Chapter 7 - Matteo’s Dead Father Invited Us to Dinner
The invitation arrived on paper.
Cream stationery.
Hand-delivered.
No fingerprint.
No return address.
Matteo recognized the handwriting.
His father.
Dinner. Friday. Eight.
Bring Miss Blake.
Come without weapons if you want Anna alive.
I looked at Matteo.
“No.”
“I agree.”
That surprised me.
“You do?”
“My father never asked for anything when he could order it.”
“So?”
“This isn't dinner.”
“Excellent detective work.”
He ignored me.
“It’s a test.”
“Your family needs healthier hobbies.”
Grant wanted tactical teams.
FBI wanted surveillance.
Matteo wanted to burn the invitation.
I wanted my mother.
Guess who won.
The location was a private estate outside Newport.
Ocean.
Stone walls.
Old money disguised as taste.
We went.
Unarmed, technically.
Grant had trackers sewn into my boots.
I had a ceramic electrical probe hidden in my sleeve.
Matteo asked what I planned to do with it.
“Be creative.”
Salvatore Rinaldi waited inside a glass dining room facing the Atlantic.
He looked like Matteo aged thirty years.
Same eyes.
Same stillness.
That bothered me.
My mother sat beside him.
Alive.
I stopped.
She stood.
“Erin.”
Sixteen years collapsed.
I wanted to hug her.
Hit her.
Demand answers.
Cry.
Instead I said:
“You look terrible.”
She laughed through tears.
“So do you.”
Then we hugged.
I hated how familiar she smelled.
Peppermint.
Still.
Matteo watched his father.
No embrace.
No handshake.
“You let me bury you.”
Salvatore poured wine.
“You needed to become your own man.”
“I became one while believing you were dead.”
“Exactly.”
Matteo's jaw flexed.
I understood why he feared becoming his father.
Salvatore treated trauma like education.
We sat.
I kept holding my mother's hand.
“Were you kidnapped?”
“No.”
That hurt.
“You chose this?”
“At first, no.”
“Then?”
“I stayed.”
“Why?”
She looked at Salvatore.
“Because Lantern became bigger than him.”
Salvatore nodded.
“I created the first version to protect our organization.”
“By recording everyone?”
“By knowing who planned to betray us.”
“That's called spying.”
“Yes.”
At least he didn't pretend.
Anna continued.
“Then politicians wanted access. Police. Corporations. Other families.”
Lantern became a market.
Information traded for favors.
Eventually nobody controlled all of it.
Vincent operated one branch.
Others developed separate nodes.
The system became decentralized.
“Why expose Matteo?” I asked.
Salvatore looked at his son.
“Because he was dismantling our traditional operations.”
“That sounds like a good thing.”
“To you.”
“To most people with functioning ethics.”
Matteo almost smiled.
Salvatore did not.
“If Matteo abandoned the old structure, Lantern needed a new guardian.”
“Guardian?”
My mother squeezed my hand.
“Someone has to destroy parts and protect parts.”
“Then do it.”
“We can't.”
“Why?”
“Because nobody knows every node.”
That was the nightmare.
Lantern had become hydra-like.
Cut one server.
Another released data.
Arrest one operator.
Someone else inherited access.
“Vincent wants control,” Matteo said.
Salvatore nodded.
“Vincent wants the old world back.”
“And you?”
“I want Lantern dead.”
Silence.
That I did not expect.
“Then why all this?” Matteo demanded.
“Because I needed to know whether you would choose power over people.”
Matteo stood.
“You threatened Erin.”
“I did not.”
“The messages—”
“Vincent.”
Matteo froze.
Salvatore continued.
“He believed I supported him.”
“Do you?”
“No.”
“Then stop speaking in riddles and help.”
My mother reached under the table.
Placed a flash drive in front of me.
“This contains a map of every Lantern node I know.”
“How many?”
“Forty-three.”
My stomach sank.
“Countries?”
“Seven.”
Wonderful.
I looked at her.
“Why me?”
“Because I trained you without telling you.”
I thought of childhood lessons.
Overloaded circuits.
Backfeeding.
Tracing current.
She had prepared me.
I felt violated.
And proud.
And furious.
“You don't get to turn my childhood into a mission.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Her eyes filled.
“I thought leaving you alive was enough.”
My voice shook.
“It wasn't.”
“I know that now.”
Before we could continue, the lights flickered.
I felt it.
Not normal.
“Get down.”
The glass wall exploded.
Gunfire.
Matteo pulled me beneath the table.
Salvatore overturned another.
My mother crawled toward the wall panel.
“Emergency shutters!”
“They aren't responding!”
Of course.
Someone had compromised power.
Vincent.
I reached the local controls.
Bypassed automation.
Dropped steel shutters manually.
Gunfire stopped.
For five seconds.
Then smoke seeped beneath the door.
Not fire.
Gas.
Salvatore cursed.
“Ventilation.”
I opened the HVAC panel.
Someone had reversed intake.
Poisoning the room.
Matteo began coughing.
My mother pointed toward a maintenance hatch.
“Service tunnel.”
We moved.
Salvatore stayed behind.
Matteo grabbed him.
“Come.”
His father shook his head.
“If we all go, they follow.”
“I'm not leaving you.”
Salvatore looked at him.
For the first time, something human appeared.
“My son.”
Then he shoved Matteo through the hatch and locked it.
Matteo hit the door.
“Father!”
An explosion shook the estate.
The tunnel lights went out.
My mother screamed.
Matteo stopped hitting the door.
Silence.
Then a final message arrived on my phone.
Vincent.
ONE KING IS DEAD.
NOW LET'S SEE WHAT KIND OF KING MATTEO BECOMES.
Matteo read it.
His grief disappeared behind stillness.
I knew that stillness now.
It was the moment he became most dangerous.
He looked at me.
“Find Vincent.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
His eyes hardened.
“He killed my father.”
“And if you chase him angry, he wins.”
“He deserves to die.”
“Maybe.”
I stepped closer.
“But you don't deserve to become exactly what he wants.”
For several seconds, Matteo looked like he might hate me.
Then my mother whispered:
“She’s right.”
The tunnel remained dark.
May you like
The estate burned behind us.
And somewhere outside, Vincent Caruso had just started a war.
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