Chapter 4 - THE GIRL IN HIS HOUSE
“Get Lily out of there.”
Dominic was already moving.
Marco answered through the car speaker.
“We’re entering the property.”
“No gunfire unless Anthony starts it.”
Serena climbed into the passenger seat before Dominic could stop her.
“You’re staying here.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“She doesn’t know that.”
“That stopped being your decision twenty years ago.”
Dominic looked at her.
Then drove.
The ride to Lake Forest took less than forty minutes.
It felt like forty years.
Marco’s men had surrounded the property but had not entered.
Anthony had asked for Dominic.
Not money.
Not safe passage.
Dominic.
He walked into his own home alone.
The first thing he saw was Lily.
She was sitting at the kitchen island with a mug in both hands.
Anthony stood by the window.
No weapon visible.
“Dominic.”
His father said his name as though they had seen each other last Christmas.
Dominic stopped ten feet away.
“You died.”
Anthony smiled faintly.
“So I was told.”
Lily looked between them.
“Mr. Valente?”
Her voice was young, but steady.
“Clara said you were her husband.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Is she okay?”
That surprised him.
“She survived surgery.”
Lily exhaled.
“Good.”
Anthony watched the exchange.
“She loves Clara.”
“I can see that.”
“No, you can’t.”
Anthony’s gaze hardened.
“You stopped seeing your wife years ago.”
Dominic absorbed the blow.
It was infuriating because it was true.
“Why is Lily here?”
“Because she deserves answers.”
Lily set down her mug.
“I would really like someone to start giving me some.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Twenty years old or not, there was something painfully familiar about her irritation.
Anthony gestured toward a chair.
Dominic remained standing.
“Fine,” Anthony said. “Serena Bell is your mother.”
Lily blinked.
Once.
Then laughed softly.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was absurd.
“My mother is dead.”
“No,” Anthony said.
Lily looked at Dominic.
“Is he insane?”
“Not about this.”
Her face changed.
Dominic hated being the person who did that to her.
Anthony continued.
“Clara took you from Serena.”
Dominic looked at him.
“That’s not the whole truth.”
“It’s enough.”
“No,” Lily said sharply. “It isn’t.”
Both men stopped.
She looked from one to the other.
“I don’t know what kind of family this is, but where I come from, adults don’t get to throw pieces of someone’s life at them and call it truth.”
Dominic stared at her.
Anthony almost looked impressed.
Lily stood.
“I want Clara.”
“She’s in the hospital,” Dominic said.
“Then take me there.”
Anthony’s voice cooled.
“You’re not leaving yet.”
Lily turned.
That was when Dominic saw fear.
Small.
Controlled.
Real.
He stepped between them.
“She’s leaving.”
Anthony’s expression changed.
“You always did inherit your mother’s weakness.”
“No.”
Dominic picked up the childhood drawing from the counter.
“I inherited her mistake.”
He tore it in half.
Anthony’s face hardened.
“She protected you from reality.”
“She protected people from you.”
“Is that what Clara told you?”
“No. Clara barely tells me anything.”
For the first time, Lily gave a tiny snort.
Wrong moment.
Completely natural.
It broke the tension for half a second.
Then Anthony reached into his coat.
Dominic moved instantly.
But Anthony removed only a gold pocket watch.
Dominic froze.
He knew it.
His grandfather’s.
Anthony opened the case.
Inside was a tiny photograph.
Serena at sixteen.
Holding a newborn.
Lily stepped closer despite herself.
“That’s me?”
“Yes.”
Her hand trembled.
Anthony offered her the watch.
Dominic expected manipulation.
Instead Anthony’s voice softened.
“I was wrong about many things, Lily. But I never stopped looking.”
Lily took the watch.
“Why?”
“Because you were family.”
“Were you going to hurt me?”
Anthony looked genuinely wounded.
“No.”
“Were you going to take me away from my mother?”
Silence.
Lily understood.
“So yes.”
“I believed Serena was incapable of raising you.”
“She was sixteen.”
“She was unstable.”
“She was sixteen,” Lily repeated.
Anthony’s jaw tightened.
For the first time Dominic understood the central tragedy.
Anthony might actually love people.
He simply believed love gave him ownership.
That made him more dangerous, not less.
A side door opened.
Serena entered.
Lily looked up.
The world seemed to stop.
Serena did not run to her.
Did not cry her name.
She simply stood there.
Lily looked at the photograph inside the watch.
Then at Serena.
“Oh.”
Serena’s mouth trembled.
“Hi.”
Lily’s eyes filled.
“You’re her.”
“Yes.”
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
“Did you give me away?”
Serena closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Lily flinched.
Then Serena added, “And then I tried to take you back.”
Anthony moved.
“Serena—”
“Don’t.”
For the first time, Serena sounded like the sixteen-year-old girl she had once been.
“You don’t get to tell this part.”
She looked at Lily.
“I gave you to Clara because I was terrified. Your grandfather told me he would raise you, and that I could visit when I had proven I could behave.”
Lily’s face went pale.
Serena continued.
“I knew what that meant.”
“So Clara took me.”
“Yes.”
“And you came back.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she give me back?”
Serena looked at Anthony.
“Because he was waiting.”
Anthony said nothing.
Lily gripped the pocket watch.
Dominic expected her to go to Serena.
She didn’t.
She walked toward the door.
“I want to see Clara.”
This time nobody stopped her.
At the hospital, Clara cried when Lily entered.
Not dramatically.
One tear.
Then another.
Lily sat beside her.
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“You said my mother died.”
“Yes.”
“I hate that.”
“You should.”
Lily’s face crumpled.
“But you saved me.”
Clara reached for her hand.
“I tried.”
Lily let her take it.
Dominic watched from the doorway.
Serena stood several feet behind him, unable to move closer.
Then Lily noticed the red bracelet on Clara’s table.
Her expression changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“Dominic has had it since tonight.”
“No.”
Lily reached beneath her sweatshirt and pulled out a small fabric pouch.
From it came an identical red bracelet.
Clara stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Lily frowned.
“Mom—Ruth—gave it to me last week.”
Clara sat straighter despite the pain.
“What did she say?”
“She said if you ever gave me the other one, I should open the pocket.”
“What pocket?”
Lily turned her bracelet inside out.
A tiny seam ran along the cloth.
Dominic handed her his half.
Inside Clara’s bracelet was the same seam.
He carefully opened it.
A narrow strip of paper slid into his palm.
On it was one sentence in Elena Valente’s handwriting.
THE FATHER’S NAME IS NOT BLANK.
Below it was a name.
Dominic read it once.
Then again.
Serena saw his face.
“What?”
He looked at Lily.
Then at Clara.
The name on the paper was not Anthony Valente.
May you like
It was:
EVAN BELL.
