Chapter 9 - A GRAVE WITH NO BODY
Before searching for the mysterious brother, I kept my promise to Elena.
We went to our mother’s grave.
No guards stood close.
Elena asked for privacy.
I stayed twenty feet away.
She knelt before the stone.
MARIA VALENTI
BELOVED WIFE AND MOTHER
She touched the carved letters.
“I’m sorry I took so long.”
The words broke me more than tears would have.
She spoke quietly for nearly half an hour.
I heard only fragments.
Rosa.
Dante.
I came back.
I wish I remembered you.
When she stood, she wiped her face.
Then she walked toward our father’s grave.
Lorenzo Valenti.
She stared at it.
“Do you forgive him?”
“For what?”
“For being part of all this.”
“He tried to save us.”
“He also lived in a world where enemies threatened children.”
“That’s fair.”
She looked at the dates.
“Dante.”
“What?”
“Why is there no grave for me?”
“There was.”
She turned.
“We buried an empty coffin when you were thirteen.”
Her face changed.
“Mom agreed?”
“She didn’t.”
“What happened?”
“Dad did it.”
“Why?”
“He thought she needed closure.”
Elena shook her head.
“She must have hated him.”
“For a while.”
“Where is it?”
I led her across the cemetery.
A smaller stone.
ELENA MARIA VALENTI
1998–2004
FOREVER OUR LITTLE MOON
Elena stared at her own grave.
“That is extremely unsettling.”
“I imagine.”
She touched the stone.
Then she laughed.
It surprised both of us.
“What?”
“I’m standing at my own funeral plot.”
I laughed too.
It felt wrong.
Then right.
Maybe families laughed at impossible things because the alternative was drowning in them.
Elena sat on the grass.
“We should remove it.”
“Absolutely.”
“Maybe replace it.”
“With what?”
She thought.
“Found.”
I smiled.
“Just found?”
“Maybe.”
Then her expression changed.
“Someone’s watching us.”
I turned.
A man stood beyond the cemetery gate.
Forties.
Dark hair.
Tall.
He did not run.
He walked toward us.
My security team moved.
I raised a hand.
“Wait.”
The man stopped ten feet away.
“You’re Dante.”
“And you are?”
He looked at Elena.
Then back to me.
“Adrian Russo.”
The surname meant nothing.
Then he said:
“Lorenzo Valenti was my father.”
Elena whispered, “Oh, come on.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“I had the same reaction.”
I studied him.
There were similarities.
The eyes.
The jaw.
Enough to unsettle me.
“You sent the note in Florida?”
“No.”
“Someone claiming to be my brother did.”
“That wasn’t me.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I’m the one who has been receiving them too.”
He handed me his phone.
Messages.
STOP DIGGING, BROTHER.
YOU WERE BETTER OFF UNKNOWN.
LET THE VALENTIS BURY THEMSELVES.
Same phrasing.
Same sender.
“Who knows about you?” I asked.
“My mother. Vittorio. Salvatore.”
“Salvatore?”
Adrian nodded.
“My mother worked for Moretti when she was young.”
Of course.
Nothing in our family existed without Moretti nearby.
Adrian said Lorenzo had quietly supported him financially until Adrian turned eighteen.
Then contact stopped.
“I assumed he wanted nothing to do with me.”
“He died.”
“I learned later.”
“Why come now?”
“Because Vittorio contacted me last month.”
I stared.
“What did he say?”
“That the past was opening.”
Vittorio had known Elena might be found.
“How?”
Adrian shook his head.
“He only said Rosa had left something behind.”
Elena crossed her arms.
“So are you the good secret brother or the evil secret brother?”
Adrian blinked.
“I haven’t decided.”
She looked at me.
“I like him better than you.”
“You’ve known him four minutes.”
“He seems less bossy.”
Adrian smiled.
Then became serious.
“I know who may be sending the messages.”
“Who?”
“My mother’s other son.”
I frowned.
“You have a brother?”
“Half brother.”
“Name?”
“Gabriel Russo.”
“Where is he?”
“Works for Salvatore Moretti.”
Elena exhaled.
“Of course he does.”
Gabriel had grown up believing Lorenzo abandoned his mother and Adrian.
Salvatore recruited him young.
Fed his resentment.
Used him.
“Would he call me brother?”
“He thinks blood is blood.”
“Why target me?”
“Because exposing Salvatore destroys the man who raised him.”
That made sense.
Too much sense.
Adrian joined us at the townhouse.
Vittorio nearly fainted when he saw him.
“You came.”
“You called me first.”
Elena turned to Vittorio.
“You are terrible at telling people things.”
“That has been established.”
Adrian asked about Gabriel.
Vittorio admitted Salvatore had used him as an enforcer and courier.
But he believed Gabriel still had limits.
“Can we reach him?” I asked.
Adrian nodded.
“He called me yesterday.”
“What did he want?”
“To meet.”
“Where?”
“Warehouse twelve.”
The burned warehouse.
Still standing, partially abandoned.
The birthplace of everything.
We went that night.
Against every instinct, Elena came.
“If my family’s secrets started there, I’m going.”
Inside the ruins, Gabriel waited alone.
He looked like Adrian but harder.
More tired.
He stared at me.
“So you’re Dante.”
“You sent the messages.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened Elena?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Thomas.”
That surprised me.
“Why warn me to stop digging?”
“Because if you expose Salvatore, he releases documents that destroy everyone.”
“What documents?”
Gabriel looked toward Elena.
“Proof Vittorio didn’t only hide Elena.”
“What else did he do?”
Gabriel handed me a flash drive.
“Ask him.”
Then a gunshot shattered a window.
Gabriel dropped.
Elena screamed.
My security moved instantly.
Gabriel had been hit in the shoulder.
Not fatal.
A shooter fled across the roof.
We got Gabriel to safety.
As paramedics treated him, he grabbed my sleeve.
“Thomas.”
“What?”
“Thomas is cleaning everyone who knows.”
“Why?”
Gabriel’s face twisted.
“Because Salvatore isn’t in charge anymore.”
“Then who is?”
Gabriel looked toward Elena.
May you like
“Someone who has been inside your family for years.”
And then he lost consciousness.
