Chapter 6 - THE SECRET ANTONIO LEFT BEHIND
They did not go to the Cross house.
Not immediately.
Dominic changed the plan the moment the bank alert arrived.
“If Vivian wants this key, she doesn’t have whatever is in that box.”
Rachel looked at him.
“So someone else is at the bank.”
“Exactly.”
Marco contacted the bank’s private security director.
Three minutes later, they learned the truth.
Nobody was inside the physical vault.
The alert had been triggered electronically.
Someone had attempted remote authorization using Antonio Russo’s credentials.
A distraction.
“Vivian wants us looking in two directions,” Dominic said.
Catherine nodded.
“She learned that from Malcolm.”
Rachel leaned against the SUV.
“Then what do we do?”
“We choose a third direction.”
Dominic called home.
“Bring Eleanor’s old desk from the west office into the library.”
Rachel frowned.
“What?”
Catherine understood first.
“Her journals.”
Dominic nodded.
“If Eleanor spent twenty-three years feeling guilty, she wrote something.”
They returned to the mansion.
Eleanor was still missing.
Vivian sent no new messages.
Dominic ignored the deadline she had given.
The old desk contained twenty-seven years of appointment books, letters, receipts, and handwritten notes.
Rachel expected hours of searching.
It took eleven minutes.
Catherine found the envelope.
MALCOLM — DO NOT OPEN
Dominic opened it.
Inside were six letters.
All written by Eleanor.
None mailed.
The first was dated two days after Catherine’s funeral.
Malcolm, I know what you did.
The second:
Antonio knows Catherine survived.
The third:
If you go near Dominic or the baby, I will tell everyone.
Rachel stopped breathing.
“The baby.”
Catherine nodded.
“You.”
The fourth letter was different.
It contained bank numbers.
Dates.
Transfers.
And one sentence:
The money was never stolen from Rachel. Antonio moved it.
Rachel stared.
“What?”
Dominic read the rest.
His expression changed.
“He transferred the trust himself.”
Catherine frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Dominic handed her the page.
Eleanor had written:
Antonio discovered Malcolm still had access to the first trust. He withdrew the full amount before Malcolm could take it and placed it inside a new protected account controlled by Catherine’s daughter when she turned twenty-five.
Rachel blinked.
“I’m twenty-three.”
Dominic looked at her.
“The account still exists.”
Patricia covered her mouth.
“All these years…”
Rachel stared at the statement she had assumed proved theft.
“My mother struggled while two million dollars sat somewhere?”
Catherine looked devastated.
“Antonio was trying to protect it.”
“From Malcolm.”
“Yes.”
Rachel shook her head.
“He protected money better than people.”
Nobody argued.
The fifth letter explained Eleanor’s role.
She had told Malcolm about Catherine’s hospital schedule because he claimed Antonio planned to move Catherine overseas against her will.
Eleanor believed him.
By the time she realized the truth, Malcolm had already arranged Catherine’s abduction.
Eleanor then contacted Antonio and helped him find her.
Dominic read the final letter.
It had been written thirteen years earlier.
Vivian came to see me today.
Everyone became still.
She knows more than Malcolm ever intended her to know.
Dominic read silently for several seconds.
Rachel became impatient.
“What?”
He looked up.
“Vivian knew Catherine was alive thirteen years ago.”
Catherine whispered, “How?”
“Malcolm left files.”
Dominic continued reading.
She believes Antonio murdered her father.
Eleanor had underlined the next sentence twice.
She does not know Malcolm died because the men he stole from found him first.
Vivian’s entire revenge had been built around a lie.
Dominic leaned back.
“My father didn’t kill Malcolm.”
“No,” Catherine said.
“I knew that.”
“Did Vivian?”
“Apparently not.”
Rachel looked toward the window.
“So she spent years blaming Dominic for something his family didn’t do.”
Dominic’s expression remained hard.
“She still framed you.”
“I know.”
“She kidnapped Patricia.”
“I know.”
“Being lied to explains anger. It doesn’t excuse choices.”
Rachel studied him.
For a man raised around violence and vengeance, the distinction sounded strangely important.
Marco entered carrying a laptop.
“I found something in the music box recording.”
Dominic looked up.
“What?”
“The cassette has two channels.”
Catherine frowned.
“It was an ordinary recorder.”
“Not exactly.”
Marco placed headphones on the desk.
“One channel recorded your voice. The other captured something much quieter.”
He played it.
Static.
Catherine’s voice.
Then, beneath it, another voice.
Antonio Russo.
Weak.
Distant.
Dominic froze.
Marco enhanced the volume.
Antonio spoke.
“If Cross finds the second deed, Rachel loses everything.”
Rachel frowned.
“What deed?”
Catherine whispered, “I don’t know.”
The recording continued.
Antonio again.
“The north property was never mine.”
Dominic looked toward Catherine.
“What north property?”
Her face had changed.
“The land beneath this house.”
Silence.
Rachel laughed nervously.
“That’s impossible.”
Catherine shook her head.
“No.”
Dominic stared.
“My father owned this estate.”
“His company owned the buildings.”
Catherine looked at Rachel.
“But the original land came through my family.”
Dominic frowned.
“So?”
“So my mother’s will transferred Catherine family property to my youngest surviving child.”
Everyone looked at Rachel.
Rachel shook her head.
“No.”
Catherine whispered, “You were born eleven days after I legally died.”
Dominic suddenly understood.
“The estate should have transferred to Rachel.”
“Yes.”
“The mansion?”
“The land. The coastal parcels. The old marina. Everything north of the sound road.”
Marco whistled softly.
“That’s worth…”
Dominic looked at him.
Marco stopped.
Rachel sank into a chair.
“I cleaned a house built on property I technically inherited?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Apparently.”
A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.
It turned into tears.
The absurdity finally broke through the fear.
Dominic crouched in front of her.
“I don’t care who owns the house.”
“I do.”
He paused.
Rachel wiped her face.
“Not because I want it.”
“Then why?”
“Because maybe that’s why Vivian brought me here.”
Dominic became still.
Of course.
Vivian hadn’t merely placed Rachel inside the household to draw Catherine out.
She had placed the legal owner of the property inside the house while preparing to marry the man everyone believed controlled it.
Rachel looked at Catherine.
“Would marriage give Vivian any claim?”
Catherine thought.
“Not automatically.”
Dominic looked toward his father’s files.
“But if I signed the prenuptial amendment Vivian’s attorney gave me last month…”
Marco stared.
“You didn’t.”
“No.”
“I postponed it.”
Rachel whispered, “What was in it?”
Dominic remembered.
“Joint control over several real-estate holding companies after marriage.”
Catherine’s face went white.
“If the deed was hidden inside one of those companies…”
“Vivian could bury Rachel’s ownership forever.”
Dominic’s phone rang.
Vivian.
He answered on speaker.
“Dominic.”
Her voice was composed.
“You missed our appointment.”
“Eleanor alive?”
“For now.”
“Put her on.”
A pause.
Then Eleanor’s shaky voice:
“Dominic, don’t give her anything.”
Vivian returned.
Dominic asked, “Did your father tell you why he died?”
Silence.
“What?”
“He stole from people who eventually came looking.”
“You’re lying.”
“So was he.”
Vivian’s breathing changed.
Dominic continued.
“My father didn’t kill Malcolm.”
“You expect me to believe Catherine?”
“No.”
He looked at Eleanor’s letters.
“I expect you to believe your father’s bank records.”
Vivian said nothing.
Then she laughed.
“You still think this is about him.”
“What is it about?”
“Ask Catherine.”
Catherine stiffened.
Vivian’s tone changed.
“Ask her what happened to Antonio the night he died.”
Dominic looked at his mother.
Catherine’s face drained.
“Mother?”
Vivian whispered:
“She was there.”
The call ended.
Dominic slowly lowered the phone.
“You told me you hadn’t seen my father after you disappeared.”
Catherine could not meet his eyes.
Rachel stood.
“Catherine?”
Catherine whispered:
“I lied.”
Dominic’s expression became frighteningly calm.
“Were you with my father the night he died?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see what happened?”
Catherine looked at her son.
Tears formed.
“Yes.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Then tell me.”
Catherine closed her eyes.
“Antonio didn’t die alone.”
She opened them again.
“And neither Vivian nor Malcolm killed him.”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“Who did?”
Catherine looked toward the empty doorway.
May you like
“Your father killed himself protecting Rachel’s secret.”
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