Chapter 18 - THE LAST GHOST OF MULBERRY STREET
Five years after the shooting, police contacted Luca.
The second Mulberry gunman had been found.
Alive.
Arrested in another case.
He offered information.
Luca almost refused.
Rachel said:
“Do you need the answer?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then decide whether knowing helps the life you have now.”
He met investigators.
The gunman confirmed Salvatore ordered the hit.
Not to guarantee death.
To frighten Luca.
Stress him.
Push him into making succession mistakes.
But Anton Belov escalated.
Bullets became real.
The driver died.
Salvatore had not expected that.
As though expectation mattered to a dead man.
The gunman also confirmed Salvatore knew about Luca’s heart risk.
Not the formal diagnosis.
Family history.
Symptoms.
He believed stress might “solve the succession problem naturally.”
That was the final piece.
Could prosecutors add more?
Maybe.
Salvatore was already serving a sentence that would likely keep him incarcerated for the rest of his meaningful life.
Luca chose not to visit.
No confrontation.
No speech.
He went home.
Emma was thirteen.
She was angry because Rachel wouldn’t let her attend a concert without an adult.
Luca entered mid-argument.
Emma said:
“Dad, tell her.”
Old Luca would have solved it.
New Luca looked at Rachel.
“Why no?”
Rachel explained.
Luca nodded.
“Your mom’s right.”
Emma stared.
“You’re supposed to be fun parent.”
“I missed the memo.”
“You’re both oppressive.”
She stormed upstairs.
Luca waited.
Then looked at Rachel.
“Did we just become normal?”
Rachel laughed.
“Yes.”
It was one of the happiest moments of his life.
Later, Emma came down.
Apologized.
Negotiated a compromise.
Marco would take her.
She considered this acceptable because Marco pretended not to be security.
He was terrible at pretending.
The ghost of Mulberry Street had finally lost its power.
Luca knew who ordered it.
Why.
How the chain of betrayal worked.
And none of those answers mattered as much as the sound of his teenage daughter complaining that her father was embarrassing.
May you like
Because to be embarrassed by a father—
you first had to have one present.
