Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO GAVE HIM AWAY
Dominic read the two names on the train ticket until the letters blurred.
Anthony Moretti.
Victor Vale.
His father.
Cassandra’s father.
Traveling together the morning after Daniel Caruso was killed.
Traveling to the city where Dominic’s biological mother had been taken.
Emily broke the silence.
“Why would Elena leave the hospital so soon after giving birth?”
Rose answered.
“Because somebody tried to get into the maternity ward.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Who?”
“I never saw his face.”
“Then how do you know he was after her?”
“Because he asked for Mrs. Caruso.”
Rose folded her hands.
“He wasn’t family. He didn’t know the baby’s sex. But he knew her room number.”
“314?”
“No.”
Dominic frowned.
Rose looked at him.
“Room 314 was Sofia’s room.”
That stopped everyone.
Walter turned toward her.
Rose continued.
“Elena was in 316.”
Dominic picked up the brass key.
“Then why does this say 314?”
“Because the number was never about Elena.”
Reversal.
The assumption that had guided the entire evening shattered.
Emily looked toward the old photograph.
Anthony and Walter were standing outside the nursery.
Behind them—
Room numbers 301 through 318.
But Room 314 belonged to Sofia.
Dominic turned to Walter.
“What was in my mother’s room?”
Walter’s face tightened.
“Your mother.”
“That answer stopped being enough an hour ago.”
Walter sat again.
“The key opened a steel medication cabinet built into the wall beside her bed.”
“Why would my father keep the key?”
“Because we put something inside before the hospital renovated the floor.”
Cassandra stared at him.
“You told me there was nothing left.”
Walter’s eyes snapped toward her.
Dominic caught the words.
“You asked him?”
Cassandra realized her mistake.
“I—”
“When?”
She did not answer.
Dominic stepped closer.
“When did you ask Walter about Room 314?”
“Last week.”
Walter shook his head.
“Three weeks ago.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
Cassandra looked furious.
“At least I’m trying to tell you the truth now.”
“No. You’re telling me whatever the room already proved.”
The words landed.
Cassandra looked away.
Dominic turned back to Walter.
“What was in the cabinet?”
Walter stared at the brass key.
“A watch.”
Cassandra went pale.
Emily noticed.
So did Dominic.
“What watch?”
Walter rubbed both hands over his face.
“Daniel Caruso’s.”
Dominic felt cold spread through his chest.
Rose whispered, “Anthony kept it?”
“He tried to give it to Elena.”
“She refused?”
Walter nodded.
“She said Daniel wore it the night he died. She couldn’t bear to look at it.”
“Why hide it in Sofia’s hospital room?”
“Because the police had already taken Daniel’s belongings.”
Emily frowned.
“Then how did Anthony have the watch?”
Nobody spoke.
Dominic looked at Walter.
The answer arrived before the words.
“My father was with Daniel.”
Walter’s eyes filled.
“He saw him that night.”
Cassandra whispered, “Dominic…”
He raised one hand.
Not at her.
Just enough.
She stopped.
“When?”
Walter’s voice became rough.
“Before Daniel died.”
The truth changed again.
Daniel Caruso had not simply been murdered somewhere Anthony later heard about.
Anthony had seen him.
Dominic walked toward the windows.
Below, the engagement party continued behind closed doors.
People laughed cautiously.
Glasses moved beneath chandeliers.
His entire life was being dismantled thirty feet above eighty people waiting to congratulate him on his future.
“Why Milwaukee?” he asked.
Walter answered.
“Elena wouldn’t stay in Chicago. Anthony knew someone in Milwaukee who could hide her for a few days.”
“And Victor Vale?”
“He arranged the car.”
Cassandra turned.
“My father helped her escape?”
“Yes.”
The relief on Cassandra’s face was immediate.
Dominic saw it.
Then Walter added:
“After helping Daniel’s killers find him.”
Cassandra stopped breathing.
“No.”
Walter did not look at her.
“No,” she repeated. “My father was many things. He was ambitious. He was controlling. But he was not a killer.”
“I didn’t say he was.”
“You said he helped them.”
“He gave someone Daniel’s address.”
Cassandra’s face crumpled.
“Why?”
“That is what Anthony spent the rest of his life trying to understand.”
Rose leaned forward.
“Walter.”
He looked at her.
“You know more than that.”
Walter was silent.
Rose’s voice sharpened.
“I saw Anthony at the hospital chapel at four in the morning. There was blood on his cuff.”
Dominic turned.
“What?”
Walter stood.
“It wasn’t Daniel’s.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it was Anthony’s.”
Walter touched his left ribs.
“He’d been cut.”
“By who?”
“Daniel.”
Now even Rose looked surprised.
Dominic stared at him.
“My biological father attacked Anthony?”
“They fought.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel had discovered what Anthony was doing.”
Dominic almost laughed.
There it was.
The answer he had expected from the beginning.
Crime.
Money.
His father’s world.
“What was he doing?”
Walter hesitated.
Then:
“Moving money through St. Catherine’s construction contracts.”
Cassandra whispered, “The Vale Foundation.”
Dominic looked at her.
She seemed to be thinking aloud now.
“My grandfather funded the new maternity wing.”
Rose nodded.
“Victor managed the legal side.”
Emily put the pieces together.
“Daniel found out.”
Walter nodded.
“He was an accountant.”
Dominic looked at the Saint Christopher medal.
“An accountant?”
“For the Moretti companies.”
Daniel Caruso had worked for Anthony.
Another foundation in Dominic’s identity cracked.
“Daniel planned to go to federal investigators.”
Cassandra whispered, “And my father told Anthony.”
“Yes.”
“So Anthony killed him.”
Walter looked at her.
“No.”
Cassandra laughed bitterly.
“You expect me to believe that?”
Walter turned to Dominic.
“Your father went there to stop Daniel from leaving town.”
“That sounds better.”
“It isn’t.”
Walter’s shame was visible.
“Anthony threatened him.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“He threatened Elena too?”
“No. Never her.”
“But Daniel fought him.”
“Yes.”
“And then Daniel died.”
“Yes.”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“And my father raised his son.”
Walter looked devastated.
“Yes.”
Nobody needed to say what that sounded like.
Guilt.
Rose reached for the photograph.
“Anthony may have threatened Daniel. But he didn’t kill him.”
Dominic turned.
“How can you know?”
“Because Daniel came back to the hospital after Anthony left.”
Walter stared at her.
“What?”
Rose nodded.
“About five thirty.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I saw him.”
Walter sank into his chair.
Dominic stepped toward Rose.
“Why did you never tell anyone?”
“I did.”
“Who?”
“Victor Vale.”
Cassandra recoiled.
Rose continued.
“Daniel came to the service entrance bleeding from the mouth. He wouldn’t come upstairs. He gave me something for Elena.”
“What?”
“A folded piece of paper.”
“Where is it?”
“I gave it to Victor because Daniel told me to.”
Cassandra shook her head.
“My father never mentioned this.”
Rose’s eyes were sad.
“I imagine that was deliberate.”
“What was written on it?”
“I didn’t read it.”
Dominic studied her.
“You kept a hospital bracelet for thirty-nine years, but you didn’t read the note?”
Rose looked offended.
“I was a nurse, Mr. Moretti. Patients trusted me because I knew the difference between protecting something and owning it.”
Emily glanced at Dominic.
The remark reached him.
He looked away first.
Walter suddenly stood.
“The watch.”
Dominic turned.
“If the cabinet is still there—”
“The hospital wing was demolished in 2003,” Rose said.
Cassandra’s shoulders dropped.
Then Walter shook his head.
“Anthony removed the cabinet before demolition.”
“Where is it?”
Walter looked at Dominic.
“In his study.”
Emily frowned.
“I cleaned that room yesterday.”
“You wouldn’t see it.”
No secret basement.
No hidden room.
Just an ordinary object.
Walter walked toward the library shelves and pointed to an old black-and-white photograph of Anthony’s study.
Behind Anthony’s desk stood a tall green metal cabinet disguised beneath a mahogany casing.
Dominic recognized the piece instantly.
He had passed it thousands of times.
He had assumed it was an antique document chest.
The brass key trembled in his fingers.
They crossed the hallway together.
Cassandra followed.
Dominic did not stop her.
Anthony’s old study smelled faintly of cedar and dust.
Emily went directly to the cabinet.
The key marked 314 entered the lock perfectly.
One turn.
A click.
Dominic opened it.
Inside lay only three objects.
A man’s wristwatch.
A folded strip of hospital linen.
And a child-sized red knitted mitten.
Cassandra whispered, “What is that?”
Walter stared at the mitten.
“I’ve never seen it.”
Dominic picked up the watch.
The crystal was cracked.
The hands had stopped at 5:42.
On the back was an engraving:
To Daniel — Always come home. E.
Elena.
Emily picked up the linen.
Something had been written across it in faded ink.
Three words.
Ask Victor why.
Cassandra covered her mouth.
Dominic looked at her.
But Walter was staring at the red mitten.
“No.”
Rose stepped closer.
“What?”
Walter’s voice became almost inaudible.
“That belonged to Sofia.”
Dominic frowned.
“My mother?”
Walter shook his head.
“No.”
He picked up the tiny mitten.
“Her first child.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“You said her baby died.”
Walter looked at him.
“The baby she delivered that night did.”
“Then what child are you talking about?”
Walter turned the mitten over.
Stitched inside the cuff was a name.
LUCIA.
Dominic stared at it.
May you like
Walter swallowed.
“Before you, Sofia Moretti had a daughter.”
