Chapter 3 - The Box Anthony Brought Home
Dominic stared at the screen.
Eleven years of silence stood downstairs wearing a charcoal coat.
Anthony looked older, thinner, and more tired than the photograph.
But alive.
Very alive.
“Don't open the door,” Luca said.
Anthony looked into the security camera as though he could hear them.
“I know Sofia Bennett is upstairs.”
Sofia's skin went cold.
Dominic pressed the intercom.
“If you say her name again, you won't leave this building.”
Anthony gave a sad smile.
“Still dramatic.”
“Why are you here?”
“To stop you from making the mistake Dad made.”
“What mistake?”
“Trusting the wrong person.”
Dominic's eyes flicked toward Luca.
Luca noticed.
So did Sofia.
Anthony lifted the wooden box.
“The truth is in here.”
Dominic disconnected the intercom.
Luca stared at him.
“You can't seriously let him upstairs.”
“I can.”
“He vanished with eight million dollars.”
“And perhaps with the ledger.”
“Exactly.”
Dominic looked at Sofia.
“You stay in the bedroom.”
“No.”
“Sofia.”
“I spent half the night kidnapped because of this family secret. I'm done being sent into another room.”
Anthony arrived five minutes later.
Two of Dominic's men searched him before allowing him inside.
No gun.
No knife.
Only the wooden box.
The brothers faced each other for the first time in eleven years.
Neither embraced.
Neither smiled.
Anthony looked at Sofia.
His expression softened.
“I'm sorry.”
Dominic moved immediately between them.
“Don't talk to her.”
Anthony raised both hands.
“She deserves an apology.”
“From you?”
“From all of us.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
Anthony put the box on the table.
“Open it.”
“You open it.”
Anthony did.
Inside were three things.
A brass key.
A cassette tape.
And an old photograph.
Dominic picked up the photograph.
It showed their father, Salvatore Romano, standing beside a warehouse.
On the loading door behind him was painted:
R-17.
“Raven Seventeen,” Sofia said.
Anthony nodded.
Dominic looked at his brother.
“You stole the ledger.”
“No.”
“You stole eight million dollars.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To buy time.”
“For whom?”
Anthony looked at Sofia.
“For people Dad was going to kill.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Careful.”
“You asked.”
“Our father wasn't—”
“Don't defend him because he's dead.”
Dominic grabbed Anthony's coat.
Luca moved but did not interfere.
Anthony did not resist.
“He was going to start a war, Dom. Judges, detectives, witnesses. Anyone listed in Raven Seventeen who stopped cooperating was marked for removal.”
“You're lying.”
“Ask Luca.”
Dominic slowly turned.
Luca's face had gone pale.
Sofia saw the answer before he spoke.
“Luca?”
The older man exhaled.
“I knew some of it.”
Dominic released Anthony.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“You told me Anthony betrayed us.”
“He asked me to.”
Dominic stared at him.
The betrayal cut visibly deeper than anything Anthony had said.
“You let me believe my brother stole from me for eleven years.”
Luca's voice broke.
“To keep you alive.”
Anthony stepped forward.
“Dad discovered I copied the ledger. I took the money so it looked like greed. Luca helped me disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because the moment Dad knew I had evidence, he ordered my death.”
Dominic looked toward the cassette tape.
“What is that?”
“Dad's last conversation with me.”
“You recorded him?”
“Yes.”
“Play it.”
Anthony hesitated.
“You won't like what you hear.”
“Play it.”
They found an old player in a cabinet.
Dominic inserted the cassette.
Static filled the room.
Then Salvatore Romano's voice emerged.
Older.
Harsh.
Unmistakable.
“You embarrassed this family.”
Anthony's younger voice answered.
“I stopped you from murdering innocent people.”
“Nobody is innocent.”
“Dominic is.”
Silence.
Then Salvatore laughed.
“For now.”
Dominic's face changed.
The recording continued.
“If Dominic ever learns what Raven Seventeen really is, he'll choose his conscience over his blood.”
Anthony replied, “Maybe that's why you're afraid of him.”
A crash.
Then Salvatore's voice:
“If you take that ledger, I'll kill the girl first.”
The tape stopped.
Sofia looked at Anthony.
“What girl?”
Anthony looked at Dominic.
“Our sister.”
Dominic went rigid.
“I don't have a sister.”
Anthony's eyes filled with something close to pity.
“Yes, you do.”
No one spoke.
Anthony reached into the box and removed a second photograph hidden beneath the lining.
A teenage girl stood beside Salvatore.
She had dark hair and Dominic's eyes.
“Her name is Elena.”
Dominic stared at the picture.
“My mother had two sons.”
“Your mother did.”
Anthony swallowed.
“Dad had a daughter with another woman.”
Dominic looked at Luca.
“You knew?”
“No.”
For once, Luca's shock seemed genuine.
“What happened to her?”
Anthony's voice lowered.
“She was seventeen when Dad discovered she had found Raven Seventeen.”
Sofia understood.
“Oh God.”
“She disappeared the same week I did,” Anthony continued. “I spent eleven years trying to find her.”
“And did you?”
Anthony looked toward Sofia.
“Three months ago.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Where is she?”
“I don't know anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone got to her first.”
“Who?”
“The same people who took Sofia.”
Sofia's stomach turned.
“Why take me?”
Anthony's expression became grave.
“Because Elena left something with you.”
“I've never met Elena.”
“She met you.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
Sofia shook her head.
“No.”
Anthony pulled another photo from his coat.
It showed Sofia leaving a coffee shop.
Behind her stood a dark-haired woman.
Sofia remembered.
A stranger had bumped into her.
Dropped a purse.
Apologized.
Asked whether Sofia worked for Romano Holdings.
Sofia had forgotten the entire encounter.
Until now.
“What did she give me?”
Anthony looked at Dominic.
“The ledger.”
Dominic stared at Sofia.
She laughed in disbelief.
“I would know if someone handed me a criminal blackmail ledger.”
“Not if you didn't know what it was.”
Anthony reached toward Sofia's broken phone.
“The men attacked you because they believe Elena encoded Raven Seventeen into something you possess.”
“My phone?”
“Maybe.”
Dominic picked it up.
Sofia frowned.
“This isn't the phone I had six years ago.”
Anthony stopped.
“What happened to that one?”
“In my apartment somewhere.”
Dominic immediately called his men.
“Get to Sofia's apartment. Nobody touches anything until I arrive.”
Anthony shook his head.
“Too late.”
“What?”
“The people searching for Raven Seventeen already know where she lives.”
Dominic looked toward Sofia.
Her face drained.
“My father.”
“What?”
“He has a spare key.”
Dominic was moving before she finished.
Luca called security teams.
Anthony followed.
Sofia grabbed her coat.
Dominic turned.
“You're staying.”
“My father could be there.”
“You're injured.”
“He's sixty-eight years old and alone.”
Dominic stared at her.
Then nodded.
“Stay beside me.”
They reached Sofia's apartment building twelve minutes later.
The front door had been forced open.
Dominic's men entered first.
Sofia pushed past them.
“Dad?”
No answer.
The living room had been destroyed.
Drawers dumped.
Pictures smashed.
Cushions cut open.
“Dad!”
She ran toward the bedroom.
Empty.
Then she saw blood.
A few drops on the hallway floor.
Dominic caught her shoulder.
“Don't.”
She pulled away.
“That's my father.”
They followed the trail.
It ended at Sofia's old desk.
The bottom drawer had been removed.
Behind it was a small compartment Sofia had forgotten existed.
Inside lay an old phone.
Her phone from six years earlier.
Dominic lifted it.
A sticky note was attached.
Sofia recognized her father's handwriting.
THEY CAME FOR THIS. I TOOK THE OTHER ONE.
Sofia whispered, “Other one?”
Then her current phone rang.
Her father's number.
She answered.
“Dad?”
For several seconds there was only breathing.
Then a man's voice spoke.
Not her father.
“Bring Dominic Romano to Pier Seventeen before sunrise.”
Sofia's hand trembled.
“Where is my father?”
“He's alive.”
Dominic took the phone.
“If you touch him—”
The voice laughed.
“Ask your brother why Sofia's father was already part of Raven Seventeen.”
The call disconnected.
Sofia slowly turned toward Anthony.
Anthony's face told her everything.
“You know my father.”
Anthony whispered her name.
“Sofia…”
She stepped toward him.
“How?”
Anthony looked at Dominic.
May you like
Then back at her.
“Because your father helped me disappear eleven years ago.”
