Chapter 5 - The Moretti Bloodline
There were four possible men.
My father.
Impossible by timing.
Me.
Impossible by memory.
My cousin Dominic.
Dead eight years.
And Luca.
My brother.
I looked at the photograph again.
Hannah.
Baby Eli.
The man's hand.
Moretti ring.
Frank understood what I was thinking.
“No.”
“You know Luca?”
“I've never met him.”
“Hannah might have.”
Marco started searching old travel records.
Seven years ago Luca spent six months managing our Appalachian logistics expansion.
West Virginia.
Kentucky.
Tennessee.
Exactly where Hannah worked for Silas.
My stomach tightened.
If Luca was Eli's father, then the boy who dug me from the snow was my nephew.
But something bothered me.
Why hide it?
Luca wasn't married then.
No political scandal.
No inheritance issue.
Unless Luca didn't know.
Marco found another record.
Hannah Carter received monthly payments from a Moretti family account.
Not Luca's.
My father's.
Vittorio Moretti.
He died five years ago.
“What the hell?”
Payments began before Eli's birth.
Continued until Hannah disappeared.
Then stopped.
My father knew.
Maybe he arranged everything.
Then Frank remembered something.
“Hannah once asked me about New York.”
“What?”
“She asked whether I'd ever heard of Vittorio Moretti.”
My father.
“What did you say?”
“I told her everybody had.”
“And?”
“She started crying.”
Why?
Before we could answer, Marco's phone rang.
Luca.
Marco looked at me.
I nodded.
Speaker.
“Marco, have you found Dante?”
My brother sounded exhausted.
“No.”
“Stop lying.”
Silence.
Then Luca said:
“He's alive.”
I took the phone.
“How do you know?”
Luca stopped breathing.
“Dante?”
“Answer.”
“Because Silas called me.”
Interesting.
“What did he say?”
“That his first attempt failed.”
Frank looked at me.
“First?”
Luca continued.
“He wants me to announce your death and assume control.”
“And you haven't.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn't order this!”
Anger.
Real or performed.
“I know how it looks.”
“You used my authorization.”
“It was cloned.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
Then Luca said something unexpected.
“Dante, Silas mentioned a boy.”
I looked toward Eli.
“What boy?”
“He said if I don't cooperate, he'll tell you what Dad did in West Virginia.”
My chest tightened.
“What did Dad do?”
“I don't know.”
Then Luca lowered his voice.
“But before Dad died, he made me promise something.”
“What?”
“If a child named Elijah Carter ever appeared, I was supposed to protect him.”
Eli's full name.
Elijah.
Frank sat down.
Luca continued:
“I thought Elijah Carter was a code name.”
It wasn't.
“Did Dad say why?”
“No.”
Only:
The boy carries what our family lost.
Then the lodge alarm sounded.
Marco checked cameras.
Three SUVs were approaching.
Too fast.
Not ours.
Frank grabbed Eli.
I reached for my coat.
“Back exit.”
But Eli wasn't moving.
He stared through the window.
At the first SUV.
“That's Mommy.”
Everyone froze.
“What?”
Eli pointed.
A woman sat behind the windshield.
Older than the photograph.
But unmistakable.
Hannah Carter.
Alive.
The SUVs stopped.
Hannah stepped into the snow.
Eli ran before Frank could stop him.
“Mommy!”
Hannah's face broke.
Then she screamed:
“ELI, DON'T COME TO ME!”
A man stepped from the SUV behind her.
Silas Bennett.
May you like
He placed one hand on Hannah's shoulder.
And smiled directly at me.
