Chapter 3 - GABRIEL’S LAST MESSAGEThat night, Serafina didn’t sleep.
Neither did Leo.
He climbed into her bed at 1:17 a.m. carrying the stuffed lion Gabriel had bought him during a trip to Boston.
“Can I stay?”
Serafina lifted the blanket.
“Always.”
He crawled beside her.
For several minutes, he said nothing.
Then came the question Serafina had feared.
“Was Dad strong?”
She turned.
“Very.”
“Stronger than Uncle Victor?”
“In the ways that mattered.”
Leo squeezed the lion.
“Nolan said Dad is dead because he was weak.”
Serafina’s chest tightened.
“When?”
“Today.”
“Before he hurt you?”
Leo nodded.
“He said Dad couldn’t protect us anymore.”
Serafina closed her eyes for one second.
Victor had put that idea in Nolan’s head.
Maybe not intentionally.
But children repeated the truths adults revealed when they thought nobody important was listening.
“What else did Nolan say?”
Leo hesitated.
“That Uncle Victor should’ve been boss all along.”
Serafina went still.
“And?”
“He said his dad fixed that problem.”
The room seemed to lose all sound.
Serafina slowly sat up.
“Leo.”
Her son became nervous.
“You’re not mad?”
“Never at you. Tell me exactly what he said.”
Leo thought.
“He said, ‘My dad fixed the Gabriel problem.’ Then I said Dad wasn’t a problem. Then he pushed me.”
Serafina reached for her phone.
At 1:26 a.m., she called Salvatore.
He answered immediately.
“What happened?”
She repeated Leo’s words.
Salvatore was silent.
Then: “Where are you?”
“Home.”
“Security?”
“Six outside.”
“I’m sending six more.”
“Don’t.”
“Serafina—”
“If Victor sees an army arriving, he knows something changed.”
“He already knows we turned against him.”
“He doesn’t know what Leo heard.”
A pause.
“That boy may be in danger.”
“I know.”
Serafina looked at Leo.
“And nobody gets near him.”
By 6:00 a.m., Mia and Leo were at Carlo’s estate under protection from men whose loyalty Serafina trusted.
At 7:15, Serafina entered Gabriel’s old office.
She hadn’t touched it since his death.
His jacket still hung behind the door.
Three fountain pens sat beside his desk.
A framed photograph showed Gabriel holding newborn Leo with tears streaming down his face while Mia, four years old, tried to climb into his hospital bed.
Serafina touched the photograph.
“I’m close,” she whispered.
Then she opened the bottom drawer.
For months, she had avoided one thing.
Gabriel’s private safe.
Not because she lacked the code.
Because opening it felt like admitting he wasn’t coming back.
Today she entered the six digits.
Mia’s birthday.
The safe opened.
Inside sat legal documents.
A watch.
Two passports.
Thirty thousand dollars in emergency cash.
And a black envelope.
SERAFINA.
Her hands shook.
She opened it.
Inside was a flash drive.
Nothing else.
She inserted it into Gabriel’s laptop.
One video file appeared.
Recorded eleven days before his death.
Gabriel appeared on screen.
He looked tired.
“Fina, if you’re watching this, then I either lost my nerve and gave this to you… or something happened.”
Serafina covered her mouth.
Hearing him again was almost physical pain.
Gabriel continued.
“I need you to know first that I love you. You and Mia and Leo are the only clean things I ever brought into this family.”
He looked away.
Then back.
“Victor is stealing from the companies. I know you already suspected that.”
Despite herself, Serafina almost laughed.
Of course he knew she knew.
“But it’s worse. He’s making agreements with people I refused to work with. Drugs. Weapons. Human trafficking routes disguised as freight contracts.”
Serafina froze.
“I have blocked him for months. He thinks legitimate businesses are weakness. He thinks fear is leadership.”
Gabriel leaned toward the camera.
“Dad doesn’t know how far Victor has gone.”
He paused.
“And I made a mistake. I confronted Victor last week.”
Serafina’s stomach dropped.
“He denied everything. Then he said something I can’t stop thinking about. He told me, ‘You won’t be around long enough to ruin this for me.’”
Gabriel exhaled.
“I want to believe it was anger.”
His expression said he did not.
“I put copies of everything with Nathan Cole.”
Gabriel’s attorney.
“Serafina, do not confront Victor alone. Promise me that, even if I’m not there to hear you.”
Tears slid silently down her face.
“You are smarter than everyone in this family thinks you are. Maybe smarter than all of us.”
He smiled.
“And you know how much it hurts me to admit my wife is smarter than me.”
Serafina laughed through her tears.
Gabriel’s smile faded.
“One more thing.”
He reached toward the camera but stopped.
“If something happens to me, don’t let Mia and Leo inherit this life.”
He looked directly into the lens.
“End it.”
The video finished.
Serafina stared at the black screen.
End it.
Not avenge me.
Not kill Victor.
Not take the throne.
End it.
That changed her plan.
For eleven months, Serafina had been preparing to defeat Victor.
Now she understood Gabriel wanted something larger.
He wanted the system dismantled.
She removed the flash drive.
At 8:40 a.m., she arrived at Moretti Holdings headquarters.
Every executive was already waiting.
Victor was not.
His security credentials had been revoked.
At 9:03, the board voted.
Victor Moretti was removed from every officer position.
At 9:15, forensic auditors took control of company servers.
At 9:27, outside counsel notified lenders of suspected fraud.
At 9:41, three trucking contracts were suspended after Serafina discovered unexplained cargo transfers.
At 10:06, Carlo entered her office.
“You found something.”
She looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“You have Gabriel’s face.”
Serafina hated how much that hurt.
She turned the laptop toward him.
“Watch.”
Carlo watched his dead son speak.
By the time the recording ended, the old man had tears in his eyes.
“I failed them.”
Serafina said nothing.
“Both boys.”
“You loved them.”
“I indulged Victor.”
“Yes.”
Carlo looked at her sharply.
Most people would have lied to comfort him.
Serafina didn’t.
Carlo lowered his head.
“I called ruthlessness strength.”
“And Gabriel?”
“I called his restraint weakness.”
He swallowed.
“I was wrong.”
Serafina looked through the glass wall at employees moving through the office.
“It’s not too late to change what happens next.”
Carlo looked at her.
“What are you planning?”
“To make every legitimate company legitimate for real.”
“And everything else?”
“Gone.”
Carlo’s expression hardened.
“You understand what that means?”
“Yes.”
“People will resist.”
“Yes.”
“Some of those men stood behind you yesterday because they believe you’re replacing Victor.”
“I know.”
“What happens when they learn you intend to destroy the organization they expect to inherit?”
Serafina looked toward Gabriel’s photograph on the desk.
“Then we find out whether they stood behind me because they respected me…”
She closed the laptop.
“…or because they were waiting for another boss.”
At 10:31, Serafina’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A distorted male voice said four words.
“Stop digging into Dugan.”
The call ended.
Carlo had heard it.
His face tightened.
Serafina stared at the phone.
Only five people knew she had found Paul Dugan.
One was Salvatore.
One was Carlo.
One was her attorney.
One was the prosecutor.
And the fifth…
Serafina looked toward the glass conference room.
Michael Conti stood inside.
May you like
Watching her.
The enemy might not have been only Victor.
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