Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER DIED
Dominic’s fist closed around the phone.
“Who is this?”
The man laughed softly.
“You have Elena’s tapes. You know enough.”
“Put my mother back on.”
“Bring me the ledger.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Then find it.”
The call ended.
Dominic immediately called Anthony.
“Trace it.”
“Already trying.”
Emma stood at the end of the hall with Sophie in her arms.
The little girl had stopped crying.
That worried Emma more than the tears.
She looked numb.
Dominic crossed to them.
“Emma.”
“Yes?”
“Take Sophie to the safe room.”
Sophie shook her head.
“No.”
“Sweetheart—”
“No safe room.”
Dominic crouched.
“This one is different.”
“No little room.”
“It has windows.”
Sophie clung harder to Emma.
Dominic looked at Emma.
She understood.
“I’ll stay with her.”
His eyes met hers.
Something unspoken passed between them.
Trust.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Something more basic and more dangerous.
Dependence.
Dominic stood.
“Do not open the door for anyone except me or Anthony.”
“What about Cassandra?”
“No.”
Cassandra heard him.
Her expression changed.
Dominic did not apologize.
The safe room was actually a suite behind Dominic’s office, designed more like a small apartment than a bunker. It had reinforced glass, a bathroom, food, medical supplies and an independent communication system.
Emma locked the door.
Sophie sat on the bed.
“Is Grandma bad?”
Emma’s heart hurt.
“I don’t know.”
“She makes good cookies.”
Emma sat beside her.
“People can do good things and still make mistakes.”
“Big mistakes?”
“Yes.”
“Did Mommy make mistakes?”
Emma looked at her.
“Everybody does.”
Sophie nodded slowly.
Then whispered, “Mommy was scared of Grandma.”
Emma stared at her.
“What?”
Before Sophie could answer, the wall phone rang.
Emma jumped.
The screen showed Dominic.
She answered.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes.”
“Keep the curtains closed.”
“Dominic…”
He paused.
“Sophie just said Elena was afraid of your mother.”
Silence.
“Did she say why?”
“No.”
“Don’t push her.”
“I won’t.”
“I’m coming up.”
The call ended.
Downstairs, Anthony had traced Teresa’s phone to a marina twenty miles east.
Dominic ordered two vehicles prepared.
Salvatore stopped him.
“You go charging into that marina, they kill her.”
Dominic faced him.
“You have a better idea?”
“Yes. Find Mara.”
Cassandra looked up.
“She’s alive?”
Salvatore gave her a cold look.
“You know she is.”
Dominic turned toward Cassandra.
Again.
“How much have you hidden from me?”
Cassandra pressed her fingers against her forehead.
“I was trying to protect Sophie.”
“You drugged her.”
“The pills weren’t what you think.”
“What were they?”
“Something to suppress nightmares.”
“Who gave them to you?”
Cassandra said nothing.
Dominic moved closer.
“Who?”
“Dr. Raymond Vale.”
Trevor looked horrified.
“Our father?”
Dominic stared at Cassandra.
“Your father gave you pills for my daughter?”
“He said they were mild sedatives.”
“Your father is a cardiologist.”
“He has contacts.”
Dominic laughed once.
There was nothing humorous in it.
“You gave my six-year-old daughter unmarked medication from your father because he had contacts?”
“I was trying to stop her from remembering.”
The room went still.
Dominic’s voice became very quiet.
“Say that again.”
Cassandra’s eyes filled.
“You don’t understand what happened after Elena died.”
“Then make me understand.”
Cassandra took a breath.
“Sophie started waking up screaming about the lake. She talked about blood. A man with a ring. Elena crying. Mara pulling her into a car.”
Dominic stared at her.
“What ring?”
“A black stone. Gold setting.”
Salvatore’s face changed.
Dominic saw it.
“You recognize it.”
Salvatore hesitated.
“Your father wore one.”
Dominic looked at him.
“My father was dead eight years before Elena.”
“I know.”
“Then why does that matter?”
“Because he had three identical rings made.”
“For who?”
Salvatore looked away.
Dominic grabbed his shoulder.
“For who?”
“Your father. Me.”
Salvatore swallowed.
“And your brother.”
Dominic froze.
Emma had never heard anyone mention Dominic having a brother.
Neither, apparently, had Cassandra.
She whispered, “You have a brother?”
Dominic released Salvatore.
“No.”
Salvatore said, “You did.”
Dominic stared at him.
“My brother died when he was seventeen.”
“No.”
Dominic’s face went blank.
Salvatore continued.
“Gabriel disappeared when he was seventeen.”
“My mother identified the body.”
“She identified a body.”
Dominic looked toward the ceiling.
His mother.
Elena’s warning.
Do not trust a Moretti.
Anthony entered.
“Boss, we have something.”
“What?”
“The marina cameras.”
He held out a tablet.
A security image showed Teresa being escorted toward a yacht by a tall man wearing a baseball cap.
His face was turned away.
Dominic stared at his hand.
A heavy gold ring.
Black stone.
Salvatore sat down.
“Oh God.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Is that Gabriel?”
“I can’t tell.”
“Try.”
Salvatore zoomed the image.
The man turned slightly in another frame.
His face was older.
Scarred near the mouth.
But the Moretti features were unmistakable.
Dominic looked like someone had hit him.
“My brother.”
Anthony spoke carefully.
“We can send the teams.”
“No.”
Dominic’s eyes remained on the screen.
“If Gabriel wanted my mother dead, she’d already be dead.”
Salvatore said, “Unless she is working with him.”
That possibility was worse.
Dominic went upstairs.
He found Sophie asleep against Emma.
Emma sat beside her, one arm around the child.
“She fought it for twenty minutes,” Emma whispered.
“Then she crashed.”
Dominic looked at his daughter.
“How long since Cassandra gave her a tablet?”
“Last night.”
He frowned.
“That drug should have been out of her system.”
“Unless she was getting it another way.”
Dominic looked at her.
Emma pointed toward a small cup on the bedside table.
“Milk. One of the kitchen staff brought it before lockdown.”
Dominic stared at the cup.
“Did she drink it?”
“A few sips.”
He picked it up carefully.
“Who brought it?”
“Marianne.”
Dominic knew the name.
His mother’s personal housekeeper.
He called Anthony.
“Find Marianne.”
Ten minutes later, Anthony returned alone.
“She’s gone.”
Dominic’s voice stayed calm.
“How?”
“Laundry delivery truck.”
“When?”
“Twenty-seven minutes before the lockdown.”
“So she knew.”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked at Sophie.
The conspiracy was older and wider than he had imagined.
Emma said quietly, “You need to tell me something.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“Why did Sophie say Elena was scared of your mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“She also said ‘Grandpa’s book was bad.’”
Dominic turned sharply.
“She said that?”
“Yes.”
He walked to the window, thinking.
“My father kept ledgers in old-fashioned accounting books. Leather covers. Handwritten.”
“Would Sophie have seen one?”
“She was two when he died.”
Emma frowned.
“But Elena could have called it Grandpa’s book.”
Dominic nodded.
A knock sounded through the safe room speaker.
Anthony.
Dominic opened the outer panel but not the reinforced door.
“What?”
“We found something in Marianne’s room.”
Anthony held up a small brass key.
Attached to it was a paper tag.
Three handwritten characters:
E.M. 47.
Dominic opened the safe-room door.
“What does that mean?”
Salvatore arrived behind Anthony.
He saw the tag.
And went pale.
Dominic noticed.
“You know.”
Salvatore took the key.
“Elena Moretti. Box forty-seven.”
“Where?”
Salvatore looked at him.
“Grand Central Terminal.”
Dominic stared.
“There haven’t been public storage lockers there like that in years.”
“Not a public locker.”
Salvatore closed his fingers around the key.
“An underground safe-deposit facility your father used.”
Anthony frowned.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
Dominic reached for the key.
Salvatore held it back.
“If Marianne had this, she was looking for the ledger too.”
“Give it to me.”
“You don’t understand. If Box Forty-Seven contains what I think it contains, Gabriel will kill everyone who knows.”
Dominic took the key.
“Then he’s already late.”
They left for Manhattan before dawn.
Dominic ordered Emma and Sophie moved to another secure Moretti property.
Emma refused.
“No.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You don’t get to refuse security.”
“I’m not refusing security. I’m refusing to leave Sophie with people she doesn’t know.”
“You could be killed.”
“So could she.”
“That’s exactly why—”
“She trusts me.”
Dominic stopped.
Emma lowered her voice.
“You asked me to take care of her. Let me do that.”
His expression shifted.
He wanted to argue.
He didn’t.
“Stay with Anthony’s second team.”
“I will.”
At five-thirty in the morning, Dominic and Salvatore entered a private basement facility beneath an old office building near Grand Central.
The manager recognized Salvatore.
That alone disturbed Dominic.
They were taken through two locked doors.
Box Forty-Seven was small.
Inside was no ledger.
Only a USB drive.
A wedding ring.
And a sealed envelope addressed:
DOMINIC.
His hands shook as he opened it.
The handwriting was Elena’s.
Dominic,
If you are reading this, then I failed.
Mara is alive.
Do not let them convince you she killed me.
Do not let Cassandra take the blame for what Gabriel did.
And most importantly—
Dominic stopped breathing.
Salvatore leaned closer.
The final line read:
YOUR MOTHER KNOWS WHERE THE LEDGER IS BECAUSE SHE HELPED ME HIDE IT.
Dominic stared at the page.
Then his phone rang.
Emma.
He answered immediately.
“What happened?”
Her voice was shaking.
“Dominic, Sophie woke up.”
“Is she okay?”
“She remembered the lake.”
He closed his eyes.
“What did she remember?”
Emma was silent for one terrible second.
May you like
Then:
“She says your mother was holding the gun.”
