Chapter 2 - THE WARNING HIS DEAD WIFE LEFT BEHIND
“Your mother knew Michael was dangerous before she died, Dominic. And I let him convince me to keep quiet.”
Evelyn Moretti's confession struck her son harder than anything he'd discovered that evening.
Dominic stood inside the guesthouse, holding the folded paper his eight-year-old daughter had carried against her chest.
Three years.
His wife had been dead for three years, and the people closest to him had been hiding something about her final days.
“Daddy?” Sophie whispered.
Dominic looked down.
“I'm here, sweetheart.”
“Are you mad at Grandma?”
He glanced toward Evelyn, who sat trembling beside her walker.
“No, honey. But I need to understand what happened.”
Sophie nodded and pointed at the paper.
“Read the back.”
Dominic carefully unfolded it.
His late wife Anna's handwriting filled the page.
Dominic, if Michael tries to take Sophie anywhere without you, don't let him.
He took my blue medicine case after arguing with Dr. Bell. When I asked why, he said I was imagining things.
Ask him about your father's silver watch.
And please believe me this time.
Dominic stopped breathing for a moment.
The final sentence hurt the most.
Please believe me this time.
He remembered their last argument.
Anna had accused Michael of moving money through companies connected to the family's lakefront property.
Dominic had dismissed her concerns.
Michael was his younger brother.
The person he'd protected since they were boys.
“You're imagining enemies everywhere,” Dominic had told Anna.
She had looked at him with tears in her eyes.
“No, Dominic. I'm finally seeing the ones sitting at our table.”
Three days later, Anna was dead.
Officially, she'd suffered a sudden cardiac event at the family's lake house.
Her longtime physician, Dr. Adrian Bell, had certified her death.
Dominic had believed every word.
Now he looked at his mother.
“Why didn't you show me this?”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
“Anna gave it to me the afternoon before she died. She said if anything happened, I should give it to you.”
“Then why didn't you?”
“Michael came to see me after the funeral.”
Her eyes filled.
“He said the note was written while Anna was confused by her medication. He told me you were barely surviving her death.”
Dominic said nothing.
“He said showing it to you would destroy what was left of our family.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
The answer was painfully simple.
Evelyn reached for Sophie's hand.
“But I kept it. I put it with Anna's things, and Sophie found it when we were looking at her mother's photographs last winter.”
Sophie lowered her head.
“Grandma told me to keep it safe.”
Dominic knelt beside his daughter.
“You should never have had to carry something this frightening.”
“Mommy said to tell the truth.”
“She was right.”
He kissed her forehead.
Then he turned toward Emily Parker.
The young housekeeper stood near the doorway, her injured shoulder supported by her good arm.
“Emily, would you stay with Sophie and my mother while I make a few arrangements?”
“Of course, sir.”
“And please stop calling me sir when you're trying to tell me something important.”
Emily gave a small, uncertain smile.
“I'll try, Mr. Moretti.”
For the first time that evening, Dominic almost smiled back.
Then his security chief approached.
“Mr. Moretti, your brother is at the front gate of the guesthouse.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Don't let him inside.”
“He says he needs to speak with you immediately.”
“He can wait.”
As Dominic stepped outside, his phone displayed twelve missed calls from Camille.
He ignored them.
Michael Moretti stood beneath the driveway lights wearing a charcoal suit.
At thirty-six, he had the same dark eyes as Dominic, but his shoulders were tense.
“What the hell is happening?” Michael demanded.
“Mom was locked inside this building.”
Michael's face changed.
“What?”
“Camille used her security code. You helped her prepare documents to take control of Mom's property.”
Michael looked toward the guesthouse.
“Dominic, there are things you don't understand.”
“Then explain them.”
“The lakefront development is complicated.”
“An eighteen-million-dollar property left to my daughter isn't complicated.”
Michael rubbed his forehead.
“You think this is about stealing Sophie's inheritance?”
“I know your name is on the transfer.”
Michael lowered his voice.
“Theodore Whitmore has financed half our expansion for six years. If that development fails, companies employing hundreds of people could collapse.”
“So you threaten an old woman?”
“I never agreed to lock Mom anywhere!”
Dominic studied him.
For a moment, his brother looked genuinely horrified.
Then Dominic asked one question.
“Where is Dad's silver watch?”
Michael went completely still.
Their father, Edmund Moretti, had carried that watch for forty years.
After Edmund died, Dominic had kept it in his office.
It disappeared around the time Anna became ill.
Michael had claimed it was misplaced during renovations.
“Why are you asking about that?” Michael whispered.
“Anna mentioned it.”
Michael's eyes flicked toward the guesthouse.
“Anna?”
“She left me a warning.”
“Dominic, you need to understand—”
“Where is the watch?”
Michael looked away.
“I gave it to Adrian Bell.”
Dominic felt something cold settle in his chest.
“Why?”
Michael swallowed.
“Because he did something for me.”
“What did he do?”
Before Michael could answer, Camille appeared at the end of the driveway.
Her expensive white dress swept across the pavement.
“Dominic! Our guests are asking where you are!”
He turned.
“Our engagement party is over.”
Camille stopped.
“What?”
“Go back to the ballroom. Tell everyone the celebration has been canceled.”
Her cheeks flushed.
“You cannot humiliate me like this!”
“You locked my seventy-nine-year-old mother in a guesthouse without her walker.”
“She was interfering with an agreement that could save your businesses!”
Dominic stared at her.
For one brief moment, Camille realized she'd said too much.
Michael stepped forward.
“Camille, stop.”
But she wouldn't.
“Your mother doesn't understand the financial consequences of her stubbornness!”
“She understood perfectly when she refused to sign.”
Camille's eyes flashed.
“You have no idea what my father will do if this deal collapses.”
Dominic took one step closer.
“Then perhaps you should be afraid of your father instead of threatening my family.”
He turned to his security chief.
“Escort Ms. Whitmore to her car. She can collect her belongings tomorrow with supervision.”
Camille stared at him.
“You're ending our engagement?”
“I'm ending the mistake of believing you belonged in my daughter's home.”
For the first time, Camille had no answer.
As the security team led her away, Michael caught Dominic's arm.
“Listen to me. Bell is still inside the ballroom.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Why does that matter?”
“Because if you confront him in front of everyone, things could get ugly.”
Dominic pulled his arm free.
“Then he'd better tell the truth privately.”
Twenty minutes later, the last guests were leaving.
The crystal chandeliers still glittered above abandoned champagne glasses and untouched desserts.
Dr. Adrian Bell stood near the fireplace.
He was sixty-two, silver-haired, and respected throughout Chicago.
Dominic had trusted him with Anna's health.
With his mother's health.
With almost everything.
“Doctor,” Dominic said quietly.
Bell turned.
“Dominic. I'm terribly sorry about the confusion tonight.”
“I need to ask about my father's watch.”
Bell's pleasant expression vanished.
Dominic noticed the physician's right hand move instinctively toward his jacket pocket.
“Michael said he gave it to you.”
Bell remained silent.
“Show me.”
Slowly, the doctor withdrew a silver pocket watch.
Dominic recognized the dent near its clasp.
His father had dropped it while teaching Sophie to ride a bicycle.
But there was something else.
A deep scratch ran across the back.
“That mark wasn't there when my father died,” Dominic said.
Bell's fingers began to tremble.
“Where did it come from?”
The physician looked toward Michael.
Then toward the empty ballroom doors.
Finally, he whispered:
“Your brother gave me this watch the night Anna died.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Why?”
Bell closed his eyes.
“Because I arrived at the lake house much earlier than the medical report says.”
Dominic stared at him.
The doctor continued, his voice barely audible.
May you like
“And when I got there, Anna was still conscious.”
“She told me someone had switched her heart medication.”
