Dante placed both hands flat on the table.
“Where did you get that recording?”
“It was hidden inside the base of my father’s old adding machine,” I said.
“The machine was returned to storage after his arrest.
Vince never checked it because men like Vince don’t examine objects they consider worthless.”
Vince looked at Dante.
“She broke into company records.
She threatened us.
She’s trying to destroy the family.”
“No,” I said.
“You did that.”
He lunged.
Paulie caught him around the chest.
A second man seized his arm.
Vince kicked the chair aside and shouted curses at me, at Sal, at the room.
Dante did not react.
He only asked, “Is Jack alive now?”
Before I could answer, the back door opened.
Everyone turned.
A man stepped into the room wearing a dark raincoat.
His hair, once black, was gray at the temples.
A scar crossed the left side of his jaw.
He was thinner, older, and more tired than the father preserved in my memory.
But he had the same blue eyes.
The same small crease between his brows.
The same habit of rubbing his thumb across the edge of a brass watch.
“Hello, Elena,” he said.
The room disappeared.
The men, the table, the rain, the files—none of it existed for one impossible second.
I was seventeen again, standing in our kitchen while my father promised he would come home.
Then I crossed the room.
He opened his arms.
I hit his chest hard enough to make him stumble, then held on with everything I had.
“You’re alive,” I said.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re alive.”
“I had to keep you safe.”
I pulled back and struck his shoulder with my fist.
He winced.
“Good,” I said through tears.
“That means you’re real.”
A faint smile touched his face.
Behind him, two federal agents entered the room, followed by Martin Shaw, Dante’s attorney.
Martin’s shirt was wrinkled, but he was unharmed.
Dante looked at him.
“I was told you confessed.”
“I was told I would if I valued my teeth,” Martin said.
His eyes found Vince.
“That instruction came from your cousin.”
Vince stopped struggling.
One of the agents stepped forward.
“Vincent Moretti, we have warrants for your arrest on charges including conspiracy, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, kidnapping, and murder.”
Vince looked at Dante.
For the first time, the arrogance left his face.
“We’re blood.”
