Chapter 10 - Brothers
Marco Moretti looked like a ghost that had learned to smile.
A scar ran from his temple to his jaw.
His hair had gone almost completely silver.
But the eyes were the same eyes Salvatore remembered from childhood.
Restless.
Hungry.
Always wanting whatever someone else held.
“Seven years,” Salvatore said.
Marco smiled.
“Did you miss me?”
“You let me bury you.”
“You always enjoyed ceremonies.”
Gunmen surrounded them.
Carmine had been hit in the leg.
Nora lay behind the table, wounded but conscious.
Leo remained beside Titan.
Marco looked at him.
“My nephew.”
Salvatore stepped between them.
“Don’t.”
Marco laughed.
“You think becoming a father made you brave?”
“No.”
Salvatore’s voice was calm.
“It gave me something worth becoming better for.”
Marco’s smile faded slightly.
He extended a hand.
“The memory card.”
Salvatore removed it from his pocket.
Marco watched.
“Throw it.”
Salvatore did.
Marco caught it.
“You came all this way for that?”
“For that and the boy.”
Leo went pale.
Salvatore’s expression turned lethal.
Marco continued.
“He is the legal obstacle.”
“You’ll have to kill me first.”
“That was always the plan.”
Gunfire suddenly erupted outside.
Marco spun.
Vehicles crashed through the property fence.
Moretti reinforcements.
Carmine smiled through the pain.
“I sent our location before the phones died.”
Chaos erupted.
Nora fired.
Salvatore pulled Leo toward the rear exit.
Titan lunged at an attacker.
Marco disappeared into smoke.
By dawn, the Crown’s men had retreated.
But Marco escaped.
Worse, he had the memory card.
Nora laughed weakly as medics treated her.
“What’s funny?”
Salvatore asked.
“Elena knew someone would eventually steal it.”
Salvatore stared.
“That wasn’t the real card?”
“No.”
Leo looked surprised.
Nora tapped his forehead gently.
“Your mother trusted very few adults.”
“Where’s the real evidence?”
Nora looked at Leo.
“You’ve carried it every day since she died.”
Everyone stared.
Leo touched his neck.
The Saint Christopher medallion.
Nora removed it.
Inside the cracked edge was a micro-storage chip.
Salvatore almost laughed.
Elena had hidden the truth around her son’s neck.
The files inside were devastating.
Video.
Audio.
Bank records.
Names.
One recording contained Marco ordering the killing of Daniel Mercer.
Another showed Barrett paying Vance.
Another revealed Commissioner Lowe arranging police protection.
And one final video showed Elena herself.
She sat in a small room, thin and sick.
Leo began crying before she spoke.
My son, if you are seeing this, I am gone.
Leo covered his mouth.
Salvatore wanted to stop the video.
Leo shook his head.
Elena continued.
I need you to know I loved you every day.
And Salvatore, if you are watching…
She paused.
…I was wrong not to tell you.
Salvatore looked down.
I thought distance would protect our son.
Instead, it left him without his father.
Do not avenge me by becoming the worst version of yourself.
Protect him by becoming the man I once believed you could be.
The video ended.
Nobody spoke.
Salvatore sat alone for a long time.
Then Leo took his hand.
May you like
Not because someone told him to.
Because he chose to.
