Chapter 10 - The Moretti Legacy
Three months later, the mountain spring arrived in a brilliant explosion of emerald green pine needles, blooming wildflowers, and rushing streams fed by the melting winter snow.
The cabin had been fully restored. The floors Vanessa and her thugs had torn up were repaired with polished oak, the walls repainted in Mara’s favorite warm earth tones, and the locked room upstairs converted into a bright, sunlit study where two small desks sat side by side beneath the skylight.
In a quiet courtroom in Denver, the legal adoption proceedings had been finalized just forty-eight hours earlier. Lily and Rose Moretti were officially my daughters, bearing my name and under the unbreakable protection of the most powerful syndicate in the nation.
Vanessa and Viktor Thorne were currently awaiting federal trial in a maximum-security federal facility in Florence, Colorado, facing multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole. Julian Vance’s criminal empire had completely evaporated, its assets seized by the federal government and its remnants absorbed or scattered into the wind.
Standing on the front porch of the mountain cabin on a crisp Saturday morning, I watched as Lily and Rose chased a golden retriever puppy across the green lawn, their laughter echoing up through the pines.
I took a slow sip of my coffee, feeling the warm morning sun on my face.
The heavy lead shield I had carried for a year—the guilt of not being able to save Mara from her illness—was finally gone. In its place was something enduring and unbreakable.
The front door opened softly behind me, and Marcus stepped out onto the porch, handing me a secure satellite phone.
"Boss, your Chicago captains are on the line. They want confirmation on the new shipping logistics schedule for the southern corridor."
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I looked down at the gold wedding band on my finger, then out at my daughters playing in the grass.
"Tell them the logistics are secure," I said quietly, a faint smile touching my lips as I pocketed the phone. "The Moretti family is right where they belong."
