Chapter 10 - The Price of a Father
Salvatore wanted the evidence.
Every recording.
Every financial file.
Every document Dominic had turned over.
In exchange, Vittorio lived.
Dominic listened without interrupting.
When Salvatore finished, he said only one thing.
"No."
Matteo stared at him.
I did too.
Salvatore laughed.
"You've grown brave."
"No."
Dominic's voice remained calm.
"I've grown tired."
"Your father dies."
"If I give you the files, someone else's father dies next year."
The line went quiet.
Dominic continued.
"Someone's wife. Someone's son. That's how men like you survive. You convince everyone the next sacrifice will be the last."
Salvatore's voice hardened.
"Careful."
"I learned from the best."
"You learned from me."
"No."
Dominic looked toward Leo.
"I learned from a three-year-old."
Then he ended the call.
Matteo stared at him.
"Are you insane?"
"Possibly."
"That's Father."
"I know."
"He could die."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"I know."
I understood what he was doing.
But understanding didn't make it easier.
"You have a plan?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Is it a good plan?"
"No."
"Wonderful."
He almost smiled.
Federal investigators traced pieces of the call.
Salvatore was somewhere near the harbor.
Dominic knew the warehouses better than anyone.
But for the first time in his life, he wasn't going in with an army.
He gave locations to law enforcement.
Then waited.
Waiting nearly destroyed him.
He paced.
Checked his phone.
Went outside.
Came back.
At eleven, Leo found him in the kitchen.
"Is Grandpa okay?"
Dominic stopped.
"He's in trouble."
"Are you helping him?"
"Yes."
"Then why are you here?"
Dominic looked at his son.
"Because sometimes helping doesn't mean being the person who runs into danger."
Leo considered that.
"Are the police doing it?"
"Yes."
"Is that hard for you?"
I nearly laughed.
Dominic did.
"Very."
Leo climbed onto a chair.
"Mom would like it."
Dominic's smile disappeared.
"How do you know?"
"Because you said she wanted you to leave bad things."
He had been listening.
Always listening.
Dominic sat beside him.
"You're right."
At twelve thirty, the call came.
Vittorio had been found alive.
Salvatore escaped.
Dominic closed his eyes.
Relief moved through his whole body.
Matteo sat down.
I realized both brothers had been holding their breath for hours.
Vittorio returned the next morning.
His face was bruised.
His pride was worse.
He entered Dominic's house furious.
"You gave them locations."
"Yes."
"Federal agents."
"Yes."
"Have you lost your mind?"
Dominic looked at him.
"Salvatore kidnapped you."
"I've survived worse."
"That's the problem."
Vittorio frowned.
"What?"
"We keep using survival as proof we're living correctly."
The old man stared.
Dominic continued.
"Elena is dead."
Vittorio looked away.
"Matteo disappeared for twelve years."
Silence.
"Leo was afraid to laugh in his own house."
Vittorio's eyes moved toward his grandson.
Leo stood in the doorway.
Listening.
Dominic lowered his voice.
"If that's what preserving the family looks like, I don't want it."
Vittorio's face hardened.
"You don't know what you are giving up."
"I know exactly."
"For a child?"
Dominic stared at his father.
"For my child."
Something passed between them.
Generations.
Expectations.
Fear disguised as tradition.
Then Lily ran into the room.
"Grandpa!"
Vittorio looked confused.
She had met him once.
Apparently that was enough.
She hugged his leg.
He looked at Dominic.
"Whose child is this?"
"Isabella's."
"Why does she call me Grandpa?"
Lily answered.
"Because you're old."
I closed my eyes.
Matteo burst out laughing.
Dominic tried not to.
Vittorio looked offended.
Then Leo laughed.
And something remarkable happened.
Vittorio smiled.
Not because the joke was good.
Because his grandson wasn't afraid.
That afternoon, Dominic sat with his father alone.
Vittorio finally told the rest of the truth.
He had suspected Rosa for years.
But never acted because exposing her would have shattered the family.
"So you let the rot stay inside," Dominic said.
Vittorio nodded.
"I thought I could control it."
"You couldn't."
"No."
It was perhaps the first honest admission the old man had ever made.
"Why did you hide Matteo?"
"Because I couldn't lose another son."
"Then why lie to me?"
"Because I thought grief would make you stronger."
Dominic laughed bitterly.
"It made me cruel."
Vittorio lowered his eyes.
"I know."
The words shocked Dominic.
His father rarely apologized.
Never confessed failure.
But that day, he did.
"I'm sorry."
Dominic stared.
For years he had waited for those words without knowing it.
They didn't repair everything.
They weren't supposed to.
But they opened the door.
That evening, federal agents arrested Rosa.
The evidence was overwhelming.
Conspiracy.
Fraud.
Obstruction.
Connections to the sabotage that killed Elena.
She requested to speak with Dominic.
He refused.
Not out of revenge.
Because he finally understood that closure did not always require one last conversation.
Sometimes the healthiest door was the one you chose not to reopen.
Salvatore remained missing.
Gabriel agreed to enter protective custody.
Matteo planned to testify.
Dominic began dismantling every illegal operation tied to his name.
For the first time, the Moretti organization was becoming something else.
A legitimate business.
A smaller business.
A less powerful business.
Dominic didn't care.
He came home for dinner.
That mattered more.
One Friday evening, I found him on the kitchen floor.
Leo and Lily had created another soap disaster.
Not as bad as the first.
But bad.
Dominic sat among the bubbles.
His shirt sleeves were rolled up.
Leo was laughing.
Dominic looked at me.
"Don't."
I raised my hands.
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face did."
Lily handed me a bubble wand.
"Mommy, help."
I sat.
Maybe I should have been more responsible.
Instead I blew a bubble directly toward Dominic.
It landed on his hair.
Leo laughed so hard he fell backward.
Dominic looked at me.
For one second, I thought I had crossed a line.
Then he dipped his fingers into the soap.
And flicked foam at me.
I gasped.
"You did not."
His smile was unmistakable.
"I did."
The war became a soap fight.
And somewhere between Lily screaming with laughter and Leo hiding behind Dominic, I realized I was looking at a family learning how to live.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I froze.
Dominic saw my face.
"Don't answer."
But I did.
Salvatore's voice came through.
"Enjoying yourself, Isabella?"
Dominic stood.
The room went silent.
Salvatore continued.
"You've become very important to Dominic."
My blood went cold.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I think you do."
Dominic took the phone.
"If you come near her—"
Salvatore laughed.
"That's exactly the problem, Dominic."
"What?"
"You finally have something to lose again."
The call ended.
Dominic looked at me.
For the first time, neither of us pretended the threat was only about Leo.
Something had changed between us too.
Something neither of us had named.
May you like
And Salvatore had noticed before we did.
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