Chapter 6 - THE WAR FOR TWO LITTLE GIRLS
Alessandro left the hospital against medical advice.
He could barely lift his right arm, but he refused to remain in a room whose location had already appeared on the dark channels used by criminal organizations.
We were moved to a secured Moretti property in Westchester.
It looked like a private school from the outside.
Inside, steel doors divided every corridor.
Armed guards stood behind reinforced glass.
Isabella and Emilia occupied rooms on the second floor.
Emma and I remained across the hall.
The girls met properly at breakfast.
Emilia stared at the food as though it might disappear.
Emma pushed half her toast across the table.
“You eat.”
Emilia took it.
“You Emma?”
“Yes.”
“I Emilia.”
“Same little.”
Emilia smiled.
Within minutes, they were arranging berries into circles.
Two children whose names had been weaponized found friendship without asking whose blood mattered.
Alessandro watched from the doorway.
Isabella stood several feet behind him.
She was thin and moved carefully, but her eyes remained sharp.
“She should not call you father yet,” she said.
“I did not ask her to.”
“You will.”
“When she is ready.”
Isabella looked toward me.
“And this child?”
“Emma is Sofia’s daughter.”
“I know what the records say.”
“The records are false.”
“Records were false about me too.”
I stepped closer.
“I gave birth to Emma.”
“I am not accusing you.”
“You are afraid someone will take Emilia again.”
“Yes.”
“So am I.”
Our eyes met.
We were different women from different lives, joined by the same terror.
A guard entered with a secure phone.
“Boss, Carlo Bellandi is calling.”
Alessandro answered on speaker.
Carlo’s voice was smooth.
“You look terrible in the hospital photographs.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I prefer enemies who die dramatically.”
“What do you want?”
“You know.”
“No.”
“The children disappear from New York. Isabella disappears. The Daniel Bianchi evidence is destroyed. In return, your remaining businesses survive.”
Alessandro’s expression did not change.
“And if I refuse?”
“Your men will choose whether they prefer a leader or a father.”
“I can be both.”
“No Moretti ever has.”
Alessandro looked toward Emilia.
“Then I will be the first.”
Carlo laughed.
“You have already lost three captains.”
“They chose.”
“They chose survival.”
May you like
“No. They chose you.”
The line went quiet.
