Chapter 11 - The Letter That Should Have Stayed BuriedSeven years had passed since Lily first walked beneath the chandelier at Moretti Plaza carrying a stuffed rabbit and a termination letter.
She was sixteen now.
The yellow rain boots were long gone.
So was the little girl who had once needed someone to hold her hand crossing a Manhattan street.
But one thing had not changed.
Lily still asked questions.
That morning, Dominic was sitting at the head of the breakfast table, reading through a stack of financial reports while Evelyn prepared coffee.
Lily walked downstairs carrying an old cardboard box.
She placed it on the table.
Dominic looked up.
“What is that?”
“I found it in the attic.”
Evelyn stopped pouring coffee.
“What kind of box?”
Lily turned it around.
There was an old Moretti family seal burned into the cardboard.
Dominic's expression immediately changed.
“Where did you find that?”
“Behind the old suitcases.”
“Did you open it?”
Lily shook her head.
“I thought you would want to.”
Dominic stood.
He took the box carefully.
The seal belonged to his father.
Anthony Moretti had used it on private documents.
Documents that had never been meant to become public.
Dominic opened the lid.
Inside were photographs.
Old business cards.
A silver watch.
And one envelope.
The envelope was addressed to Dominic.
But the handwriting was not his father's.
It belonged to someone else.
Someone Dominic hadn't seen in decades.
Evelyn moved closer.
“What is it?”
Dominic stared at the name on the envelope.
“Daniel Moretti.”
Evelyn frowned.
“Your uncle?”
Dominic nodded slowly.
Daniel Moretti had been Anthony's younger brother.
He had disappeared twenty-five years earlier.
Officially, he had left New York after a disagreement with the family.
Unofficially, Dominic had heard another story.
Daniel had betrayed Anthony.
Then vanished.
Dominic opened the letter.
The first sentence made his blood run cold.
Dominic,
If you're reading this, then Victor Hale was never the beginning.
He was only the man we allowed you to see.
Dominic stopped breathing.
Evelyn stepped closer.
“What does it say?”
He continued.
The money Victor moved through the company came from somewhere else.
There is another organization.
They have been watching the Moretti family for decades.
Your father tried to break away.
I tried to help him.
We failed.
The final line was underlined.
And if Lily is alive, they will eventually come for her.
Dominic dropped the letter onto the table.
Lily stared at him.
“Who are they?”
Dominic didn't answer.
Evelyn looked at him.
“Dominic?”
He walked toward the window.
For seven years, he had believed the worst chapter of their lives was behind them.
Victor had gone to prison.
The shell companies had been dismantled.
The Moretti empire had been rebuilt.
The family had healed.
But suddenly Dominic understood something.
Victor had never been the mastermind.
He had been a soldier.
A disposable one.
Someone had been standing behind him.
Someone who had known about Lily.
Someone who had waited.
And now they had found the one thing Dominic had spent his life protecting.
His family.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dominic answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
Then a man's voice whispered:
“You should never have opened the box.”
The call ended.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Lily asked quietly:
“Dad?”
He looked at her.
“Pack a bag.”
Her face tightened.
“Why?”
“Because we're leaving.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere they can't find us.”
Evelyn stepped toward him.
“Dominic, who was that?”
He looked at her.
“I don't know.”
That frightened Evelyn more than any name could have.
Because Dominic Moretti had spent his entire life surrounded by dangerous men.
And he had just admitted he didn't know who was watching them.
Outside, a black sedan stopped across the street.
Nobody noticed the man inside.
He raised a camera.
Focused on Lily.
And smiled.
The photograph was transmitted to an encrypted phone.
A message appeared beneath it.
She's sixteen.
May you like
The response came almost immediately.
Then it's time.
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