PART 10 – The Embrace After a Quarter-Century
Time seemed to stand still for a moment. The officers, the flashing lights, Lorenzo being hauled away screaming – it all faded into the background. Only the man standing there existed, with tears in his eyes shining in the faint morning light. "Emma..." he said with a voice trembling with emotion. "My little girl..." I could no longer speak. I ran forward and threw my arms around his neck.
He caught me and held me so tightly it felt like he wanted to make up for all the lost years in a single embrace. I smelled the familiar scent of wood and old tobacco that I remembered deep inside from long ago. "You're alive..." I sobbed into his coat. "They said you were dead... All these years..." "I had to be, sweetheart," he whispered, stroking my hair.
"The Moretti family wanted to wipe us all out. To protect you and your mother, I had to disappear into the shadows. I watched over you from a distance, every single day." Inspector Rossi walked over to us and placed a hand on my father's shoulder. "Marco, you can finally walk free. With this document and the recordings in this chest, the Moretti family's immunity is broken for good.
They are being arrested at multiple locations at this very moment." My father looked at the copper chest in my hands and then at me. "That bank card... was that your idea to find me?" I laughed through my tears. "No. Mrs. Moretti used it in our store. She knew I worked there. It was their way of testing if we still knew anything." "They wanted to lure you," my father said gravely.
"Instead, they signed their own downfall." We walked outside together, greeted by the crisp mountain air. The mist slowly began to clear, giving way to a bright, golden morning sun lighting up the valley. Elena stood at a distance watching with a broad smile on her face, while reassuring her mother on her phone's speakerphone. Yet just when we thought the nightmare was over, Inspector Rossi walked up to us with a worried look.
He held a smartphone he had just confiscated from Lorenzo. "Marco, Emma... you need to see this," Rossi said grimly. "Right before his arrest, Lorenzo sent one last automated message to an unknown address in Zurich." My father and I leaned over the phone screen. On the screen was a photo of the three of us by the chapel, just taken, with the text below: “The card was declined, but the main character has been found. Headquarters has been notified.”
