Chapter 4 - Someone Had Been Inside
Dominic reached the house in eleven minutes.
Mara remained in the armored SUV until Marco cleared the entrance.
The front door showed no damage.
The alarm had been disabled with a valid code.
Dominic entered first.
Nothing looked disturbed.
That worried him more.
“Who has the code?”
Marco answered.
“You. Mrs. Serrano. Me. Housekeeping.”
“And Celeste?”
“Old code only.”
Mara entered.
Her eyes immediately moved toward the staircase.
“My closet.”
Dominic followed her upstairs.
The bedroom appeared untouched.
Then Mara opened the closet.
Every dress Dominic had ever bought her was hanging inside.
Seven gowns.
The burgundy one had somehow arrived before them.
Mara stepped backward.
“That was at the boutique.”
Dominic touched the fabric.
Beneath it was another envelope.
Inside was a photograph of Dominic's father.
Standing beside Renee's father.
They were smiling.
On the back:
ASK WHY HE REALLY DIED.
Dominic stared.
His father, Vittorio Serrano, had died nine years earlier from a heart attack.
At least that was what Dominic had been told.
Mara watched him.
“Do you believe this?”
“I don't know.”
Another photograph was inside.
Vittorio.
Renee's father.
And Isabella.
Much younger.
Dominic frowned.
“They knew each other.”
Marco entered.
“House is clear.”
“Find Renee.”
“We're trying.”
Mara walked toward the gowns.
Seven dresses.
Seven pieces of humiliation.
She touched the burgundy one.
For months she had viewed them as evidence that she wasn't enough.
Now they looked different.
Someone had deliberately weaponized her insecurity.
But why?
Celeste wanted the trust.
Renee apparently wanted something else.
Two schemes had overlapped.
Mara turned.
“The notes.”
“What?”
“The cruel notes weren't always in the dresses.”
Dominic approached.
“Which ones?”
“The first two came from Celeste verbally. The third had a note. So did the fifth and seventh.”
“Handwriting?”
“Different.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
Celeste had admitted manipulating Mara.
But perhaps she hadn't written every message.
Someone else had intensified it.
Renee.
Mara sat on the edge of the bed.
“She wanted me isolated too.”
Dominic understood.
“If you stopped attending events, you'd become easier to approach privately.”
“Or easier to blame.”
“For what?”
They didn't know.
Marco returned holding a tablet.
“We found Renee.”
“Where?”
“She used a credit card twenty minutes ago.”
Dominic frowned.
“That sounds deliberate.”
“It was.”
The transaction was for one dollar.
At a gas station owned by Serrano Holdings.
Mara understood.
“She wanted you to find her.”
An address accompanied the transaction.
An abandoned Serrano warehouse.
Dominic shook his head.
“Too obvious.”
Mara stood.
“Which means she's waiting.”
“You aren't coming.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“Mara.”
She folded her arms.
“You spent half our marriage trying to keep me away from dangerous parts of your life.”
“For good reason.”
“And look where that got us.”
He couldn't argue.
Mara softened.
“Someone used my body, my marriage, and my fear to move pieces around a board I didn't know existed. I'm done being a piece.”
Dominic studied her.
Then nodded once.
“You stay beside me.”
“Fine.”
“Always.”
“Dominic.”
“Always.”
She almost smiled.
“Fine.”
The warehouse smelled of dust and old machinery.
Renee stood alone beneath one overhead light.
No weapon.
No attempt to run.
Dominic approached with Marco and two guards.
Mara stayed beside him.
Renee looked at her.
“I'm sorry about the camera.”
Mara's voice hardened.
“You filmed me changing.”
“Yes.”
“That's your opening?”
Renee lowered her eyes.
“I needed proof.”
“Of what?”
“That they were targeting you.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“You expect me to believe you installed a camera to protect my wife?”
“No.”
Renee looked at him.
“I installed it to destroy your family.”
At least she was honest.
Dominic said nothing.
“My father worked for yours,” Renee continued. “Not as muscle. As an accountant.”
Dominic remembered the old stories.
Emilio Vance had allegedly stolen money.
Vittorio ordered him killed.
“My father discovered money being diverted from Serrano accounts.”
“By whom?”
“Celeste.”
Dominic frowned.
“She was twenty-two.”
“And already ambitious.”
Renee handed him a flash drive.
“My father kept records.”
“Why wait twenty-three years?”
“Because your father didn't kill mine.”
Dominic froze.
Renee looked toward Mara.
“Someone else did.”
“Who?”
“Your father was trying to help him escape.”
Dominic stared at the photograph again.
That explained the smiles.
“Then who gave the order?”
Renee's eyes moved toward the warehouse entrance.
A voice answered from behind them.
“I did.”
Isabella Serrano stepped into the light.
Dominic's face changed.
“Mother.”
Isabella looked older than she had hours earlier.
“I was thirty-four. Your father was losing control of the organization. Emilio knew too much.”
Renee's eyes filled with rage.
“So you killed him.”
“I gave an order.”
“That's the same thing.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No denial.
Dominic stared at his mother.
“You let me believe Father did it.”
“He agreed to take the blame.”
“Why?”
“To protect you from knowing what your mother was.”
Dominic looked away.
Mara reached for his hand.
Isabella noticed.
“He loved you,” she said. “More than he loved me by then.”
Dominic's voice was cold.
“And his death?”
Isabella didn't answer.
Renee did.
“Not a heart attack.”
Dominic's hand tightened around Mara's.
Isabella whispered, “Renee.”
“No more lies.”
Renee looked at Dominic.
“Your father was planning to expose the old organization. He wanted to dissolve the criminal side completely.”
Exactly what Dominic later did.
“He had documents,” Renee continued. “Names. Accounts. Everything.”
“What happened?”
“He died the night before he planned to give them to federal investigators.”
Dominic looked at his mother.
“Did you kill him?”
Isabella's eyes filled.
“No.”
“Did you know who did?”
A long silence.
“Yes.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Who?”
Before she could answer, a gunshot exploded through the warehouse.
Marco shoved Dominic down.
Mara screamed.
Another shot struck the overhead light.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Dominic reached for Mara.
His hand found nothing.
“Mara!”
No answer.
Then he heard a car engine outside.
Lights flashed through the warehouse doors.
Dominic ran.
By the time he reached the parking lot, the vehicle was disappearing.
Mara was gone.
His phone vibrated.
A photograph appeared.
Mara sat in the back seat of a car.
Terrified but alive.
Beneath it was one sentence:
YOUR FATHER TRIED TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH.
May you like
Then another message arrived.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT YOUR WIFE BACK.
