Chapter 10
Mateo sat in a hospital bed wrapped in a gray blanket.
He had Marco’s eyes.
That was the first thing Dante noticed.
Not the shape.
The caution.
“You’re Uncle Dante,” Mateo said.
“Yes.”
“Aunt Rosa said you were dangerous.”
Dante almost smiled. “She’s not wrong.”
Elena stood beside the bed.
“She also said you might be useful.”
Mateo pulled a folded card from his backpack.
“My mom gave this to Aunt Rosa. She said I could read it when a man named Dante came looking.”
Marco’s handwriting covered the page.
DANTE,
IF YOU EVER MEET MY SON, DO NOT GIVE HIM MY LIFE. GIVE HIM A CHOICE.
Dante stopped.
Mateo watched him.
“What does it say?”
“That your father wanted you free.”
“Free from what?”
Dante looked at the agents outside the room.
“From all of this.”
Mateo thought for a moment.
“Was my dad bad?”
Dante could have protected him with a lie.
Instead he said, “Your father hurt people. He also tried to stop something wrong. Both are true.”
Mateo nodded slowly.
“Are you bad?”
“No one is only one thing.”
“That means yes.”
Dante almost laughed.
“Sometimes.”
The boy seemed to respect that answer.
Later, federal prosecutors presented Dante with a choice.
Full cooperation would expose Bello, Carlo, bankers—
and several Moretti companies.
Assets would be seized.
Businesses could collapse.
Rocco asked him privately, “How much are you willing to lose?”
Dante looked at Marco’s letter.
“All of it if that’s the price.”
The next morning, he signed a cooperation agreement.
By evening, every major network carried the Moretti name.
Then Samuel called.
“We have another problem.”
Vanessa claimed she had rights to a large part of Dante’s personal holdings.
“On what basis?”
“A document you signed.”
“I didn’t.”
Samuel’s silence told him otherwise.
May you like
“You did, Dante.”
And the signature was real.
