Chapter 7 - THE LAST BULLET OF VITTORIO SERRA
Vittorio did not surrender.
Men like him never did.
As the ledger erased his empire, he reached for the knife still buried in my side.
Sofia shouted.
I caught his wrist.
Dante struck him from behind.
Vittorio fell to one knee, laughing through the blood in his mouth.
“You think ending the accounts ends me?”
Sirens wailed above the estate.
Federal agents.
Police.
Medical investigators.
Every institution Vittorio had corrupted was now receiving Sofia’s files automatically.
“You have nowhere left to go,” Elena said.
He looked toward Isabella.
Then smiled.
“There is always one final door.”
He pulled a small trigger from his pocket.
The chamber lights turned red.
A countdown appeared on the wall.
Three minutes.
Explosives had been placed beneath the estate.
Dante lifted Gabriel.
Sofia carried Matteo.
I grabbed Isabella’s hand.
We ran.
The underground passage shook as the first charge detonated.
Stone fell from the ceiling.
Smoke filled the stairs.
At the garage level, Elena discovered the exit sealed.
“Back!” she screamed.
A second explosion ripped through the corridor.
We were trapped.
Gabriel coughed blood.
“There’s another tunnel.”
“Where?” I asked.
He pointed toward the old wine cellar.
We carried him through collapsing rooms.
The estate where Matteo had taken his first steps began falling around us.
The walls holding Sofia’s portraits cracked.
The nursery burned.
The life I had built disappeared in fire.
In the cellar, Gabriel pressed a hidden brick.
A narrow tunnel opened.
“Go,” he said.
Dante tried to lift him again.
Gabriel pushed him away.
“The tunnel will collapse unless someone closes the steel gate manually.”
“No,” Dante said.
Gabriel smiled faintly.
“I failed your mother once. Let me succeed now.”
Vittorio appeared behind us through the smoke.
His face was blackened.
His gun was raised.
Gabriel turned and fired.
The brothers exchanged bullets.
Vittorio fell.
Gabriel collapsed beside the gate mechanism.
Dante rushed to him.
Gabriel touched his face.
“You were never the son Vittorio wanted.”
Dante’s eyes filled.
“You were the son Alessandra was proud of.”
He looked at me.
“And Luca, you were the one she believed could end all of us.”
I knelt beside him.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You are.”
He pulled the lever.
The steel gate began descending.
Dante and I were forced backward.
Gabriel smiled at Isabella.
“Live loudly, little queen.”
The gate closed.
The last thing I saw was Gabriel turning toward Vittorio’s motionless body.
Then the estate exploded.
The tunnel collapsed behind us.
We emerged near the lake as dawn broke over Chicago.
Sofia fell to her knees holding Matteo.
Isabella clung to Elena.
Dante stood alone near the water, staring at the smoke.
I pressed a hand to my wound.
Sirens surrounded the grounds.
Paramedics reached us minutes later.
Matteo was transported to a specialist hospital outside the Moretti network.
Sofia remained beside him.
I underwent surgery.
Dante disappeared before police could question him.
Three days later, Matteo opened his eyes.
Sofia called me from his bedside.
“He asked for cake.”
I laughed for the first time in years.
Not a controlled smile.
A real laugh.
Red velvet cake was brought to the room.
Elena made it from Sofia’s recipe.
Matteo ate one bite and pushed the plate toward Isabella.
“You’re my sister,” he said.
She nodded.
“Papa says so.”
Matteo looked at me.
“Are we all staying?”
The room became quiet.
Sofia watched me carefully.
She did not know whether I could forgive the secrets.
I looked at my son.
My daughter.
My wife returned from the dead.
“Yes,” I said.
“We are staying.”
Sofia cried.
Isabella climbed onto the bed.
Matteo wrapped one weak arm around her.
For a moment, peace entered the room.
Then a federal agent appeared at the door.
“Mr. Moretti, we found a body beneath the estate.”
I expected Gabriel.
Instead, he handed me a photograph.
The body belonged to Vittorio Serra.
Dead.
But the forensic report showed he had been dead for at least six months.
I stared at the agent.
“That’s impossible.”
“The man who died in the explosion was not Vittorio.”
Sofia gripped the bedrail.
Dante’s warning returned.
The man we buried was not our father.
Now the body we found was not the man we fought.
The agent placed another photograph on the table.
It showed the monastery surveillance footage.
Vittorio removing his face.
Not a mask.
A medical prosthetic.
Beneath it was a younger man.
A face I recognized.
Dr. Pierce.
I looked toward the hallway.
Pierce had vanished.
So had Elena.
And Isabella’s silver pendant was lying open on the floor.
May you like
Inside was a note.
**Bring Sofia to the lake house before midnight, or the girl dies.**
