Chapter 10 - The Man Who Erased Two Birth Records
Marco Moretti did not enter with a gun.
That somehow made him more frightening.
He walked into the cottage wearing a dark overcoat and carrying an umbrella.
He was seventy-two.
Silver-haired.
Well dressed.
He looked like someone's wealthy grandfather.
Three men remained outside.
Dominic stood between Marco and us.
“Leave.”
Marco smiled.
“Nephew.”
“Leave.”
“I came to talk.”
“You had thirty years.”
Marco glanced at me.
His smile disappeared.
“Elina.”
I hated hearing my name from him.
“You knew me?”
“I knew of you.”
“You stole my sister.”
“Your mother made a choice.”
“My mother was threatened.”
Marco shrugged.
“Life rarely offers clean choices.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Careful.”
Marco's eyes moved toward him.
“You sound like your father.”
“Don't.”
“Carlo always wanted to believe anger made him strong.”
Dominic's expression remained controlled.
“Elena learned that wasn't true.”
Marco's face changed slightly at her name.
“She should have stopped digging.”
The room went cold.
Dominic moved.
I grabbed his arm.
Elena's letter echoed in my mind.
Don't let him become what grief wants him to become.
Dominic stopped.
Barely.
“You caused the crash,” he said.
Marco smiled without warmth.
“I didn't say that.”
“You didn't need to.”
Marisol stood.
“You took one daughter from me.”
Marco looked at her.
“You survived.”
“My daughter didn't.”
For the first time, Marco appeared irritated.
“Elena made choices.”
“So did you.”
Marisol's voice strengthened.
“You were afraid of Gabriel.”
Marco laughed.
“Gabriel was sentimental.”
“He was brave enough to leave.”
Marco's face hardened.
“He stole records.”
“To expose you.”
“He endangered everyone.”
“You mean you.”
Dominic watched his uncle.
“What happened to Gabriel?”
Marco didn't answer.
That silence was enough.
Marisol closed her eyes.
I took her hand.
Nearly thirty years of uncertainty ended without details.
Sometimes silence says more than confession.
Dominic's phone suddenly regained signal.
Marco noticed.
The expression on his face changed.
Outside, distant sirens approached.
He turned toward the window.
Dominic spoke.
“The evidence was delivered yesterday.”
Marco looked at him.
“To investigators.”
“You're bluffing.”
“No.”
“The Moretti name—”
“Is not worth protecting from the truth.”
Marco stared at him.
For the first time, he looked genuinely shocked.
“You would destroy your own family?”
Dominic looked at me.
Then Marisol.
Then the photograph of Elena I still carried in my pocket.
“No.”
His voice was calm.
“I'm finally protecting it.”
Marco's men fled before authorities arrived.
Marco didn't.
Maybe he knew running was pointless.
Maybe he had spent so many years believing consequences belonged to other people that he couldn't imagine them reaching him.
When agents entered, he looked almost bored.
Until one investigator mentioned Elena's recovered evidence.
Then his face changed.
Dominic saw it.
So did I.
The truth had finally frightened him.
Outside, after Marco was taken away, Dominic walked toward the ocean.
I followed.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He looked at me strangely.
“If you said yes, I would worry.”
He laughed quietly.
It was the first real laugh I had heard from him.
“I almost killed him.”
“But you didn't.”
“I wanted to.”
“But you didn't.”
He looked toward the water.
“Elena would have stopped me.”
“I know.”
“And now her sister did.”
I felt the strange weight of that sentence.
Not replacing Elena.
Continuing something she had started.
Behind us, Marisol stood on the porch.
My mother.
Alive.
I didn't know how to forgive her.
But I wanted enough time to learn.
Dominic received a call from Sofia.
He answered.
His entire face changed.
“What?”
I stepped closer.
“What happened?”
He listened.
Then closed his eyes.
“Sofia, slow down.”
My heart pounded.
“Dominic?”
He disconnected.
“Leo is missing.”
The world stopped.
“What?”
“The security alarm went off. Sofia went upstairs.”
His voice cracked.
“The nursery was empty.”
Marco had been with us.
His men had scattered.
Someone else was still moving.
Someone close enough to know Dominic's security.
I thought of all the secrets Elena had uncovered.
Then remembered one person who had been part of every discovery.
Rafael.
Dominic looked at me.
Neither of us wanted to say it.
But we were thinking the same thing.
Marco might have been the monster behind the past.
Yet someone else had just taken Leo.
May you like
And the nightmare wasn't over.
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