Chapter 13 - THE QUESTION
Dominic asked Luca inside the therapy room.
No lawyers.
No guards.
No promises.
Chloe and Elena remained nearby.
Dominic sat on the floor several feet from his son.
“I may have to go away.”
Luca held the gray wolf.
“Jail?”
Dominic swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Bad people jail.”
“Sometimes.”
“Are you bad?”
Dominic did not rush.
“I did bad things.”
“A lot?”
“Yes.”
Luca looked toward Elena.
She did not answer for him.
“Did you kill Mommy?”
“No.”
“Did you make green man hurt her?”
Dominic’s face tightened.
“I made choices that helped him.”
Luca stared at the wolf.
“Why?”
“Because I was angry.”
“And proud.”
“And I believed the wrong person.”
“Why not Mommy?”
Dominic’s eyes filled.
“I should have believed her.”
“I should have listened.”
“I did not.”
Luca remained quiet.
Dominic continued.
“I am not asking you to forgive me.”
“What forgive?”
“It means deciding not to carry anger forever.”
Luca hugged the wolf.
“I still angry.”
“You are allowed.”
“Still scared.”
“You are allowed.”
“Do you want me to go away and not contact you?”
Luca’s eyes widened.
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
Everyone in the room stopped breathing.
Dominic looked at him.
“No?”
Luca shook his head.
“Far.”
“You want me far away?”
Luca pointed toward the chair near the door.
“Sit far.”
Dominic understood.
The child did not want him gone.
He wanted control over the distance.
“I can do that.”
Luca placed the wolf on the floor between them.
Not in Dominic’s hands.
Between them.
A bridge.
The federal hearing occurred one week later.
Dominic pleaded guilty to multiple charges.
He described the structure of the Russo organization.
Named officers he bribed.
Businesses he threatened.
Men he ordered assaulted.
He did not minimize.
He did not blame Vittorio for everything.
When the judge asked why he was cooperating, Dominic looked toward Luca.
“My son stopped speaking because fear was safer than truth inside my home.”
“I built that home.”
The courtroom remained silent.
“I cannot repair what I refuse to name.”
The plea agreement recommended eight to twelve years.
Dominic’s attorneys had expected less.
He accepted it.
Vittorio’s trial would come later.
Carlo also faced charges.
His cooperation and role in protecting Elena reduced the likely sentence.
Matteo received witness protection after testifying against the network.
Sofia Moretti dismantled her organization publicly, though many doubted every criminal operation ended.
Chloe did not care about public theater.
She cared whether Luca slept.
Whether Rebecca healed.
Whether Elena could walk through a parking garage without panic.
Months passed.
Dominic was held in a federal detention center awaiting sentencing.
He wrote Luca one letter each week.
He never demanded a reply.
The first letters were simple.
I saw snow today.
I remembered you hate peas.
I am learning how to make the wolf drawing you showed me.
Luca asked Chloe to read them.
Later, he read parts himself.
Then one afternoon, he drew a picture.
Three figures.
Elena.
Luca.
Chloe.
Dominic appeared on the far side of the page.
A large space separated him from the others.
But he was there.
Chloe mailed it.
Dominic cried when he received it.
He told no one.
Carlo eventually told Chloe.
Rebecca left the hospital and moved into a rehabilitation apartment.
Chloe returned to Loyola through a scholarship funded by seized assets from Vittorio’s medical fraud.
Again, not charity.
Restitution.
She completed courses online while continuing to care for Luca.
Elena decided to remain in Chicago during the trials.
She rented a smaller house with sunlight, ordinary furniture, and no armed guards in every hallway.
Luca chose his own bedroom.
The restored music box remained in a drawer.
He was not ready to hear it.
One evening, Elena found Chloe studying at the kitchen table.
“You stayed.”
“For now.”
“Because of Luca?”
“Yes.”
“Only Luca?”
Chloe looked down at her textbook.
Dominic existed in her thoughts more than she wanted.
Not the crime boss.
The man who lowered the gun.
The father who sat far away because his son asked.
The prisoner who finally used truth without bargaining.
“That does not matter,” Chloe said.
Elena understood.
“It may someday.”
“I won’t build a future from potential.”
“Good.”
Elena smiled sadly.
“I did.”
The sentencing date approached.
Then federal agents discovered Vittorio had continued directing people from jail.
A guard had been bribed.
Witness addresses leaked.
Rebecca’s new apartment appeared on the list.
So did Luca’s school.
Agent Reyes moved everyone to emergency protection.
The night before Dominic’s sentencing, Chloe received a package.
Inside lay the gray wolf.
Luca had been sleeping with it minutes earlier.
She ran upstairs.
His bed was empty.
The window stood open.
On the wall, someone had written in green paint:
ONE LAST FAMILY MEETING.
Vittorio had taken Luca again.
May you like
This time, from a federal safe house.
And the only person he demanded to see was Dominic.
