Chapter 3 - THE PHOTOGRAPH THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
“You're telling me Anthony helped murder my wife?”
Dominic's voice echoed through the hallway.
Michael shook his head.
“I'm telling you he knew Olivia was in danger. Whether he wanted her dead is something I still don't know.”
Dominic examined the photograph.
Anthony Russo had served as his security chief for nearly two decades.
He had stood beside Dominic at Olivia's funeral.
He had carried her coffin.
He had been the man who found Dominic sitting alone in the garden three days after her death and quietly placed a coat around his shoulders.
Dominic trusted Anthony with his life.
Now he was holding a photograph that made that trust look foolish.
“When was this taken?” Dominic asked.
“Six days before Olivia died.”
“What were they doing at Harbor House?”
“She was confronting Richard about missing foundation money.”
“And Anthony?”
“He was supposed to keep her safe.”
Dominic looked sharply at Michael.
“Supposed to?”
Michael lowered his eyes.
“Anthony was helping her investigate.”
That wasn't the answer Dominic expected.
“Then why didn't he tell me?”
“Because Olivia asked him not to.”
Dominic stepped back.
His wife had been keeping secrets from him.
His brother had been keeping secrets.
And the man he trusted to protect his family had apparently known more about Olivia's final days than Dominic himself.
He hated the thought that everyone had decided he couldn't handle the truth.
“Start from the beginning,” Dominic ordered.
Michael leaned against the wall.
“Olivia discovered that money was disappearing from the foundation. Not hundreds of dollars. Millions.”
“Why didn't she come to me?”
“Because the transactions carried Caruso family authorizations.”
Dominic frowned.
“Mine?”
“Some of them.”
“Forged?”
“I don't know.”
Michael reached for the photograph.
Dominic kept it.
“Keep talking.”
“Olivia asked me to come here that night. She said she had evidence hidden in her bedroom. When I arrived, she was terrified.”
“Of Richard?”
“Of what Richard might have told you.”
Dominic's phone vibrated.
It was a message from Anthony.
Claire and Patricia are secured in the west study. Vanessa is asking about you.
Dominic stared at the words.
Then he typed one instruction.
Stay there. I'll come to you.
He looked up.
“Why were you unlocking her bedroom?”
“Because she had locked herself inside. She thought someone was following her.”
“Then why did she scream when she saw you?”
Michael swallowed.
“Because I wasn't alone.”
A door opened at the far end of the hallway.
Vanessa appeared in an ivory evening gown.
“There you both are.”
She looked from Dominic to Michael.
“What's going on?”
Dominic folded the photograph.
“A family conversation.”
Vanessa smiled.
“Then perhaps you should include your fiancée.”
“Not this one.”
Her expression tightened.
“Dominic, people are beginning to notice your absence.”
“Let them.”
Vanessa glanced at Michael.
Something passed between them.
It was brief.
But Dominic saw it.
“You two have already discussed tonight, haven't you?” he asked.
Vanessa laughed.
“Discussed what?”
“Patricia Wells.”
The color drained from her face.
Then she recovered.
“Patricia? The dishonest housekeeper I fired?”
“She's upstairs.”
Vanessa's eyes moved toward the west wing.
For the first time all evening, her composure cracked.
“She has no business being here.”
“Neither did your father in the staff bedrooms.”
Vanessa stiffened.
“Are we still discussing that girl's ridiculous story?”
Dominic studied the woman he had planned to marry.
He had met Vanessa eighteen months after Olivia's death.
She had been patient with his grief.
She had brought flowers to Olivia's grave.
She had insisted he keep his wedding photographs displayed rather than hide them.
He had mistaken those gestures for kindness.
Now he wondered whether they had been calculated.
“Did you give Richard Patricia's security card?” he asked.
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“My father sometimes needed access to the foundation offices.”
“The staff bedrooms aren't foundation offices.”
“That was a misunderstanding.”
“Then explain why you fired Patricia after she complained.”
“She was creating problems among the employees.”
“By reporting your father?”
“By spreading rumors!”
Michael suddenly interrupted.
“Vanessa, stop.”
She turned on him.
“Stay out of this.”
Dominic looked between them.
“What does Michael know that you're afraid he'll say?”
Vanessa's voice dropped.
“Dominic, you are making an enormous mistake.”
He removed the engagement ring box from his jacket.
He had intended to give her a matching wedding band after the charity dinner.
Instead, he placed it on the hallway table.
“The wedding is postponed.”
Vanessa stared at the box.
“You can't be serious.”
“Until I understand what happened to Olivia, there will be no wedding.”
Her expression changed from shock to fury.
“You think that maid is worth destroying everything we've built?”
“This isn't about Claire.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“It's always about someone else with you. Olivia. The foundation. Your employees. There's never anything left for me.”
Dominic didn't answer.
Her anger sounded genuine.
But underneath it was something uglier.
Fear.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“My father built his company working beside men who treated him like dirt. Your family opened doors he could never have entered alone.”
“What does that have to do with Olivia?”
“Everything,” she whispered.
Then she turned and walked away.
Michael watched her disappear.
“She knows you're getting close.”
“To what?”
Michael rubbed his forehead.
“Ask Anthony about the east-wing camera system.”
Dominic headed for the west study.
But when he entered, Claire was standing beside the window.
Patricia sat on the sofa, crying.
Anthony stood near the fireplace.
“What happened?” Dominic demanded.
Claire answered first.
“Someone contacted my mother's care facility.”
Dominic felt his chest tighten.
“What did they say?”
“That my wages would no longer be guaranteed.”
“Who?”
“The foundation's financial office.”
Anthony looked grim.
“The center says a foundation representative informed them Claire was being dismissed for misconduct.”
Dominic turned toward him.
“Who authorized that?”
“I haven't confirmed it.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“You're my security chief. You've had twenty minutes.”
Anthony looked directly at him.
“Sir, I know what Michael showed you.”
Silence settled over the room.
Patricia stopped crying.
Claire looked between them.
Dominic took the photograph from his pocket.
“Explain this.”
Anthony recognized it immediately.
“That was Olivia's last visit to Harbor House.”
“You were investigating missing money with her.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“Olivia made me promise.”
Dominic moved closer.
“She's dead, Anthony. Your promise died with her.”
Anthony's face hardened.
“No, sir. It didn't.”
For the first time in twenty years, Dominic wanted to strike the man.
Instead, he demanded the truth.
Anthony opened his wallet.
Behind his identification card was a photograph of a little girl.
She was around seven, with dark curls and a missing front tooth.
“Who is that?” Dominic asked.
“My daughter. Sophia.”
Dominic remembered Sophia as a child.
She had grown up around the household.
He also remembered that Anthony's wife had died when Sophia was young.
“What does she have to do with this?”
Anthony's hands shook.
“Six years ago, Sophia was abducted for eleven hours because of my work for you.”
Dominic stared.
“You never told me.”
“Olivia helped get her back. Quietly. Without involving your organization.”
“Why?”
“Because Sophia's kidnappers were connected to Richard Whitmore's business partners.”
Claire's eyes widened.
Anthony continued.
“Olivia discovered those same people were using Harbor House to move money through legitimate charities. She believed she could expose them without starting a war.”
“Was Richard involved?”
“Yes.”
“Vanessa?”
Anthony hesitated.
“She knew some of it.”
Dominic pointed at the photograph.
“And Michael?”
“Your brother was trying to protect you from a decision Olivia had already made.”
“What decision?”
Anthony reached inside his coat.
He produced a small envelope.
Olivia's handwriting covered the front.
For Dominic. Only when he knows about Harbor House.
Dominic's hands trembled as he opened it.
Inside was a letter.
My darling,
If you're reading this, something has gone terribly wrong.
I discovered that our foundation has been used to finance businesses we would never willingly support.
But the money isn't the worst part.
Someone has been using our home as collateral.
Dominic stopped reading.
His eyes moved to the next line.
The Caruso mansion, the staff housing, and the foundation's protected properties have been pledged against a private debt.
And the signature authorizing it belongs to someone who had legal access to our family trust.
Dominic looked up.
“Who had that access?”
Anthony said nothing.
Michael appeared in the doorway.
His expression was devastated.
“I did,” he whispered.
Dominic stared at his brother.
Michael shook his head.
“But I never authorized that loan.”
Claire stepped closer.
“Mr. Caruso, there's another page.”
Dominic turned the letter over.
At the bottom, Olivia had written one final warning.
“If they cannot collect the debt, they will claim the house. And they have already chosen the person they intend to put inside it.”
May you like
Below the sentence was a name.
VANESSA WHITMORE.
