Chapter 9 - THE FINAL SEAL
The deposition took place in my study on the second floor of the farmhouse at ten o'clock the next morning.
Judge Scalia sat across from me, accompanied by a court stenographer and a federal videographer who set up a high-definition camera on a tripod facing my desk.
Grace sat in the armchair by the corner window, her presence giving me a quiet, absolute strength.
The videographer pressed the red record button on his camera.
"State your full name for the record," Judge Scalia urged gently.
"Dominic Joseph Romano," I said, looking straight into the camera lens.
For two hours, I spoke.
I didn't raise my voice. I didn't show anger. I speak with the cold, absolute precision of a man who had lived through the event and survived to tell the truth.
I detail the events leading up to the ambush in Garden City. I identified the weapons, the vehicles, the financial trail that Marco had used to communicate with the Moretti family, and the exact physical evidence left at the scene.
I laid bare the entire criminal structure that had tried to destroy my family.
"Mr. Romano," Judge Scalia asked as the sun reached its peak outside the window. "Do you make this statement freely, without threat or promise of immunity from the United States government?"
"I make this statement for my daughters," I said, my voice ringing clear and steady through the room. "So that they can grow up in a world where the men who hurt their mothers are held by the law, and not by the sword."
Scalia looked at the camera. "This deposition is hereby concluded and sealed under Federal Protection Order 408."
The videographer stopped the recording, ejected the digital memory card, and placed it inside a tamper-evident steel evidence case.
Scalia stood up, walking across the room to shake my hand once more.
May you like
"You've done a noble thing today, Dominic," Scalia said quietly. "Your father would have been proud of the man you've become."
"My father was a king in a world of wolves, Anthony," I said, looking out the study window at the golden autumn trees. "I prefer being a father in a world of peace."
