Chapter 7 - Vincent’s WarDominic did not go to Connecticut.
Every instinct told him to.
Instead he sat in Maya Chen’s office while prosecutors prepared warrants.
Vincent remained unaware that Nora had surrendered.
Dominic hated waiting.
Maya knew.
“You’re doing well.”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“You haven’t murdered anyone for almost forty-eight hours.”
He looked at her.
She kept a straight face.
Dominic almost smiled.
Then his phone buzzed.
Vincent.
“Answer,” Maya said.
Dominic put the call on speaker.
“Uncle.”
“Have you cancelled the vote?”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“No.”
Vincent exhaled.
“You’re emotional.”
Dominic stared at Maya.
The phrase was deliberate.
“About my son?”
“Exactly. Which is why this is the wrong time to dismantle structures keeping your family safe.”
Dominic looked toward the recording equipment.
“What structure kept Ethan safe Thursday?”
Silence.
Then Vincent said, “You know what I mean.”
“Explain it.”
“The D’Amatos tested you.”
“Maybe.”
“They saw hesitation.”
“Maybe.”
“They saw you selling properties, closing operations, pretending you’re some Wall Street father now.”
Dominic’s hand tightened.
“Anything else?”
“You need men who understand consequences.”
“Men like you.”
“Yes.”
There was no humility.
Vincent truly believed it.
“You taught me loyalty,” Dominic said.
“I taught you survival.”
“Is there a difference?”
“Only when life is easy.”
Dominic looked through the glass wall at Ethan coloring beside Sophia and Lily.
“Life hasn’t been easy.”
“No.”
“And yet I’m starting to think the people who keep telling me survival requires them are the people creating the danger.”
Vincent went silent.
Then laughed.
“You sound like Elena.”
The name cut.
“Don’t.”
“She filled your head with fantasies. Legitimate businesses. Clean money. Normal children.”
“My son is normal.”
“No Moretti child is normal.”
Dominic’s face changed.
Vincent continued.
“Your father understood that.”
“My father died believing every enemy was outside the house.”
“And?”
Dominic looked at the recording light.
“He was wrong.”
Vincent disconnected.
Maya exhaled.
“He knows.”
“Not what we know.”
“Enough to run.”
“He won’t.”
“You sure?”
Dominic nodded.
“Vincent believes leaving is confession.”
He was right.
When federal and local officers reached Vincent’s Connecticut estate, he was in his library drinking espresso.
He did not resist.
They seized phones, ledgers and computers.
Dominic watched the arrest on a news feed.
Vincent looked directly into the cameras.
No fear.
No shame.
Only contempt.
The public story exploded.
MAFIA PATRIARCH QUESTIONED IN CHILD POISONING PLOT.
DOMINIC MORETTI’S FAMILY WAR.
BIRTHDAY ATTACK LINKED TO ORGANIZED CRIME FEUD.
Dominic turned off the television.
Sophia entered his study.
“You look angry.”
“I am.”
“At the headlines?”
“At myself.”
That surprised her.
He opened an old file.
Inside was a memorandum Elena had written three years before her death.
EXIT PLAN.
It described how Dominic could separate his legal companies from criminal associates over five years.
He had completed less than half.
Sophia read it.
“She knew everything?”
“Enough.”
“Why didn’t she leave?”
Dominic stared at the page.
“She almost did.”
Sophia looked up.
“What stopped her?”
“Ethan got sick.”
“When?”
“He was two. Pneumonia.”
“Elena stayed because of him?”
“No. I promised her I would change.”
Sophia waited.
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“I changed enough to keep her.”
“But not enough to keep the promise.”
“No.”
He closed the folder.
“After she died, I told myself finishing it would honor her.”
“Wasn’t that true?”
“Partly.”
“What was the other part?”
He looked at Sophia.
“I wanted to prove I could keep everything.”
“The legitimate businesses and the Mafia power.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
“Now someone used that power to reach my son.”
Sophia sat across from him.
“What happens to you if you really walk away?”
Dominic did not answer quickly.
“People investigate.”
“Police?”
“Federal agencies.”
“You could lose money.”
“Yes.”
“Freedom?”
“Possibly.”
Sophia absorbed that.
“You’ve committed crimes.”
It was not a question.
“Yes.”
She looked down.
Dominic added, “Not what happened to Ethan. Not children. But I’m not going to pretend my hands are clean.”
Sophia appreciated the refusal to ask for absolution.
“You want to be a good father.”
“Yes.”
“Then maybe Ethan needs to see that being his father doesn’t make you exempt from consequences.”
Dominic leaned back.
“You make everything sound simple.”
“No.”
Sophia looked through the study doors toward Lily.
“I make it sound expensive.”
He smiled faintly.
That evening Maya called.
Vincent’s devices contained encrypted files.
One had been opened shortly before the birthday.
Its title:
RESTORATION.
Inside were financial projections showing what happened if Dominic completed the restructuring.
Vincent’s income collapsed by eighty percent.
Three longtime associates lost management fees.
Control of several companies transferred to independent boards.
Ethan’s future trust became insulated from them.
Another document modeled the alternative.
If conflict with D’Amato resumed, Dominic would postpone restructuring.
Security spending increased.
Old revenue channels reopened.
Vincent regained control.
At the bottom of the projection Vincent had typed:
DOMINIC NEEDS TO REMEMBER WHAT PROTECTS HIM.
Maya called it motive.
Dominic called it confession without courage.
Then investigators found another file.
A draft statement Vincent intended to deliver after Ethan’s hospitalization.
It blamed Carlo D’Amato.
It demanded loyalty.
It urged Dominic to “answer blood with blood.”
Sophia read it once.
“He wrote the war before the attack.”
“Yes.”
“Then Lily didn’t just save Ethan.”
Dominic looked at her.
Sophia continued.
“She stopped whatever came after him.”
Dominic turned toward the guest room where Lily slept.
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