Chapter 20
DANTE
“Boss.” Marco doesn’t knock as he walks in hastily into my office and sets a tablet on my desk like it’s poison. “We cracked one of Antonio’s old servers.”
I look up expectantly from the reports I’ve been reading. “And?”
“You’re going to want to sit down for this.”
I’m already sitting, but I get what he means. His face is flushed and tells me that whatever is in that tablet, I’m not going to like it.
I hired some underdog investigators years ago to get me the full scope of what might be contained in Antonio’s ledger based on old servers we found when I took down Antonio.
I made Marco in charge of the feedback. There’d never been any results, and each piece of equipment we found from constant searching got added to the investigation.
I’d almost given up hope we’d ever find anything without the ledgers.
“Show me.”
He pushes the tablet closer. “It’s not just names and basic blackmail material, boss.
It’s worse. Detailed account numbers, offshore holdings, trafficking routes that involve politicians at the highest levels.
Murder-for-hire contracts with photographs and documentation.
Evidence of corruption so deep it could overturn governments. ”
I scroll through the files, my stomach sinking with every page.
Wire transfers to senators. Photos of prominent businessmen with underage girls.
Documented proof of assassinations carried out on foreign soil.
Chemical weapons deals. Human trafficking networks that span across three continents.
This isn’t just blackmail material. This is a ticking nuclear bomb, and it’s only part of the full ledger.
“There’s more,” Marco says quietly. “We found references to the Moretti family. Your father specifically.”
My hands are still on the tablet. “What kind of references?”
“Orders. Contracts. Documentation of…” He trails off, clearly uncomfortable. “Maybe you should read it yourself.”
I pull up the files he’s indicated and immediately wish I hadn’t.
My father ordered hits on innocent people. Not rivals or threats, but witnesses. People who saw things they shouldn’t have seen. Including two children who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There’s documentation of human trafficking operations he sanctioned. Girls as young as fourteen being moved through ports he controlled. Payment receipts. Photographs that make my stomach turn.
And buried in the details are atrocities I’ve spent my entire life trying to ignore. Things I knew happened but never let myself examine too closely because acknowledging them would mean confronting what my family really was. What I’m built from.
“Boss?”
I close the tablet and set it down carefully, because if I don’t I’m going to throw it through the window.
“This stays between us. Nobody else sees these files until I say otherwise.”
“Viktor’s been asking for updates on the ledger search—”
“I don’t care what Viktor’s asking for. These files stay locked down.”
Marco nods and leaves.
I sit there for a long time staring at nothing, trying to process what I just read.
Finding the full ledger means confronting truths I’ve avoided my entire life. It means choosing between family loyalty and what’s right.
Between the legacy I inherited and the man I’m trying to become. And I don’t know which choice I can live with.
Later that afternoon, I’m heading to my office when I spot Viktor waiting near the door.
“We need to talk about the ledger,” he says as I approach.
“Not now.”
“Please…just five minutes.” He falls into step beside me as I enter the office. “The families are circling. We’re running out of time. If we don’t find it first—”
I move behind my desk and pour myself a drink. “I said not now, Viktor.”
He doesn’t leave. Instead, he closes the door and approaches my desk, his expression serious but respectful.
“What’s going on? Marco said your investigators found something. What was it?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Everything about this situation is something I need to worry about. I’m your second-in-command.
” He leans forward slightly, his voice dropping.
“Dante, I’ve been with you for fifteen years.
I’ve never questioned your judgment. But right now, I need to understand what we’re dealing with.
The men are asking questions. The families are making moves.
I can’t protect our position if I don’t know what you know. ”
I consider him for a long moment. Viktor has been loyal, competent, and ruthless when necessary. He’s saved my life more than once. But right now, I don’t trust anyone with what I know.
“The ledger contains exactly what we thought it would. Blackmail material on everyone in the five families and beyond. Politicians, judges, law enforcement. Anyone with power that Antonio wanted to control.”
“Then we need to find it. Control it. Use it to cement your position and eliminate threats.” He straightens, his tone becoming more insistent.
“Think about what this means. You control that ledger, you control the entire power structure of this city. Nobody would dare move against you. Not the Volkovs, not the politicians, not anyone.”
“Or we destroy it.”
He stares at me, clearly struggling to understand. “Destroy it? With all due respect, that’s—that would be a mistake. A weapon like that doesn’t come along often.”
“That ledger is a weapon that doesn’t discriminate. It destroys everyone it touches, including the people holding it.”
“It also protects. Dante, I’m not questioning your authority here, but I’m asking you to think strategically. We’re under attack. The families think you’re hunting this for yourself anyway. At least make it worth the war we’re already fighting.”
“And what happens when someone comes for it? When the politicians whose secrets are in there decide they can’t risk it existing? When federal agencies get involved because we’re holding evidence of crimes that reach the highest levels of government?”
Viktor’s jaw tightens. “We deal with it the same way we deal with everything else. With force and strategy. That’s what we do. That’s what you’ve built this organization to do.”
“There’s no strategy that survives what’s in that ledger, Viktor. It’s too big. Too dangerous. It would make us targets for everyone from the FBI to foreign intelligence agencies.”
He takes a breath, visibly trying a different approach. “Then at least let me see what we’re dealing with. Let me help you figure out the best move. You don’t have to carry this alone.”
“I do, actually. This decision is mine to make.”
“So what are we doing? Are we still looking for it or not?”
“We find it. And then I decide what to do with it.”
Viktor’s expression shows he doesn’t like that answer, but he knows better than to push further. He nods once, respectfully.
“Understood. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
“So do I.”
He leaves, closing the door quietly behind him.
That evening, I drive to see Father Benedetto.
He’s in the sanctuary, preparing for evening mass when I arrive.
“Dante.” He looks up and smiles. “Two visits in one month. Should I be worried?”
“Probably.”
He gestures to a pew and I sit, feeling out of place in this holy space like I always do. The man who sits here is different from the man who runs an empire built on violence. But I don’t know which one is real anymore.
“What’s troubling you?”
“Everything. The ledger, the attacks, what it all means for my son.”
“Talk to me.”
I explain what my investigators found. The scope of it. The implications. The evidence of my father’s crimes that I can never unknow.
Father Benedetto listens without judgment, as he always does.
“You’re afraid of what finding it will mean,” he says when I finish.
“I’m afraid of what’s in it. What it says about where I come from. What it means for who I am.”
“The sins of the father don’t have to be the sins of the son, Dante. You know that.”
“Do I? Because I’ve spent my entire adult life building on the foundation he laid. Using the connections he made. Profiting from the empire he created through blood and suffering.”
“And you’ve also spent years trying to be different. Trying to have lines you won’t cross. You’re not your father.”
“But I’m his son. His legacy. Everything I am is built on what he did.”
Father Benedetto is quiet for a moment. “Let me ask you something. What kind of man do you want Luca to grow up to be?”
The question hits me hard like it always does. “Good. Honest. Better than me.”
“And what kind of father does he need to become that man?”
I don’t have a good answer. Because I don’t know if I can be that father. I don’t know if someone like me is capable of raising a child to be better than what I am.
“I don’t know.”
“I think you do. I think you know exactly what he needs. You’re just afraid you can’t give it to him.”
He’s right. As usual.
“The ledger contains evidence that could destroy my family’s legacy. Expose crimes that would make it impossible to claim any moral high ground. If I find it and reveal what’s in it, I’m betraying everything my father built.”
“And if you find it and hide what’s in it, you’re perpetuating those crimes. Allowing them to continue being buried while you benefit from the foundation they created.”
“So either way, I lose.”
“Or either way, you win. Because you’re making a choice instead of letting circumstances choose for you. That’s what being a father means, Dante. Making the hard choices so your son doesn’t have to.”
I sit with that for a long time, turning it over in my mind.
“What would you do?” I finally ask.
“I would ask myself what kind of world I want my child to grow up in. Then I would do whatever it takes to create that world, even if it costs me everything.”
I leave the church with more questions than answers, but at least I have a framework for thinking about them.
When I get back to the estate, it’s past eight and the house is quiet. I check the security monitors first, confirming all systems are operational and guards are at their posts.
Then I hear laughter coming from the library.
I follow the sound and find Scarlett and Luca sitting together on the couch, a children’s book spread across their laps. Luca is sounding out words slowly while Scarlett helps him, both of them laughing when he gets stuck on a particularly tricky one.
“C-a-t-er-pil-lar,” Luca says carefully. “Caterpillar!”
“That’s right, baby. You’re getting so good at this.”
“Can we read another one?”
“One more, then it’s bedtime.”
I stand in the doorway watching them, and something in my chest loosens.
This. This is what I’m fighting for.
Not power or legacy or revenge. Not the ledger or what it contains or what controlling it might mean for my position.
This fragile, beautiful thing I’ve built with Scarlett and our son. These quiet moments of normalcy in a life that’s anything but normal.
Scarlett looks up and sees me. Her smile is soft and genuine, and it hits me that she’s not afraid of me anymore. Somewhere along the way, she stopped seeing me as a threat and started seeing me as something else.
As Luca’s father. As her partner. Maybe even as someone she could love.
“D!” Luca jumps up and runs to me. “I’m learning to read big words! Mama’s teaching me!”
I scoop him up, feeling his small arms wrap around my neck. “I heard. You’re doing great, buddy.”
“Will you read with us?”
“Yeah. I’ll read with you.”
I carry him back to the couch and settle beside Scarlett. She hands me the book and Luca curls up between us, pointing at the words as I read.
For this one moment, everything else fades away. The ledger, the attacks, the impossible choices I’m facing. None of it matters as much as this.
My son’s laughter when I do funny voices for the characters. Scarlett’s hand resting on my knee. This feeling of being exactly where I’m supposed to be.
Later, after Luca’s asleep and Scarlett has gone to shower, I stand at the window of my office looking out over the estate grounds.
Viktor wants me to find the ledger and use it for power. The families want it for control. The politicians and criminals named in it want it destroyed.
But what do I want?
I want my son to grow up in a world where he doesn’t have to carry the weight of his grandfather’s sins. Where he can make choices based on who he wants to be, not who he’s expected to be.
I want Scarlett to feel safe. To not wake up in the middle of the night checking that the doors are locked and the guards are at their posts.
I want to be more than the sum of my father’s legacy. More than just another Moretti who built an empire on blood and fear.
And maybe, just maybe, I want redemption. I want to believe that someone like me can be saved.
Father Benedetto said I need to choose what kind of world I want for my son. That I need to make the hard choices so Luca doesn’t have to.
I think I finally know what that choice is.
I’m going to find the ledger. I’m going to learn every truth it contains, no matter how ugly. And then I’m going to decide what to do with it based on what’s best for Luca, not what’s best for my empire.
Even if it costs me everything I’ve built. Even if it means destroying my family’s legacy and starting from nothing.
Because that’s what a father does. He sacrifices for his child. He makes the world safer, even when it means giving up power.
And I’m Luca’s father. That’s the only legacy that matters now.