"Father? I... I have a father?"
Maldo didn't understand what he had just heard. His words came out broken, as if he were trying to grasp an imaginary thread slipping through his fingers.
What the hell is this...?
His body trembled, and he unconsciously took two steps back. The air seemed heavier than usual, as if the whole room had shrunk around him.
His mind couldn't comprehend... No, it refused to accept.
It couldn't be... This couldn't be real.
But before he could catch his breath, he saw Luca rush forward angrily, his face tense and his features almost exploding.
He grabbed Daniel violently by the collar of his shirt, his voice sharp as a knife. "What are you saying, you bastard! Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now!"
Daniel didn't back down, his voice provocatively calm, as if he knew he was in control of the situation. "As I said, this is Ricardo de Luca... Maldo's father."
He paused for a moment, then added in a cryptic tone. "And of course, I have a reason for hiding him all these years."
The words had barely left his mouth when Maldo lunged at him. Before he knew what he was doing, he found himself moving. His fist rose and slammed into Daniel's cheek with such force that his head jerked to the side.
Holding Daniel by the collar, Luca took two steps back in surprise, letting his fist slip from between his fingers.
Maldo remained standing, panting. His hands were shaking, and the aura around him began to move, lightly at first, then as if igniting.
The air became heavier, and the room seemed to close on him.
"Why did you hide it?!" His voice was closer to a scream, punctuated by a tremor of pain that had not yet subsided.
"You saw me suffering... searching inside myself for any thread that connects me to the past!" His eyes widened, and the anger in his chest flared even more. "Why, Daniel? Why?!"
"Because I couldn't!" The words burst out of Daniel like a suppressed voice, sharp but hesitant simultaneously.
His face looked tense, and the veins in his neck stood out as if he were trying to suppress something greater than his ability to bear.
"I couldn't say anything to you when we were at that headquarters... I was too young. Telling you something like that at the time would have upset you even more... and it would have revealed your father's secret too.
His words echoed in Maldo's mind, but he found nothing in them to heal the wound he had just opened.
Couldn't he? Or wouldn't he?
"I still don't understand," he said in a low but steady voice, as if resisting an internal breakdown.
"I can't find a convincing reason for you to hide this from me, Daniel."
Daniel grabbed Maldo and sat him on a red sofa next to the bed, Then sat down on the floor in front of him. Luca was next to him, too.
"Let me tell you... It all goes back to that day, ten years ago."
That day, I gathered information about the gangs, watched their movements, and listened to their whispers in the back alleys.
Suddenly, my phone rang in my pocket. I looked at the screen and froze. The name in front of me was one I hadn't seen in years.
Ricardo De Luca.
At first, I couldn't believe it. It seemed he hadn't forgotten me after all this time.
He told me to come to him... and that was right before the accident.
I went to him immediately, but I was too late.
When I arrived, the situation was tragic: Ricardo was crawling at the door of the house, blood pouring from his chest, four bullets... I cannot describe the fear I felt.
"Lord Ricardo, what happened?" He looked up at me, his voice hoarse.
"My son... save my son." He pointed me outside and whispered something urgent.
I asked him, "Who did this?" He replied, gasping for breath.
"The X Trio came... I thought they just wanted to talk to me. But they asked about the vault. I had to give them information... just a fake location... and that led to all this."
Then he added, in a faint voice:
"Don't worry about me... go and save my son."
I couldn't control myself. I found a car, put him in it, and returned to the house.
There I found one of the Trio X lying on the ground, with a deep wound scratching his face.
I asked him, "Where's the little boy?"
He replied in a broken voice, "He... he already escaped..."
Before he could finish, I killed him... I continued searching the house and found a family photo of Ricardo, his wife, and his son.
I took the photo with me and burned the house down.
Everyone thought Ricardo was dead.
I didn't know anything about the safe at the time, so I hired some people from the gangs to bring me information later.
That's when I discovered that it was worth one and a half billion euros.
I didn't believe it at first, but when I thought about Ricardo... I believed everything.
When I first met you at headquarters, I didn't want to reveal my knowledge of him, so that it wouldn't harm you.
The day I discovered your memory loss, I searched for any trace of you... But Lord Ricardo left no record, perhaps so that no one would look for you.
So I waited until today, to see you as a mature man, someone I could talk to man to man.
It was a long story... so long that Maldo's mind couldn't grasp all the details at once.
Every sentence he heard from Daniel was like a new blow to the crumbling walls of his consciousness.
His heart began to beat violently, and his lips moved to say something... but no words came out.
Everything seemed strange, unreal, as if the world he knew was slowly disintegrating before his eyes, like a wall collapsing to reveal a secret he was not ready to see.
Despite all the chaos that engulfed his mind, one thing was as clear as day. Daniel had saved his father. He had really saved him.
And what surprised him even more... one and a half billion euros!
It was as if the ground had slipped from under his feet. His brain tried to comprehend the number, but failed, and suddenly he felt a terrible weight pressing down on his chest.
Maldo clasped his hands over his face and exhaled deeply, as if trying to expel something stuck in his chest.
Then he said in a hoarse voice.
"So it was the X Trio who put my father in this state..."
Daniel nodded slowly, a heavy calm reflected on his features.
"They're not a trio anymore," he said in a low voice. "They're a duo... because I already killed one of them."
Luca exchanged glances with Maldo before commenting with deliberate coldness, a mocking gleam in his eyes that he did not attempt to hide:
"A shocking story... more so than me being a cursed soul, it seems."
Maldo began to gather his thoughts, trying to organize himself amid the chaos that had invaded his mind. But he felt the weight of the moment, needing space to catch his breath and understand what was happening.
"Can you... Leave me alone for a moment?" he said to them without looking at them.
Daniel immediately stood up and motioned for Luca to leave as well.
Before passing through the door, Maldo whispered, filled with gratitude and surprise, as if words could hardly express what he was feeling.
"Thank you... for saving him."
Daniel smiled slightly, not so much with joy as with understanding, then closed the door behind him, leaving Maldo alone with the silence... and with himself.
A moment of silence filled the room, broken only by the sound of the machines and the faint breathing coming from the bed.
Maldo approached slowly and sat down next to his father.
He looked at him for a long time, his eyes lost in deep confusion.
"You're my father... then."
He said it as if trying to convince himself.
"Strange... Look at the gray hair on your head, and the wrinkles that are beginning to steal your face... I don't know why this sight hurts me more than anything else."
He slowly reached out and took his father's unexpectedly warm hand.
"I wish I could really talk to you..."
He hesitated a little, then added in a muffled voice, closer to a whisper than speech.
"Father... I am your son."
He ran his hand through his white hair, and at that moment, a tear slid down his cheek.
He tried to stop it... But he couldn't.
One tear after another fell, until he was forced to cover his mouth with his palm to muffle and hide his agitated breathing. His voice came out hoarse, broken between gasps and faint whispers.
"I'm sorry... for forgetting you."
He remained like that for minutes, hearing only the sound of his breathing, rising and falling, and the hum of the machine beside him.
Then, very quietly, he took a deep breath.
He slowly raised his head and opened his eyes, red from crying.
He looked at his father for a long time, with tenderness, apology, and a vague determination that was about to turn into a decision.
He stood up, silently rearranged his jacket, and then left the room with heavy but steady steps.
Daniel and Luca were waiting for him in the hallway.
The two raised their heads as soon as they saw him, as if they had begun to breathe again after a long pause.
His features were calm, as they were accustomed to seeing him, that serenity that hid a storm of emotions.
However, a slight redness in his ears gave him away; a small trace of crying that he tried to hide, but did not quite succeed.
No one dared to speak, until Maldo broke the silence with a provocative statement: "Is the former leader of the Black Rose Mafia my father?"
Daniel nodded and said, "Yes, exactly."
Maldo's face showed both pride and sorrow at the same time. The great man... was my father, then...
He bit his lip, then continued in a firm voice: "I've made my decision."
He placed his hand on his chest and roared, as if the echo of his words would shake the foundations of this dark world: "I will destroy all the gangs with you... And more importantly, I will destroy the one who put my father in this state."
No one could have expected to hear this statement. Luca ran his hand through his hair in disbelief and snorted half-sarcastically. "Really!"
"Yeah ..." Maldo replied in a tone more confident than he actually felt. "And I will take back what belonged to my father... I will take control of the Black Rose Mafia. I swear I will do it."
Daniel didn't respond immediately. He looked at him with calm eyes, conveying something Maldo couldn't read.
Then he said in a low but warm voice. "I'll tell you something I couldn't say all these years... You're just like your father."
His words not only entered Maldo's ears, but made him freeze in astonishment, a strange feeling washing over him. He didn't know his father well enough to compare, yet he couldn't ignore the faint echo of meaning behind those words.
He smiled a faint smile, half sarcastic, half astonished.
"How jealous I am of you... for knowing my father better than I do."
"I can tell you many stories about him if you like," said Daniel.
Maldo turned his face away, silent for a moment, then said in a low but composed voice, "I'd be happy to hear them... but not now. My mind is confused and I want to rest a little."
Daniel simply smiled calmly, his eyes reflecting his prior knowledge of Maldo's fatigue. "As you wish, you rascal."
"I'm going to my room," Maldo said, and Luca immediately got up and followed him silently.
Daniel sighed, releasing the heavy weight from his chest:
"This is a day when I finally deserve a drink."
Maldo stood between the two doors, his room and his father's, hesitating for a moment, contemplating his father's door, as if just looking at it weighed heavily on his heart.
Then Luca broke the silence. "Aren't you going to go to your room?"
Maldo pushed the door open and entered his room, closing it behind him, and threw himself on the bed, putting his hand over his face.
Ugh! How cruel this world is... and truly filthy...
Moonlight crept in through the window, reflecting on Maldo's face. He removed his hand from his face and gazed into the cold light. A few seconds were enough to fill his mind with thoughts that were both calm and strange at the same time.
An image of Sally flashed through his mind for a moment, and he smiled at the moon. Then he whispered to himself, more like a thought than words:
"The moon is bright tonight, Sally."
He regained his composure immediately, straightened up, and walked toward his desk, as if trying to regain control of his scattered mind. Luca noticed him and asked in a low voice.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to write, you idiot..." he replied calmly, with a touch of sarcasm.
Luca smiled slightly and said, staring at Maldo's hand moving over the paper:
"That's exciting."
Maldo began to write calmly, each word as if extracting a piece of his scattered mind:
"Hi, I am... Or maybe I should say, hi, unknown stranger.
Today, of all the pages, this will be the first time I write:
'I am not okay.'
How can I be okay when my father is bedridden and I can't do anything... I see his face and I don't remember him... I'm happy to see him, but I'm also sad...
I still wonder where those happy endings that everyone talks about come from after all the hardship... This is another lie.]