he created an enemy.”
“And you believed him.”
“I killed six men.”
Marco said nothing.
Dante remembered every one.
Men dragged from homes.
Men executed because Lorenzo told him they had murdered Luca.
The rage Dante had carried became the foundation of everything he built.
And it had been a lie.
“What happened to Elena?”
“She disappeared.”
“With the baby?”
Marco nodded.
Dante turned.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Amara does.”
“I think so.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Dante grabbed Marco by the shirt.
“You knew my brother had a child.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“I gave your father my word.”
“My father is dead!”
Marco finally raised his voice.
“And I was terrified you’d become him!”
Dante released him.
The words echoed.
Marco breathed heavily.
“When Lorenzo died, you were already at war. Then you became boss. Every year, you looked more like him. More suspicious. More willing to punish anyone who questioned you.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“So you decided for me.”
“I decided the child was safer without us.”
A child.
His brother had a son or daughter somewhere.
A Moretti.
Dante suddenly understood Amara’s warning.
There are things about your organization you don’t know.
“How does Amara know?”
Marco hesitated.
“Three years ago, she asked me about Luca.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Nothing.”
“She found out anyway.”
Dante reached for his phone.
He called Amara.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
On the fourth call, she answered.
“What?”
“Where is Luca’s child?”
Silence.
Dante closed his eyes.
“So it’s true.”
“Yes.”
“Who told you?”
“No one.”
“How did you find out?”
“I found financial records.”
“What records?”
“Your father sent money to Elena Rossi for two years after Luca died.”
Dante looked at Marco.
Marco appeared stunned.
“Then the payments stopped,” Amara continued.
“Why were you searching my father’s records?”
“Because somebody tried to access Leo’s medical file.”
Dante’s body went cold.
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
“No.”
“I told your office there had been a security breach involving Leo.”
Dante remembered receiving a note.
Personal data issue—handled.
He had been in Miami with Selena that weekend.
He had told his assistant to let security deal with it.
“What does that have to do with Luca?”
“The person accessing Leo’s file searched for genetic markers.”
Dante frowned.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is Luca’s child?”
“Alive.”
“Name.”
“Dante—”
“Name.”
“Gabriel.”
“How old?”
“Eleven.”
Dante sat on a wooden crate.
A nephew.
For eleven years.
“Where is he?”
“I won’t tell you.”
Dante stood again.
“He’s family.”
“That’s exactly why I won’t tell you.”
Anger flashed.
“You don’t decide whether I meet my brother’s son.”
“No. His mother does.”
“Elena?”
“Yes.”
“She’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“Does Gabriel know?”
“That his father was Luca Moretti? No.”
Dante rubbed a hand over his face.
“Why were they investigating Leo?”
“I think someone is looking for biological heirs.”
“To what?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Dante heard papers moving on the other end.
“What are you doing?”
“Something you should have done years ago.”
“Which is?”
“Following the money.”
The line disconnected.
Dante stared at his phone.
Marco spoke quietly.
“There’s something else.”
Dante looked at him.
“What?”
“Your father had another company.”
“What company?”
“I don’t know the legal structure. Only the name.”
Dante waited.
“Orpheus.”
The name meant nothing.
Marco continued.
“Lorenzo once told me if anything happened to him, Orpheus would decide who inherited the real empire.”
“What real empire?”
“I don’t know.”
Dante suddenly remembered something his father used to say.
Businesses are temporary.
Blood survives.
At the time, Dante had thought it was philosophy.
Maybe it had been instruction.
His phone rang.
Selena.
He ignored it.
Again.
Ignored.
A text arrived.
Dante, people are outside the penthouse.
Another.
Reporters.
Another.
CALL ME.
He opened a news alert.
MORETTI INTERNATIONAL CEO SUSPENDED AMID FEDERAL INVESTIGATION.
A photograph showed him leaving headquarters.
His legitimate reputation was collapsing publicly.
Then another headline appeared.
MORETTI WIFE FILES FOR DIVORCE AFTER CORPORATE POWER STRUGGLE.
Someone had leaked the filing.
Dante stared at Amara’s photograph.
She was holding Leo at a charity event six months earlier.
The caption called her “reclusive shipping heiress Amara Bennett Moretti.”
Heiress.
He had never even known what the world might call his own wife.
Marco watched him.
“What now?”
Dante looked toward Manhattan.
For years, every problem had been solved the same way.
Pressure.
Fear.
Money.
Violence when necessary.
But Amara had built defenses against all four.
If Dante wanted answers, he could no longer command them.
He would have to earn them.
That realization tasted worse than defeat.
“Find everything on Orpheus.”
Marco nodded.
“And Selena?”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“What about her?”
“She’s at your penthouse.”
Dante remembered Amara walking through the apartment with the suitcase.
The way Selena had stood behind him.
Triumphant.
Suddenly it made him angry.
Not because Selena had done something new.
Because he finally understood what he had allowed.
“Move her out.”
Marco raised an eyebrow.
“Where?”
“I don’t care.”
“Does she know?”
“No.”
Dante headed toward the door.
“Tell her the arrangement is over.”
Marco followed.
“You think Amara will come back?”
Dante stopped.
For the first time in his adult life, he answered a question without pretending certainty.
“No.”
May you like
He stepped outside.
“And that may be the first thing in years I can’t fix with power.”
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