Chapter 6 - The Secret Isabella Kept for Eleven Years
Dominic broke the door on the third strike.
Smoke rolled over him.
Marin followed despite Carlo shouting at her to stay back.
Isabella lay beside the bed.
Dominic lifted her.
“Ma.”
Her eyes opened.
Alive.
Marin grabbed the portable oxygen cylinder while Dominic carried Isabella into the hall.
Fire suppression systems finally activated.
Water poured from the ceiling.
Security teams swept the wing.
The fire itself was small.
Designed for smoke.
Designed for panic.
A distraction.
Carlo reached them.
“Perimeter breach near the east service road. One guard found unconscious.”
“Bell?”
“Probably.”
Dominic looked at his mother.
Bell had entered his home again.
But why?
Then Marin understood.
“The drive.”
They ran back downstairs.
The secure conference room door stood open.
Laptop gone.
But Dominic had already given Carlo the photographed copies.
Bell did not know that.
“He thinks he erased the evidence,” Carlo said.
“Let him.”
Dominic looked toward the security cameras.
“Can we track the laptop?”
Carlo smiled.
“I was hoping you’d ask.”
The tracker moved north.
Bell was running.
Dominic wanted to follow.
Isabella grabbed his wrist.
One tap.
No.
“Ma—”
She pointed toward Marin.
Then the writing board.
Marin sat beside her.
“What do you need to tell him?”
Isabella wrote slowly.
B E L L D I D N O T K I L L A N T H O N Y.
Dominic stared.
“What?”
She repeated it.
Bell did not kill Anthony.
“Who did?”
Isabella began another name.
V.
Dominic’s stomach tightened.
I.
V I V—
“Vivien?” Marin whispered.
Isabella shook her head.
Then finished.
V I V I A N.
Dominic frowned.
“My aunt?”
Vivian Varelli.
His father’s younger sister.
Dead four years.
Isabella nodded.
Dominic stepped backward.
Aunt Vivian had practically raised Anthony and him.
She had baked birthday cakes.
Bandaged scraped knees.
Sat beside Dominic at Anthony’s funeral.
Isabella wrote.
S H E C U T B R A K E S.
“Why?”
M O N E Y.
Vivian had been receiving payments from Bell.
Anthony discovered them.
She panicked.
Bell helped cover up the murder afterward.
Charles Morrow helped bury the financial evidence.
A conspiracy built not from one monster but from people protecting one another’s crimes.
Dominic felt eleven years of certainty collapsing.
“Why didn’t Bell expose her?”
Isabella wrote:
H E O W N E D H E R.
Blackmail.
Control.
That was Bell’s true business.
Not law.
Secrets.
Marin suddenly understood something else.
“Vivien may not know all of this.”
Dominic looked at her.
“She threatened your son.”
“I know exactly what she did.”
Marin’s voice was firm.
“But if Bell has manipulated people his entire life, maybe he manipulated her too.”
Dominic hated the thought because it complicated his anger.
And anger was easier when villains were simple.
At dawn, police called.
Vivien wanted to speak to Dominic.
He refused.
Then she sent one message through her attorney.
BELL HAS DANIEL PRICE.
Dominic changed his mind.
Vivien sat behind glass at the county detention facility.
No diamonds.
No makeup.
No perfect smile.
“You have five minutes,” Dominic said.
Vivien stared at him.
“You know.”
“About Bell being your father?”
Her face tightened.
“Yes.”
“Anthony knew too.”
That surprised her.
“You saw the video.”
Dominic said nothing.
Vivien laughed without humor.
“My father told me you would.”
“Where is Daniel?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said Bell has him.”
“He does.”
“How?”
“Daniel found one of the offshore accounts.”
“Why didn’t Bell kill him?”
“Because Daniel changed the password to the master archive before Bell reached him.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“What archive?”
“Everything.”
Vivien’s eyes filled with something close to fear.
“Judges. Police. businessmen. Your father. My father. Bell spent thirty years collecting insurance against everyone he worked with.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to believe Bell never trusts anyone.”
Dominic studied her.
“Why threaten Eli?”
Vivien looked away.
“Because Bell told me Marin was manipulating Isabella.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“He said if I didn’t secure the blessing, he would expose things about my mother.”
“What things?”
Vivien’s voice broke.
“That she’s alive.”
Dominic stared.
Everyone believed Eleanor Morrow had died fifteen years ago.
“She isn’t?”
“No.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Vivien wiped her eyes angrily.
“Bell has kept her hidden since I was nineteen.”
Dominic said nothing.
Vivien leaned toward the glass.
“I know what I did to Marin.”
For once there was no performance in her voice.
“I knew Eli was a child. I knew using him was disgusting.”
“Then why?”
“Because when someone controls you long enough, you start believing control is the only language anybody understands.”
Dominic’s expression remained hard.
“That explains it.”
He stood.
“It doesn’t excuse it.”
Vivien nodded.
“I know.”
As Dominic turned away, she spoke again.
“He’ll go after Marin.”
Dominic stopped.
“Why?”
“Because Isabella trusts her.”
“She’s protected.”
Vivien shook her head.
“You still don’t understand.”
Dominic turned.
Vivien whispered:
“Bell doesn’t need to get inside your house anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Because somebody already inside it belongs to him.”
Dominic’s phone rang.
Carlo.
He answered.
“Boss.”
Something was wrong.
“What?”
“Marin’s gone.”
Dominic’s hand tightened around the phone.
“What do you mean gone?”
“Security footage shows her leaving ten minutes ago.”
“Alone?”
Carlo hesitated.
“No.”
May you like
Dominic felt cold.
“She left with your mother.”
