Chapter 7 - The Godfather’s Betrayal
Paul Rainer had been in Dante Rosselli’s life for thirty-eight years.
He taught Dante how to drive.
How to shoot.
How to identify a lie.
How to survive a knife wound.
He stood beside Dante at his wedding.
Held Leo at his baptism.
And had supervised every security system protecting the Rosselli estate for nearly two decades.
Now he was gone.
Dante did not speak during the drive back.
Lena sat beside Leo.
The baby slept against her.
Across from them, Isabella watched Dante carefully.
“You suspected him once,” she said.
Dante’s gaze lifted.
“When?”
“After Gabriel.”
“No.”
“You did.”
“I suspected everyone.”
“But not enough.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
Isabella continued.
“Paul always hated Gabriel.”
“They argued.”
“He envied him.”
“For what?”
“Your father trusted Gabriel’s conscience more than Paul’s loyalty.”
Dante looked away.
“That doesn’t prove betrayal.”
“No.”
“Then stop speaking like it does.”
Lena studied Dante.
This was different from the anger he had shown toward Victor.
Victor was an enemy.
Paul was family.
Betrayal hurt differently.
At the estate, evidence waited.
Security logs had been erased.
Paul’s office safe was empty.
His passport was gone.
So were two million dollars from an emergency cash reserve.
Matteo placed a tablet in front of Dante.
“One thing he missed.”
A backup camera hidden in the garage.
The footage showed Paul meeting a man six nights earlier.
Victor Valenti.
Dante watched without blinking.
Lena stood behind him.
The recording had no sound.
But the meaning was clear.
Paul handed Victor a folder.
Victor handed Paul a flash drive.
Then they shook hands.
Dante paused the image.
For a long time he said nothing.
Finally:
“Find him.”
Matteo nodded.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
That answer surprised everyone.
Dante looked toward Lena.
“I want to hear him explain it.”
Lena understood.
This was not mercy.
This was worse.
Dante needed the truth.
Leo began fussing.
Lena lifted him.
The baby immediately quieted.
Isabella smiled faintly.
“He knows blood.”
Lena looked at her.
“What?”
“Babies recognize things adults forget.”
“That’s superstition.”
“Maybe.”
Isabella looked toward Dante.
“Gabriel would have loved seeing you with him.”
Lena’s chest tightened.
She still did not know how to feel about Gabriel.
A father she had never met.
A man reduced to photographs and other people’s memories.
Dante noticed her silence.
That afternoon he brought her into his private study.
Walls of books.
Dark wood.
Old photographs.
He opened a drawer.
Inside were six letters.
“All from Gabriel.”
Lena stared.
“To whom?”
“You.”
Her eyes widened.
“He wrote them before he died.”
“Why didn’t you give them to me?”
“I didn’t know where you were.”
“You could have looked.”
“I did.”
“How hard?”
Dante met her eyes.
“Hard enough to lose three men.”
Lena stopped.
He placed the letters in her hands.
“They were sealed.”
“You never read them?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“They weren’t mine.”
Lena looked down.
The first envelope read:
For my daughter, when she turns five.
The second:
When she asks about me.
The third:
When she falls in love.
The fourth:
When someone breaks her heart.
The fifth:
When she thinks she isn’t strong enough.
The sixth:
For the day she learns the truth.
Lena sat down.
Her fingers shook.
She opened the final letter.
My little girl,
If you are reading this, I probably did not make it.
I wish I could tell you I was brave.
The truth is that I was terrified.
Not of dying.
Of leaving you before I ever held you.
Your mother says you kick whenever she plays music.
She thinks that means you will dance.
I think it means you already have opinions.
Lena laughed through tears.
Across the room, Dante looked toward the window.
Gabriel continued:
There will be people who tell you your family name means something dark.
Maybe it does.
But blood is only where a story begins.
It is not where it has to end.
You owe nothing to the sins of men who lived before you.
If Uncle Dante is with you when you read this, tell him I still think his suits are too expensive.
Lena looked up.
Dante frowned.
“What?”
Despite everything, she laughed.
“He insulted your suits.”
Dante’s expression remained solemn for one second.
Then something rare happened.
He smiled.
A real smile.
Lena realized it changed his entire face.
Gabriel’s letter continued.
Dante acts like stone.
He isn’t.
He feels too much, which is why he works so hard to feel nothing.
If he kept his promise, you can trust him.
If he didn’t, make him earn it.
Lena’s eyes lifted.
Dante knew what she had read without seeing the words.
“He was annoying.”
“He sounds wonderful.”
“He was.”
The smile disappeared.
Lena finished the letter.
Protect your mother if I cannot.
Protect yourself without becoming hard.
And never fear the dragon.
It was never meant to represent cruelty.
Saint George defeated the dragon.
Our dragon is upside down because it represents the monsters we promised to destroy.
If men wearing it became monsters themselves, then we failed.
Do better than us.
Love,
Dad.
Lena pressed the letter against her chest.
For the first time since discovering Gabriel was her father, grief arrived without anger.
She cried for the man she had never known.
Dante sat beside her.
No words.
No lecture.
Only presence.
Eventually Lena whispered, “He trusted you.”
Dante stared ahead.
“And I failed him.”
“You found me.”
“Twenty-seven years late.”
“You still found me.”
Dante looked at her.
Before he could answer, Matteo entered.
“Boss.”
Dante stood.
“We found Paul.”
“Where?”
“Private airfield.”
“Stop the plane.”
“It already took off.”
Dante cursed.
“But,” Matteo continued, “Paul left something behind.”
“What?”
“A woman.”
Dante narrowed his eyes.
“Who?”
Matteo looked directly at Lena.
“Her roommate.”
Lena went cold.
“Erin?”
“She’s alive.”
Relief hit.
Then Matteo added:
May you like
“And she says Paul Rainer has been paying her for three years.”
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