“Tell me.”
So I do. All of it. Viktor’s confession. What the ledger contains. The trafficking operations. My father’s involvement. The real reason Antonio died. The impossible choice I’m facing.
She listens without interrupting, her face going pale as the horror of it sinks in, her grip on my arm tightening with each new revelation. When I finally stop talking, she’s quiet for a long moment, processing everything I’ve just dumped on her.
“Whatever you decide,” she says finally, her voice soft but sure, “we stand by you. Luca and me. Whatever you choose, we’re with you.”
“Even if I choose wrong?”
“There’s no wrong choice here. There’s just the choice you can live with.”
I look over at my son. He’s watching us with those big grey eyes, so much like mine, not understanding what we’re talking about but sensing that something important is happening. Something that will change everything.
“D?” His small voice cuts through the silence. “Are the bad people all gone now?”
The question hits me like a fist to the chest. Are the bad people really gone? How do I answer that when I’m kneeling here holding evidence that my own father was one of the worst of them?
“Yeah, buddy.” My voice comes out rough. “The bad people are gone.”
He nods, accepting my word because he trusts me. Because I’m his father and he believes what I tell him. The weight of that trust settles onto my shoulders alongside everything else.
“Can we go home now? I’m really tired, D.”
Home. He just wants to go home. Wants this nightmare to be over so he can sleep in his own bed and eat breakfast and play with his toys and be a normal five-year-old again. Such a simple wish from a boy who’s been through more trauma in the last few days than most people experience in a lifetime.
I look at him. Really look at him. This beautiful, innocent child who has my eyes and Scarlett’s fierce spirit. Who survived being kidnapped and held at gunpoint and trapped in the middle of a warzone. Who still manages to trust, still manages to hope, despite everything the world has thrown at him.
He deserves better than this. Better than growing up in the shadow of blood money and buried secrets. Better than inheriting an empire built on suffering. Better than carrying the weight of his grandfather’s sins.
He deserves truth. He deserves a father who chose the right thing when it mattered most.
And in that moment, looking at my son’s tired face, the choice becomes clear.
“I’m going to release it,” I say, and my voice doesn’t shake. My original decision still is best. “All of it. The ledger, the evidence, everything. I’m going to expose what my father did. What Antonio did. What all of them did.”
Scarlett’s breath catches. “Dante, that means?—”
“I know what it means. The Moretti name becomes poison overnight. Even though I run my own empire, I still carry my father’s name.” I turn to look at her. “But I don’t care. Because he deserves better.”
I gesture toward Luca.
“He deserves to grow up knowing his father chose truth over power. Chose honor over protection. Chose to do the right thing even when it was the hardest thing he’d ever done. That’s the legacy I want to leave him. Not money or power or a name built on the suffering of innocents. I want him to know that when it mattered, his father was a good man.”
Scarlett is crying now. Silent tears that mix with the blood and grime on her face. But she’s smiling too, this beautiful broken smile that makes my chest ache with how much I love her.
“This is the man I fell in love with,” she says, her voice thick with emotion. “Right here. This version of you, making this choice. I’m so proud of you, Dante. So incredibly proud.”
She leans forward and kisses me, and it tastes like tears and blood and hope for the future we’re going to build together. Her hands cup my face, holding me like something precious.
“Daddy?” Luca’s voice breaks the moment. “Can we please go home now?”
I freeze. Daddy. He called me daddy. Not D. Daddy.
I pull back from Scarlett and look at my son, this perfect boy who just gave me the only title that has ever truly mattered.
“Yeah, buddy.” I manage to get the words out past the lump in my throat. “We can go home.”
I gather the cases and tuck them under my arm. Then I reach down with my free hand. Luca takes it immediately, his small fingers wrapping around mine with eagerness. Scarlett takes his other hand.
