Chapter 8 - THE SAFE
I stood up, my legs trembling, and kept Leo’s hand tightly in mine.
I walked over to Luca.
He handed me the faded photograph.
The picture was taken over thirty years ago.
It showed three young men standing in front of the very mansion we were in now.
One was Luca’s father.
One was Vanessa’s father, the former Bellini boss.
And the third man...
My breath stopped. My heart hammered against my ribs so hard it hurt.
The third man was my father.
My dad. The quiet, gentle man who was currently lying in a hospital bed recovering from a stroke. The man who had struggled to pay rent my entire life.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. “My dad is a mechanic. He doesn’t know you.”
Luca pulled a birth certificate from the safe.
He handed it to me.
It was my birth certificate. But the father’s name wasn’t Thomas Reed.
It was Antonio Moretti.
“No,” I choked out. “No, that’s impossible.”
Rosa stepped closer, looking at the documents.
Tears filled her ancient eyes.
“Your mother,” Rosa said to me softly. “Her name was Clara, wasn’t it?”
I nodded, unable to speak. My mother had died when I was a baby.
“Clara was the maid here before me,” Rosa explained, her voice trembling with the weight of the past. “She and Antonio… they fell in love. But the family would never allow the eldest son to marry a maid.”
Luca stared at the documents, putting the puzzle together.
“Antonio didn’t die in a boat explosion,” Luca realized aloud. “He faked his death. He walked away from the mafia, from the millions, from all the blood… to raise you, Emma.”
He gave up the empire to be a mechanic. To keep me safe.
Vanessa started laughing. It was a hysterical, broken sound.
“Don’t you get it, Luca? Antonio is coming back! He contacted me a month ago. He needs money for his medical bills. He was going to use me to get back into the family vault, and in exchange, he promised to make me the queen of Chicago!”
I felt sick. My father? A mafia boss? Planning a takeover?
It didn’t make sense. The man who taught me to ride a bike couldn’t be the monster Vanessa was describing.
I reached into the safe and pulled out the last piece of paper.
It was a letter. Written in my father’s messy, familiar handwriting.
But it wasn’t addressed to Vanessa.
It was addressed to Luca.
I handed it to him.
Luca opened it.
May you like
He read the first line, and his eyes widened.
“He’s not trying to take over the family, Vanessa,” Luca said softly. “He’s trying to destroy it.”
