Chapter 15 - The New Foundation
Six months later, the Moretti estate was alive with the warm, vibrant colors of late spring.
The cold, forbidding limestone walls were now framed by blooming white hydrangeas and lush ivy.
The tall arched windows of the grand dining room stood wide open, allowing a gentle May breeze to carry the sweet scent of lilacs across the polished Italian marble floor.
A long, elegant table was set for eighteen guests, but there were no armed bodyguards pacing the perimeter walls, no whispered conspiracies about dock territories, and no envelopes of dirty cash changing hands under the table.
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Sitting near the head of the table was my sister, Clara.
She was eighteen years old now, her cheeks rosy with health, her hair falling in soft curls over a simple lavender sundress.
