Untraceable (55 page)

“
Dad, what’s going on?” Joshua
asked, thoroughly confused and shocked.

Micah motioned for Joshua to keep silent, as
the young man continued.

“
Was,” he said quietly, “She
passed away three years ago.”

“
This place is off-limits to
mafia,” Micah stated calmly.

“
Then I must ask you, as my
father; is it off-limits to your son?”

I stepped around the side of Micah, watching
the young man’s gaze fall on me, “What’s your name?”

“
My mother envied you,
Annalisa,”
he breathed
out my name, stretching the sound of it. “I often wondered what you
would look like in person. I have seen you on internet clips from
when you once sang on Remake. You are still very
beautiful.”

I didn’t detect any anger or hatred, only
curiosity.

“
What is your name?” I
repeated.

“
My name is Micah
Moretti.”

My knees wanted to come out from under me, but
I couldn’t let them.

“
Dad,” Joshua spoke again,
“Did—did you have an affair?
Is
he my brother?”

Micah didn’t respond to Joshua’s question as
he continued to stare at the young man in front of him, “I can
understand why your mother never contacted me, but I don’t know if
you truly understand that I didn’t know anything about you—nothing
at all.”

“
She told me you were unaware of
her pregnancy. I did not come here to cause harm. I wanted to meet
the family I was never allowed to know.”

“
Is your grandfather still
living?”

“
Poppa Vitale is eighty-one, and
in good health. He left this country seven years ago when my mother
became very ill. Poppa came and lived with us in Italy and helped
raise me. He cared for her until she passed away.”

“
I’m so sorry,” I blurted. No
matter how much I hated Sharon Moretti, she had been this
nineteen-year-old boy’s mother. How cruel and unkind it would have
been to hold my tongue when he obviously still felt the pain of
losing her.

He smiled slightly for the first time,
“Somehow, I knew you would be the one who would care.” He looked
past Micah to Joshua, “I am guessing you are my older brother?” He
was reaching out his hand.

It looked as if Micah was going to keep Joshua
back, but Joshua avoided his father’s arm and reached out and
accepted, “I guess I am, but I sure wish I knew what the hell was
going on.”

“
It’s going to be a little hard to
explain,” Micah stated honestly as he watched the boys shake
hands.

“
The truth,” young Micah said,
“often works the best. He did not love my mother. She was, by her
own admission, manipulative and forced the
relationship.”

Joshua’s eyebrows rose in surprise, “Yeah, no.
Sorry, but that didn’t help. I can’t picture anyone forcing my dad
into anything. Mom, did you know about this?”

Wow! It was like instant cotton inside my
mouth. “I—I knew they slept together, Joshua. But I also know,” I
added, “that he’s telling the truth. Your dad didn’t want the
relationship; circumstances left him no choice.”

“
Well this is gonna blow
everybody’s mind this morning,” Joshua exclaimed with
sarcasm.

“
I think you need to leave,” Micah
stated sternly, “
before
everyone wakes up.”

I was actually torn on what he’d just said. As
far as I could tell, this young man came to us rather vulnerably,
opening himself up to the kind of rejection that had just come out
of Micah’s mouth. No matter how I felt about Sharon, this boy was
Micah’s son, and he was searching out his family. But could we open
our lives to someone like this? Someone we knew nothing
about.

“
I’ll meet with you and we can
talk,” Micah continued, “but I really think I’m going to need to
sit down with my family and talk to them first.”

I was relieved that he wasn’t slamming the
door completely in his face.

“
Do I have more family here?”
young Micah asked.

“
A grandmother,” Micah said, but
sounded reluctant to continue, “And an aunt, sister, and another
brother. You also have an uncle and a couple cousins who live a few
hours away.”

His smile broadened, “My mother and
grandfather are the only relatives I have ever known.”

“
Where are you
staying?”

“
Nowhere as of now. I have been
driving since six o’clock last night. I came straight here from
Norfolk.”

I gave Micah a pleading glance. As a mom, this
was tugging at my heart strings.

He looked at me and shook his head no. “Go
back out to the hard road and take a left. There is a Holiday Inn
Express about eleven miles down the road. Check in and get some
sleep. I need to talk to my family and then I’ll meet you
there.”

I could see the reluctance as he glanced at
our large home and guest homes, but I could also sense how out of
place he felt. “Very well. Will I be allowed to meet
everyone?”

“
After we talk, I’ll decide.”
Micah made sure he knew the choice was his to make or
deny.

He turned and left without another
word.

We didn’t speak until the car
vanished.

“
Leese, would you go in the house
and see who else is up. I guess we’ll have breakfast here so I can
talk with everyone.”

Joshua took a step, but Micah stopped him. “I
want to talk to you first, son.”

It would be a long talk.

Eventually, everyone was up. I had pulled Ryan
aside and quietly told him what was going on. The first question
out of his mouth was, “Is he dangerous?”

“
Honestly, Ryan, I don’t
know.”

“
Do you need me? I’ll have Candace
take the boys back to Tampa and—”

“
No. You are family Ryan, but this
is different. You know I’d never ask this unless I absolutely had
to, but please take Candace and the boys and go home. I’ll call you
either tonight or tomorrow and let you know what’s going
on.”

He gave me a firm hug and then went to tell
Candace they were leaving.

Celeste and Gwen knew something was really
wrong when they saw the look on my face as I told Leigh and Caleb
that we were going to have a family meeting as soon as their dad
came inside. Leigh wasn’t happy, mostly because she’d told Hunter
that she would meet him in town in a little while, but she
understood that whatever this was it was important. She called and
canceled and then challenged her little brother to a video game
while they waited.

“
What’s wrong, Leese?” Gwen asked
as the two women followed me into the kitchen.

When I said, “Micah has another son,” the
weight of it hit me and I began to quietly sob. I think they both
thought I’d lost my mind until I said Sharon’s name.

“
Oh shit,” Gwen exclaimed,
suddenly seeing the picture clearly. “They slept
together?”

“
She threatened to hurt me if she
didn’t get her way.”

Celeste turned and started to walk from the
room when Gwen stopped her, “Mom, what are you doing?”

“
I’m getting out my computer from
my suitcase. All my life I’ve traced histories, tracked people
down, and created false lives. I want to know everything I can find
out about this boy of Sharon’s. If he’s claiming to be my grandson,
Micah will need all the information he can get. Leese, call your
father and see what he knows.”

“
Yes, ma’am.”

What my father knew was frightening. He wasn’t
aware that Micah fathered Sharon’s son, although he was furious
with himself for not figuring it out when he had known for some
time the age of Vitale’s grandson. But what he did know was that
Vitale’s was still very much in charge of his clan. He did go to
Italy to tend to his ailing daughter, but he continued to run his
family in the U.S. He recently brought his grandson to America to
be groomed as his replacement. This grandson of his had plenty of
opportunity for training while in Italy. For all my father knew, he
said Micah’s nineteen-year-old son could possibly be a trained
killer well on his way to becoming the Boss of the lower east
coast.

“
I’m sending soldiers and guards
down to you.”

“
No, Dad. Please don’t. If this
looks like something we can’t handle, I’ll call you, but I don’t
want them here around my kids.”

“
Your kids, my grandkids,” he
reminded me, “could be in danger.”

“
I really think he just wanted to
meet his family. I don’t think he’s going to cause a problem.
Please don’t do anything until I call you back.”

“
Well, I
am
calling Vitale. He knows your
family can’t be touched. It’s a death sentence for that boy to even
show up there!”

“
Dad,” I pled.

“
I know, sweetheart. I won’t send
anyone and I won’t do anything unless you ask, but please be very,
very careful around this boy.”

“
I will, Dad. Thank you.” I could
tell he was about to hang up when I stopped him, “Dad?”

“
Yes?”

“
I love you.” He told me a long
time ago that there was something about those three little words
that made him uncomfortable. I rarely spoke it to him, but I felt I
needed to today.

“
I love you, too—be
careful.”

When Micah came into the house, he said that
he and Joshua had a long discussion about what to tell Leigh and
Caleb. They both agreed that Micah shouldn’t tell them about the
mafia. They weren’t ready for that. Instead, he would explain that
he made a mistake, and that mistake led to a son he never
knew.

“
I don’t want the kids to think
this was your fault.”

“
Leese, I love you with all of my
heart. Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve never wanted anything to
end up being my fault. Let this
be
my fault. Let my kids see that I’m human and that
I haven’t always made good choices. But I also want them to see
that I know how to man-up to my mistakes and accept the
consequences.”

With my tearful nod of agreement, he took my
hand and we walked into the living room.

Caleb was surprised, but willing to accept his
father’s admission. But Annaleigh was deeply wounded. She’d looked
at her father her whole life as her hero. In her eyes, her father
could do no wrong. For him to humbly sit in front of her and admit
to an affair while I was carrying Joshua crushed her.

“
Daddy,” she said with trembling
lips, “how—how could you?! Mom, why would you ever forgive
him?”

He reached out for her hand, but she recoiled
from his touch. I’ve never seen anything hurt Micah as badly as
that moment. She bolted for her room, sobbing the whole
way.

Micah rose to follow, but I told him no. She
needed me right now.

She was face down on her bed when I came into
the room. I didn’t say anything as I sat beside her, but I leaned
over and kissed her head and waited for her to speak
first.

“
You should hate him,” she finally
sobbed.

“
You have no idea how hurt I was
when I found out your dad had been with someone else.”

She rolled over and stared at me with reddened
eyes, “How could you ever, ever forgive him?

“
At first, I didn’t know if I
could. Leigh, just because someone makes a mistake, it doesn’t mean
they were trying to hurt someone else. Just like right now, your
dad would do anything,
anything
, if he could have kept from
hurting you. Do you understand how much courage it took for him to
admit what happened?”

“
Yeah, well he never would have
admitted it if freaking Micah junior hadn’t shown up!”

“
Maybe not, but he’s been carrying
the pain around inside his heart all these years, too afraid to
have any of you know.”

“
But why, Mom? Daddy’s always said
how much he loves you. My friends have parents who’ve divorced over
this stuff. I always felt so proud that my dad loved us so much
that he wouldn’t do something like this. And now… and now that’s
just ruined,” she sobbed.

“
Baby, it’s not ruined. Sure that
armor that you’ve always seen your dad in is tarnished, but it’s
not removed—unless you let it be. What you have to understand is
that if he hadn’t really loved me, this whole thing
would
have turned out
differently. Do you remember how you felt last year when you had to
tell your dad about cutting class to spend the day with Marc at the
beach?”

“
Yeah, it felt like I hurt him and
that he was never going to trust me again.”

“
You told him it was a mistake and
that you wished you hadn’t done it. Did you mean that,
Leigh?”

She sat up and drew her knees to her chest and
gave a tearful nod.

“
How do you feel about Marc
now?”