Chapter 2 - THE WIFE WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
Dominic reached Lily’s bedroom before Emma had made it halfway up the stairs.
He did not run loudly.
Men like Dominic Moretti did not need noise to announce panic.
But Emma saw it in the way his hand struck the banister once as he turned the landing.
Hard enough to split skin across his knuckles.
The bedroom door stood open.
“Lily?”
Nothing.
Dominic entered.
The bed was empty.
The closet was open.
The small brass key lay on the carpet.
Emma stopped behind him.
“Where is she?”
Dominic checked the bathroom, then the windows.
Locked.
He turned toward the closet.
Emma followed his gaze.
The back panel stood several inches away from the wall.
There was another passage.
Of course there was.
Dominic pulled the panel aside.
A narrow corridor disappeared into darkness.
He looked at Emma.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Emma.”
“Your daughter is somewhere inside the walls with two women who are supposed to be dead.”
His jaw tightened.
“That is exactly why you're staying.”
She picked up the flashlight from Lily’s nightstand.
“And if you get locked in there?”
For one second, neither moved.
Then Dominic looked away.
“Stay behind me.”
They entered the passage.
The air smelled old.
Dust.
Stone.
Something medicinal.
The corridor sloped downward, then curved toward the eastern wing.
Emma heard voices before she saw light.
A child laughing.
Lily.
Dominic stopped so abruptly Emma nearly walked into him.
Then another voice came.
Soft.
Female.
“Your father is going to be angry.”
Rachel.
Dominic closed his eyes.
Only for a second.
Emma realized that until that moment some part of him had still believed the monitor could have been a trick.
A recording.
A woman who resembled his wife.
Anything but this.
He stepped forward.
The corridor opened into a small hidden sitting room.
Lily sat on a faded couch.
Beside her sat the silver-haired woman Dominic had called his mother.
And across from them—
Rachel Moretti stood beneath a single yellow lamp.
Alive.
She looked older than the photographs.
Thinner.
Her dark hair reached her shoulders instead of her waist.
A pale scar ran from beneath her left ear into the collar of her sweater.
But she was unmistakably the woman in every photograph upstairs.
Dominic said nothing.
Rachel’s face broke.
“Dom.”
His expression did not change.
That frightened Emma more than shouting would have.
Rachel moved toward him.
Dominic lifted one hand.
She stopped.
“Don't.”
Lily looked between them.
“Daddy, Mommy came home.”
Dominic’s eyes moved to his daughter.
Whatever was happening inside him disappeared behind control.
He crouched.
“Come here, sweetheart.”
Lily hesitated.
Rachel whispered, “Go.”
The girl crossed the room.
Dominic pulled her against him with one arm while continuing to watch Rachel.
“You told Lily to hide this from me?”
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“I told her nothing until tonight.”
“She knew you were here.”
“No. She knew someone came through her closet.”
Elena finally spoke.
“I was the one who talked to her.”
Dominic turned toward his mother.
Twenty-three years of questions entered his face at once.
“You died.”
Elena gave a humorless smile.
“Apparently, death is becoming a Moretti family tradition.”
“Don't joke.”
“I wasn't.”
Emma glanced at Rachel.
“Why were you hiding?”
Rachel looked toward Dominic.
“Because if he knew I was alive, they would know he knew.”
“Who?”
Rachel’s lips parted.
Then footsteps sounded inside the corridor behind them.
Dominic moved Lily behind him.
A man appeared in the doorway.
His security chief.
Caleb Ross.
“Boss.”
Dominic’s shoulders relaxed by perhaps half an inch.
“Lock the east wing. Nobody leaves.”
Caleb stared at Rachel.
For the first time Emma had ever seen, the security chief looked completely stunned.
“Mrs. Moretti?”
Rachel immediately stepped backward.
Her face changed.
Not surprise.
Fear.
Emma saw it.
Dominic saw it too.
Caleb took another step.
Rachel whispered, “Dominic.”
His attention sharpened.
“What?”
Rachel never looked away from Caleb.
“That man cannot know I'm here.”
Silence.
Caleb frowned.
“Excuse me?”
Rachel pointed at him.
“He was in Hartford.”
Dominic slowly turned toward his security chief.
Caleb’s confusion looked genuine.
Or expertly practiced.
“I've never been to Hartford.”
Rachel shook her head.
“You were standing beside the car.”
“What car?”
“The one that was supposed to kill me.”
Lily gripped Dominic’s shirt.
Caleb looked at Dominic.
“Boss, she's been gone four years. We don't know what she's been through.”
Rachel’s voice sharpened.
“I know exactly what I saw.”
Dominic handed Lily to Emma.
“Take her upstairs.”
Emma knew that tone.
Quiet.
Controlled.
Dangerous.
Lily protested.
“Daddy—”
“Now.”
Emma took the child’s hand.
But before they reached the corridor, Elena said:
“Dominic, don't.”
He looked at his mother.
She pointed toward Caleb.
“If you confront the wrong man before you hear the recording, the real traitor will disappear.”
Caleb looked at her.
“You're supposed to be dead too?”
Elena ignored him.
“Play Rachel’s final-night recording.”
Dominic’s gaze shifted toward the floor.
Toward the chamber beneath the dining room.
Rachel went pale.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
Dominic narrowed his eyes.
“You don't want me to hear it?”
“It won't tell you what you think.”
“Then tell me.”
Rachel’s eyes filled again.
“I can't.”
“Four years.”
His voice stayed calm.
“You let me bury you for four years.”
“I was trying to keep Lily alive.”
That stopped him.
Rachel looked at their daughter.
“The accident wasn't meant to kill only me.”
Dominic’s face went still.
“What did you say?”
“They knew Lily was supposed to come to Hartford with me.”
Lily stared at her mother.
Rachel swallowed.
“I changed my mind that morning and left her with Vanessa.”
Dominic looked toward the child.
Then back at Rachel.
“If Lily had been in your car—”
“She would have died with the woman they thought was me.”
Emma felt the room turn cold.
Dominic asked, “Who was in the car?”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“My sister.”
Dominic stared.
Emma knew enough about the Moretti family to remember that Rachel had a younger sister.
Claire Bennett.
A woman almost never mentioned.
Dominic whispered, “Claire?”
Rachel nodded.
“She borrowed my coat. My purse. My car.”
“Why?”
“Because we switched.”
“For what?”
Rachel glanced at Elena.
Elena looked down.
That tiny movement told Dominic everything.
“You planned it.”
Rachel shook her head.
“Not the accident.”
“But you planned to disappear.”
Rachel didn't answer.
Dominic laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
He walked away from her.
Four steps.
Stopped.
Turned.
“You were leaving me?”
“No.”
“Then why switch cars with Claire?”
“Because I had found something.”
“What?”
Rachel looked at Lily again.
“A ledger.”
Dominic frowned.
“What ledger?”
“One that proved somebody inside your organization was selling information about families.”
Caleb spoke from the doorway.
“What kind of information?”
Rachel’s eyes hardened.
“Addresses. Children’s schools. hospital visits. Travel plans.”
Dominic stared at her.
She continued.
“Not enemies, Dominic. Families.”
Emma understood.
Blackmail.
Leverage.
Targets.
Rachel whispered, “And your name was on it.”
“My name?”
“Not as the seller.”
She looked toward the hidden corridor.
“As the final target.”
Dominic became very still.
“Who had the ledger?”
“I did.”
“Where is it?”
Rachel shook her head.
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
“I never told anyone.”
Elena said, “That's why they kept searching the house.”
Emma glanced toward the secret chamber.
“The surveillance room.”
Elena nodded.
“That room was built to find the ledger.”
Dominic looked at his mother.
“By whom?”
Before Elena could answer, a sharp electronic tone sounded from Caleb’s phone.
He checked the screen.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Caleb looked at Dominic.
“The west gate opened.”
“Who authorized it?”
“Nobody.”
Another alert.
Then another.
Caleb swore under his breath.
“All exterior cameras just went offline.”
Rachel backed toward Lily.
“No.”
Dominic took out his gun.
Emma instinctively pulled Lily behind her.
Dominic looked at Caleb.
“How many men are on the property?”
“Fourteen.”
“Contact them.”
Caleb tried.
No answer.
Rachel whispered:
“They found me.”
Then the lights went out.
Lily screamed.
Dominic’s voice came through the darkness.
“Everybody down.”
A gunshot cracked somewhere inside the mansion.
Then another.
Emergency lights blinked red.
Emma saw Rachel seize Lily and pull her behind the stone wall.
Dominic turned toward Caleb.
“Secure the corridor.”
Caleb raised his weapon.
Then suddenly stopped.
His hand went to his neck.
A tiny dart protruded beneath his jaw.
He collapsed.
Emma gasped.
Dominic caught him before he hit the floor.
“Elena!”
His mother stared into the corridor.
Someone was standing there.
A tall man.
Black coat.
Gloves.
Half his face hidden in shadow.
Dominic aimed.
The man did not flinch.
Instead he tossed something onto the floor.
A photograph.
Then he disappeared.
Dominic didn't chase him.
He looked down.
The photograph showed Claire Bennett.
Rachel’s sister.
Alive.
Standing outside Emma Reed’s father’s care facility.
On the back, three words had been written.
WE HAVE HIM.
Emma stopped breathing.
May you like
Her father.
And suddenly the mystery was no longer only about the Moretti family.
