Chapter 4 - Dominic Moretti Says No to a Surprise
Dominic Moretti lived in a one-bedroom apartment above a pharmacy in Oak Park.
Not a secret compound.
Not a protection program.
Not a monastery where guilty fathers disappeared.
A one-bedroom apartment.
Adrian learned that from Dominic himself two weeks after the stroke.
They still had not met.
They spoke by phone four times.
The first calls were short.
Weather.
Evie’s recovery.
whether Dominic still drank.
“No.”
“How long?”
“Eighteen years without alcohol.”
“Gambling?”
“One relapse thirteen years ago. None since.”
“Do you go to meetings?”
“Yes.”
“Still?”
“Yes.”
No speeches.
Adrian asked questions like an auditor because emotions felt harder.
Dominic answered.
Then one Sunday, Adrian said:
“Why Oak Park?”
“I moved back from Wisconsin when I retired.”
“What did you do?”
“Fleet maintenance.”
Adrian almost laughed.
His father had once helped run Moretti restaurant logistics and then spent two decades maintaining municipal vehicles in Wisconsin.
“Why didn’t you contact me when you moved back?”
“I thought about it.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
Dominic sighed.
“I called Evelyn.”
There.
When?
Three years earlier.
Evie told him:
Adrian is engaged in expanding the business.
He is doing well.
Do not appear unless he asks.
“She had no right.”
“I know.”
“Why did you listen?”
“Because by then I had practiced listening to people who told me I was bad for you.”
There.
Then:
“And because part of me liked having someone else make the cowardly choice.”
Adrian respected that answer more than he wanted to.
Then Vivian.
Adrian finally asked:
“How did she find you?”
Dominic laughed once.
“Not difficult.”
Public records.
driver’s license.
property lease.
an old GA volunteer newsletter with his full name.
Vivian hired a licensed investigator during premarital due diligence.
Why was she doing premarital due diligence on Adrian’s father?
Because Adrian’s legal team had asked both sides to disclose:
family obligations,
dependents,
contingent claims,
ongoing support arrangements,
and any material reputational matters.
Adrian had listed:
father estranged, location unknown.
Vivian thought that answer was incomplete.
It was.
Did she tell Adrian she was investigating?
No.
Why?
According to Vivian later:
because she expected the result would be nothing.
Then she found Dominic.
The investigator reported:
alive,
Oak Park,
retired,
no criminal record beyond decades-old DUI,
no outstanding judgments,
no current ties to Moretti businesses.
That could have ended.
Vivian called him anyway.
Dominic ignored first three calls.
Then she left message:
I’m marrying Adrian. I think he deserves to know you’re alive.
Dominic called back.
They met at a café.
In the second photograph.
Vivian asked:
Why did you leave?
Did Evie keep letters?
Do you want to see Adrian?
Would you attend engagement dinner if invited?
Dominic said:
Maybe to first three.
No to last.
Not without Adrian knowing.
Vivian pushed.
She said:
Adrian will never choose a meeting because Evie has trained him to think you abandoned him.
Dominic did not like “trained.”
But he agreed Evie had blocked letters.
Then Vivian said she could tell Adrian after Dominic was already nearby.
That was the surprise.
Dominic said no.
She reserved hotel anyway.
He canceled.
She sent driver anyway.
He did not use it.
Then she asked him to sign one thing.
Adrian stiffened when Dominic said.
“What?”
Not financial.
A short written statement:
I attempted to contact Adrian Moretti after treatment and was discouraged by Evelyn Marino.
Vivian said she wanted proof before confronting Evie.
Dominic refused.
“Why?”
“Because it was incomplete.”
He had also stopped trying.
Elena had blocked at first.
his addiction caused separation.
He would not reduce eighteen years to:
Evie kept me away.
Good.
Vivian did not forge.
She left draft.
Dominic later gave copy to Evie.
That was why Evie prepared letter.
Then Adrian asked:
“Did Vivian ever threaten you?”
“No.”
“Offer money?”
“No.”
“Ask about business?”
“No.”
“Shares?”
“No.”
“Trust?”
“No.”
This was not corporate theft.
It was family control.
Then Dominic asked:
“Do you love her?”
Adrian’s anger rose.
“Not your question.”
Dominic answered:
“Fair.”
Good.
Then they ended call.
A week later Adrian agreed to meet.
He chose a public park café.
No security at table.
One guard remained far enough away because Adrian’s public profile brought risks.
Dominic arrived early.
Adrian recognized him before Dominic looked up.
Age had changed him.
The photographs from childhood showed a broad man with black hair and careless confidence.
Now:
thinner,
white hair,
reading glasses,
a slight stiffness in his left knee.
No tremor.
No dramatic illness.
Adrian stopped ten feet away.
Dominic stood.
Neither moved to hug.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
They sat.
Dominic ordered black coffee.
Adrian remembered his father used to put sugar in everything.
“Still hate black coffee?”
Dominic smiled.
“Diabetes scared me straight on sugar before anything else could.”
Ordinary health.
Then silence.
Adrian took out one letter.
The 112-day letter.
He placed on table.
“You wrote this.”
“Yes.”
“Did you expect Evie to give it?”
“I hoped.”
“Did Mom know?”
“Probably.”
Not certainty.
Then Dominic said:
“I need to tell you something before you build me into the parent who tried for eighteen years.”
Adrian looked.
“I didn’t.”
Then:
“I tried hard for about two.”
There.
The later cards became annual.
then less.
For years Dominic told himself:
Adrian knows how to find me if he wants.
But Adrian did not know where.
“That was convenient.”
“Yes.”
Then Dominic owned more.
When Elena first blocked contact, he could have sought legal visitation after treatment.
He did not.
Why?
Money.
shame.
fear court would expose addiction.
belief Adrian hated him.
and because starting over in Wisconsin felt easier than repairing Chicago.
He had signed a separation agreement granting Elena primary custody and supervised contact subject to therapist recommendation.
There was a legal pathway.
He did not pursue.
Then Elena died while Adrian still minor.
Who became legal guardian?
Interesting.
Adrian was seventeen, close to adulthood.
Elena’s will nominated her sister? Did she have? Let's say temporary guardian was Elena’s brother Michael Moretti, Adrian’s uncle, until eighteen. Evie remained household caregiver, not guardian.
This matters.
Evie did not legally control contact.
Michael did.
Did Dominic contact Michael?
Once.
Michael said:
Not now. Adrian is finishing school.
Again, another adult.
Dominic accepted.
Then Adrian asked:
“Why did everyone think I’d break?”
Dominic answered:
“Because you had already been through too much.”
“That isn’t a reason.”
“No.”
Then:
“It was an excuse adults liked because it made our choices sound tender.”
There.
Adrian looked away.
Then he asked about Elena.
“Did she hate you?”
Dominic thought.
“At the end of our marriage? Often.”
Then:
“Did she love me?”
“Yes.”
Both.
Then:
“Was she right to keep me away?”
“For a while.”
Adrian looked sharply.
Dominic continued.
“I was unreliable. I was drinking. I missed supervised visits. I borrowed money from her brother and lied. She had reasons.”
Then:
“Forever? No.”
Good.
Then:
“Was Evie right?”
“For a while too.”
Adrian hated the pattern.
Everyone right for a while.
wrong later.
Boundaries need expiry.
Then Dominic said:
“I do not want your mother turned into the reason we lost eighteen years.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was there too.”
There.
Then Vivian.
“What did you think of her?”
Dominic smiled sadly.
“She is smart.”
Not compliment enough.
“She asked the right question.”
Which?
Why has nobody let Adrian decide?
Then:
“She used the wrong answer.”
What answer?
Decide for him herself.
Exactly.
Then Dominic added:
“She also spoke about Evelyn like she was an obstacle, not a person.”
That bothered him.
Evie had made mistakes.
also held him accountable when nobody else did.
During Dominic’s early recovery, Evie refused to send Adrian his grand promises.
But she did send Dominic:
treatment center contacts,
job lead,
later congratulations for sobriety.
She was not simply enemy.
Then Adrian said:
“She offered Evie twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“I know.”
“Did you tell her to?”
“No.”
Then:
“I told her Evelyn planned to retire.”
Adrian looked.
“You knew?”
“Evie told me at our meeting.”
Everyone knew before him.
He laughed.
Dominic winced.
“Sorry.”
Adrian rubbed face.
Then:
“Why was the third photo taken?”
Evie had asked Dominic’s friend Frank to take one because she intended to show Adrian:
This is your father now.
Not a memory.
She had finally decided to tell.
Three months ago.
Why wait three months?
She wanted Dominic to complete a medical? No.
No excuse.
She became afraid.
Then Vivian found him and accelerated.
The stroke interrupted.
Again, timing.
Then the meeting ended after ninety minutes.
Dominic did not ask:
When can I see you again?
He said:
“If you want another coffee, you have my number.”
Adrian stood.
Then stopped.
“Sunday.”
Dominic looked.
“What?”
“Call me Sunday.”
There.
A choice.
Dominic nodded.
“Okay.”
No hug.
Adrian walked away.
His security man opened car door.
Adrian waved him off for a minute.
He stood on sidewalk and cried privately.
Not because his father had returned.
Because “returned” was wrong.
Dominic had been twenty minutes away for three years.
The distance had been made from:
old addiction,
a mother’s fear,
Evie’s protection,
an uncle’s caution,
Dominic’s cowardice,
Adrian’s ignorance,
and now Vivian’s attempt to force a solution.
No single villain could give him eighteen years back.
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That was perhaps why the truth hurt more.
There was nobody he could punish enough to make time reverse.
