Chapter 7
That evening, Rico confronted Marco.
He didn't tell Clara.
But Clara followed.
She stood outside the private room and listened.
Marco was crying.
"I didn't know they were going to kill her."
Rico slammed his hand onto the table.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Damn it!"
"I only gave them schedules."
"Whose schedules?"
"Yours."
Rico's face went cold.
"Who paid you?"
Marco hesitated.
Then whispered:
"Your father."
Rico froze.
"My father is dead."
"I know."
"Then you're lying."
Marco shook his head.
"No."
He pulled a photograph from his pocket.
Rico took it.
A man stood beside a black car.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
Rico stared.
His father.
Giovanni Moretti.
The man who had supposedly died eight years earlier.
Rico's entire world shifted.
"Impossible."
Marco whispered:
"He never died."
The truth came out over the next forty-eight hours.
Giovanni Moretti had staged his death to disappear from federal investigations.
He had been running the organization from the shadows.
Rico had inherited only the public side.
Elena had discovered the truth.
She had planned to expose him.
Giovanni couldn't allow that.
The drive-by had been designed to kill Rico.
Elena had been collateral.
But the plan had failed.
Rico survived.
Elena didn't.
And Giovanni had spent six months manipulating his son from a distance.
The restaurant.
The financial transfers.
The threats.
Everything connected.
But there was one thing Giovanni hadn't anticipated.
Leo.
And Clara.
Two nights later, Clara arrived at Rico's penthouse.
Leo ran toward her.
"Clara!"
She knelt.
"Hey, little man."
He hugged her.
Rico watched from across the room.
"He's been waiting all day."
Clara smiled.
"Me too."
Rico looked at her.
"Clara."
She stood.
"Yes?"
"I need you to leave Chicago."
She frowned.
"Why?"
"Because my father knows about you."
Her face changed.
"What does he want?"
"Leverage."
She looked at Leo.
Rico nodded.
"Exactly."
"I'm not leaving him."
"I know."
"You said he wants leverage."
"Yes."
"Then let him come."
Rico stared.
"You don't understand."
"No."
Clara stepped closer.
"You don't understand."
"What?"
"I've spent my entire life running from people who wanted to control me."
She touched Leo's hair.
"I'm not running again."
Rico looked at her.
For the first time, he saw something in her that wasn't fear.
It was courage.
Not the loud kind.
May you like
The quiet kind.
The kind that stayed.
