Chapter 4 - THE GIRL WHO KNEW THEIR FACES
Dominic picked up the drawing.
“What do you mean she has?”
Marco remained beside the desk.
“Not in person.”
“That is not what you said.”
“No. I said she has met Claire.”
Claire stared.
“I would remember meeting a nine-year-old niece I didn’t know existed.”
Marco pointed to the woman in the drawing.
“Two months ago, Claire spoke at the Lakeview Community Library.”
Claire frowned.
She remembered.
It had been a Saturday literacy fundraiser.
Thirty people, maybe forty.
Children sitting on rugs while adults talked about after-school programs.
“I met dozens of kids.”
“One of them was Lily.”
Claire felt something shift inside her.
She remembered a girl with dark curls.
Quiet.
Serious eyes.
The girl had asked Claire why grown-ups sometimes promised they would come back and then didn’t.
Claire had answered carefully.
Sometimes adults failed because they were afraid.
Sometimes because they were selfish.
Sometimes because they thought leaving was kinder.
But children deserved the truth whenever adults were strong enough to give it.
Afterward, the girl had asked Claire to sign the inside cover of a book.
Claire looked at Marco.
“The girl with the green coat.”
“Yes.”
Dominic’s voice was rougher.
“You arranged that?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know?”
“Daniel recognized Claire from newspaper photographs after the engagement announcement.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“That explains the woman in the drawing. Not Dominic.”
Marco looked toward him.
“Lily has photographs.”
“From where?”
“Her mother.”
Dominic’s grip tightened around the paper.
“You told me Teresa’s belongings went with Daniel.”
“Most did.”
“So my niece knows who I am.”
“Yes.”
“And I was told she wanted nothing to do with me.”
Marco hesitated.
“She has asked about you for years.”
Dominic turned away.
Claire had seen him angry.
She had seen him cold.
She had never seen him look ashamed.
He stared at the snow outside the window.
“She asked about me.”
“Yes.”
“And you said what?”
“That you were complicated.”
Claire almost laughed from sheer disbelief.
Dominic looked over his shoulder.
“Complicated?”
“She was six.”
“You could have tried ‘uncle.’”
Marco’s face hardened.
“And when she asked why men with guns used to follow her father? When she asked why her mother checked beneath their car? When she asked why they changed apartments three times before she started kindergarten?”
Dominic fell silent.
Marco stepped closer.
“I was trying to keep a child from inheriting your enemies along with your surname.”
There it was.
Not greed.
Not simple betrayal.
Fear.
The kind that could turn loyalty into control without the person noticing when the line had been crossed.
Claire looked at Dominic.
“He’s wrong for deciding without you.”
Marco nodded once.
Claire continued.
“But he isn’t wrong that your life frightened them.”
Dominic looked at her.
“I know.”
The admission surprised both men.
Dominic set the drawing down.
“Where is she?”
Marco shook his head.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Claire interrupted.
“Ask differently.”
He looked at her.
“Daniel doesn’t trust your power,” Claire said. “So don’t use it.”
Dominic breathed through his nose.
Then turned back to Marco.
“Will Daniel agree to meet me?”
Marco studied him.
“I don’t know.”
“Ask him.”
“No threats. No security team crowding him.”
“Fine.”
“No pressure about Lily.”
Dominic’s mouth flattened.
“Fine.”
“No trying to fix eight years in an afternoon.”
“Marco.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Marco finally nodded.
“I’ll ask.”
He picked up his phone.
Dominic held out his hand.
“No.”
Marco frowned.
“Use mine.”
Dominic placed his own phone on the desk.
“So I know which number you call.”
Marco almost smiled.
“Growth has limits.”
Claire took Dominic’s phone and handed it to Marco.
“Call.”
Daniel answered on the fourth ring.
Marco walked to the far side of the room.
His voice stayed quiet.
Claire could not hear Daniel.
She watched Dominic instead.
He stood perfectly still.
A man who could control rooms full of executives could do nothing about the answer coming through a phone held twenty feet away.
Finally Marco lowered it.
“He’ll meet.”
Dominic exhaled.
“Where?”
“Public place.”
“Fine.”
“This afternoon.”
Claire looked surprised.
Marco continued.
“Lincoln Park Conservatory. Two o’clock.”
“Lily?”
“Daniel decides.”
Dominic nodded.
No argument.
That impressed Claire more than she expected.
At one-fifty-five, Dominic entered the conservatory without bodyguards at his shoulders.
They were nearby.
Claire knew that.
So did Dominic.
But he had kept his promise.
Claire walked beside him.
The humid warmth fogged her glasses briefly as they moved beneath palms and ferns.
Daniel waited near a stone bench.
He was thin.
Early forties.
Tired in the way people looked after several years of carrying more than they admitted.
Beside him stood the girl from the library.
Green coat.
Dark curls.
Nine years old.
Lily held Daniel’s hand.
Dominic stopped.
The child stared at him.
Claire felt his hand close around hers.
Not possessively.
For balance.
Daniel spoke first.
“Dominic.”
“Daniel.”
Eight years between them.
Neither man knew how to cross it.
Then Lily looked at Claire.
“You signed my book.”
Claire smiled.
“I remember.”
Lily looked at Dominic again.
“You’re taller than the picture.”
Dominic’s mouth moved.
Almost a smile.
“So are you.”
Lily frowned.
“I was a baby in mine.”
Claire bit the inside of her cheek.
Daniel laughed unexpectedly.
The sound broke something open.
Dominic crouched, slowly, so he was closer to Lily’s height.
He did not touch her.
“I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time.”
Lily looked at her father.
Daniel nodded.
She turned back.
“Then why didn’t you?”
There was no safe answer.
Dominic did not lie.
“I thought your dad didn’t want me to.”
Lily considered that.
“Dad said you didn’t want us.”
Dominic looked up sharply.
Daniel’s face changed.
“What?”
Lily glanced between them.
“The letters.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Dominic stood.
“What letters?”
Daniel looked confused now.
“The ones from your office.”
“I never wrote you letters saying I didn’t want you.”
“Not personally. Your people did.”
“What did they say?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“That you respected Teresa’s wishes. That you would provide financially, but contact would create unnecessary complications.”
Dominic looked at Marco, who stood several yards away.
Marco’s face had gone pale.
“I never authorized that.”
Daniel stared.
“There was another one when I considered moving back.”
“What did that one say?”
“That if I brought Lily into Chicago and exposed her to public attention, Vale family counsel would consider whether I was acting in her best interest.”
Claire felt sick.
“That sounds like a custody threat.”
“It was.”
Dominic turned toward Marco.
Marco immediately shook his head.
“I did not send that.”
Daniel reached inside his coat.
“I kept it.”
He unfolded a photocopy.
Vale Holdings letterhead.
Dominic read the message.
Then the signature at the bottom.
Marco Sloan.
Dominic handed it to him.
Marco stared.
“That is not my signature.”
Daniel gave a bitter laugh.
“That seems to be a common problem in your family.”
Claire almost winced.
He was right.
Lily tugged her father’s sleeve.
“I’m hungry.”
Daniel’s entire face softened.
“There are crackers in my bag.”
“I ate them.”
“All of them?”
“You said they were mine.”
Claire smiled.
Dominic looked at Lily.
“There’s a café.”
Daniel started to object.
Dominic raised one hand.
“I’m not buying her a diamond necklace.”
Lily frowned.
“I don’t like necklaces.”
Claire gave Dominic a pointed look.
“Good instincts.”
Twenty minutes later, four people sat around a small conservatory café table eating sandwiches.
Marco remained standing away from them.
Lily talked about school.
She hated fractions.
Loved horses.
Wanted a dog.
Daniel said absolutely not.
Lily informed Claire this was an ongoing negotiation.
For ten minutes, Dominic almost looked like an ordinary uncle.
Then Daniel reached beneath his shirt.
A small silver rosary hung around his neck.
He removed it and placed it on the table.
Dominic stopped breathing.
Claire noticed immediately.
“What is it?”
“Teresa’s,” Daniel said.
Dominic touched one bead.
“Our mother gave her this.”
Daniel nodded.
“She wore it the day she died.”
Lily looked down.
“I’m supposed to get it when I’m bigger.”
“You will,” Daniel said.
Then he looked at Dominic.
“There’s something else.”
Dominic lifted his eyes.
Daniel reached into his worn messenger bag.
“I found this three weeks ago while clearing out Teresa’s storage boxes.”
He removed a cream-colored envelope.
Old.
Unopened.
Dominic’s name was written across the front.
Claire recognized the handwriting.
The same faded blue ink used on the back of the photograph.
Dominic Vale.
May you like
Daniel placed the envelope on the table.
“It was mailed the day before Teresa died.”
