Chapter 8 - The Price of a Father’s Sins
Rain slammed against the corrugated metal roof of Hangar 4 at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.
Inside, a sleek Gulfstream G650 jet sat idling, its twin turbine engines whining with high-pitched readiness. At the base of the boarding stairs stood Dominic Moretti, wrapped in an expensive cashmere overcoat, leaning heavily on his gold-topped cane. Two crooked federal marshals he had bought with offshore accounts stood nearby, nervously checking their watches.
"Where is the driver?" Dominic barked, his voice raspy from decades of cigars and bitter malice. "He was supposed to have the girl at the gate twenty minutes ago!"
"The estate went dark, sir," one of the guards said, glancing at a tactical tablet. "Communications were cut. Something went wrong."
"Idiot!" Dominic snarled, slamming his cane against the tarmac. "If Leo has that child, the board will rally around him as the undisputed patriarch! That bastard's bloodline will bury me!"
"Your bloodline is already buried, Uncle."
A low, resonant voice echoed through the vast hangar.
Dominic whipped around, his gold cane nearly slipping from his grasp.
Walking through the shadows of the open hangar doors was Leo Moretti. He wore no body armor, carried no drawn weapon. He walked alone, his hands tucked casually into the pockets of his dark overcoat, his silver eyes gleaming like polished blades in the halogen lights.
Behind him, emerging from the rain like specters, were twenty armed operatives in unmarked black uniforms, led by Marco. Within three seconds, the two corrupt marshals dropped their weapons, falling to their knees with their hands behind their heads.
Dominic stood alone, his face twisting from shock into sneering rage.
"Leo," Dominic spat, backing up against the jet's boarding ladder. "You always were theatrical. You think you've won? You think shooting your own uncle will fix your broken family? That little designer girl will never trust you! She knows you're a monster!"
Leo stopped ten paces away, his expression entirely deadpan.
"Five years ago," Leo said softly, each word measured and lethal, "you walked into Naomi's home and told her I considered her a whore. You told her my father's empire had no room for her."
"Because it didn't!" Dominic shouted, spit flying from his lips. "She's an ordinary girl from Georgia! She has no lineage, no power, no connections! The Moretti family rules New York because we marry steel to steel! A weak woman like that would have made you soft!"
"She made me human," Leo replied quietly.
He stepped forward. Dominic raised his heavy gold cane, swinging it frantically like a club, but Leo caught the heavy brass head mid-air with his bare hand. With a single twist of his wrist, Leo snapped the cane in half, tossing the golden handle onto the concrete like trash.
Dominic collapsed against the metal stairs, clutching his chest, wheezing in terror as Leo leaned down, towering over him like an avenging titan.
"You took five years of my daughter's life," Leo whispered, his voice trembling with a fury so deep it chilled the blood in Dominic's veins. "You made her believe her father abandoned her. You made her mother cry herself to sleep in empty rooms while you stole my letters."
"Kill me then!" Dominic croaked, his eyes wide with animal dread. "Go ahead, nephew! Put a bullet in my head like your father would have!"
Leo stared down at the trembling old man. For a second, the darkness inside him—the generational violence of the Moretti empire—threatened to pull the trigger.
Then, in his mind, he heard a small voice singing a silly song about yellow taxis. He saw Lily’s cleft chin, her small hand touching his coat.
Mommy says dragons get lonely because they're too scary to hug.
Leo slowly stepped back, straightening his cuffs.
"Death is too quick for you, Dominic," Leo said, his voice flat and devoid of mercy. "Marco."
"Yes, boss?"
"Hand him over to the federal prosecutor on the 5th floor of the Foley Square courthouse. Give them the unredacted files on the Valenti kickbacks, the offshore tax evasion, and the murder of Agent Miller six years ago."
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Dominic's eyes bulged in absolute horror. "No! Not federal maximum security! Leo, that's life without parole! I'll die in a cage!"
"Then die," Leo said without looking back as he turned toward the rain. "Because tomorrow morning, Moretti Holdings is closing its underground accounts forever."
