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It is this moment I've secretly been waiting for. While I took Leonardo's words for truth earlier, I did wish to capture my father alive to leave no semblance of doubt in my heart because deep within, I still hoped that this is some huge misunderstanding.
However, the way Don Marchetti's face pales at Leonardo's entrance shatters the last molecules of innocence I held on to. "Father ..." I whisper, but he's too busy focused on Leonardo's face.
"You," my father's eyes widen. "You... you're alive."
"You thought you killed me too that night, didn't you?"
My head snaps in shock, and I see Jasmine and Frank exert the same reaction. "What's this?" I mutter.
"That night," Leonardo begins. "Your father caught me meeting my mother. Angered, he threw me out of the window. He took me for dead, told two of his men to bury me but I was breathing, merely a boy of sixteen. They helped me out, saved my life. What your father didn't know was that his men were loyal to him because of our mother, Elisabetta. They feared him, they loved her."
My heart races at the mention of our mother, and I struggle to keep my emotions in check. All this time, I had believed she had died in an accident, but now I know without a doubt that my father was involved. I can see it in the flicker of his eyes, the pace of his breath.
"Go on," my father sneers, clearly faking being uninterested in what Leonardo has to say. "Tell them your little fantasy."
"Fantasy?" Leonardo scoffs. "No, this is the truth you tried to bury. You found out about mother's prior romance, with the man who fathered me. She wanted to leave you and take Dario with her and raise us both together as a single mother."
"Elisabetta knew better than to cross me," my father says coldly. But there's a hint of unease in his eyes, betraying his composed demeanor.
"Except she did," Leonardo continues, staring our father down. "You couldn't let her go, couldn't risk your reputation being tarnished. So you killed her and made it look like an accident."
The weight of this revelation is almost too much to bear.
"Is that true?" I whisper, my voice barely audible.
"Of course not," my father snaps, but I can see the desperation in his eyes. "It's just another pathetic attempt to turn you against me."
"Is it?" a soft voice reverberates through the room. My entire body stills, for a brief moment it no longer exists in this world. I notice heads turn, but it must be my imagination. The heads are turning for something else. Not what the voice that I heard because that's impossible.
I was only eleven when I heard it last. It's a fragment of my imagination, nothing more. I close my eyes, and begin to take deep breaths, trying to stay calm.
But, someone touches my shoulder, gently. I open my eyes, I can't be weak. Leonardo gives me a small smile. Jasmine looks stunned and I follow the direction of her gaze.
A figure steps out of the shadows, making my heart skip a beat. It's as if I'm staring at a ghost – an apparition from the past that I never thought I'd see again. Her presence sends a chill down my spine.
"Elisabetta," my father stammers, his voice laced with fear and disbelief.
"Mother." Leonardo smiles, stepping aside to let her pass.
"Hello, Tony," Elisabetta says icily, her gaze locked on my father. "Did you think you could get rid of me so easily?"
For all these years, I believed my mother was dead, taken from us in a tragic accident. But here she stands before us, alive and filled with a fury I've never seen before. Confusion and disbelief swirl in my mind as I try to comprehend this impossible reality.
"How...?" I ask, my voice shaking, but no one hears me.
"This ... this can't be happening," my father stutters, stumbling back. "The guards, they buried you. I paid them to bury you. They took your body away. They took it in front of me, damn it. I must be drunk. This is a dream..." he's blabbering like a fool.
I still stand there, stunned. I feel like I am back to reality when Jasmine comes stands next to me, and links her hands through mine. At last, I feel a little grounded.
"Ah, the same guards who saved my Leonardo?" she smiles. "You think they buried me, did you? You fool. They saved our lives. Hid us out of the compound. They stole two bodies from the unidentified section at the mortuary and buried them."
My father is now edged against a wall. He buries his face in his hands and begins to sob. He falls to his knees, still sucking for air.
My mother then turns to me. "Dario," she whispers. I close my eyes again, as tears come to form. How I dreamt of that word on those sweet lips for all these years. But never did I think it would come true.
"Your father tried to kill me, but he failed. I survived, and I've been waiting for the right moment to bring him to justice," she explains, her voice trembling with pain. "But all this time, my boy, I have thought of you. I have watched over you. I have loved you."
My father rises to his feet in one swift motion just then, his face contorted with rage as he realizes his carefully constructed lies are unravelling right before his eyes. "You were always a thorn in my side, Elisabetta. You never knew when to stay out of my business. But I swear it, don't you dare talk to my son."
