Chapter 4 - The Voice in the Dark
“Stay behind me.”
Dominic’s voice cut through the darkness.
Emergency lights flickered on.
A silhouette stood in the doorway.
Isabella could not breathe.
The man stepped forward.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray hair.
A scar crossed his jaw.
But his eyes were exactly the same.
“Dad?”
The word left her like a child’s whisper.
Dominic turned slightly.
“You know him?”
Isabella moved forward.
He caught her wrist.
“Wait.”
The man lifted both hands.
“I’m not armed.”
Dominic’s security team rushed into the hall.
Three weapons were raised.
The stranger did not move.
“Tell them to lower those,” Isabella said.
“Not yet.”
“Dominic.”
He studied the man.
“Name.”
“Samuel Hart.”
Isabella began crying.
Her father.
Samuel Hart.
Dead nineteen years.
At least, according to every document she had ever seen.
Victoria stood slowly.
“Samuel.”
He looked toward her.
“You knew,” Isabella said.
Victoria did not deny it.
Dominic’s face hardened.
“You knew he was alive?”
“For some of those years.”
Isabella turned on her.
“You let me bury an empty coffin?”
Samuel spoke.
“I made her.”
Isabella looked back at him.
“Why?”
“Because if people knew I survived, they would have used you to reach me.”
“People are using me now!”
“I know.”
Her voice broke.
“Nineteen years.”
Samuel lowered his eyes.
“I counted every day.”
“You don't get to say that.”
“I know.”
“You don't get to walk through a door and say my name like you were gone for a weekend.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying you know!”
Dominic glanced at the security men.
“Clear the house.”
They moved.
Then Dominic looked at Samuel.
“You have five minutes before my wife decides whether she wants you removed.”
Samuel nodded.
“Fair.”
Isabella laughed bitterly.
“Nothing about this is fair.”
Samuel pulled an envelope from inside his coat.
Dominic immediately stepped forward.
“Slowly.”
Samuel handed it to him.
Inside was a flash drive.
“What’s on it?” Dominic asked.
“Why the dresses mattered.”
Isabella stared at him.
“My dresses?”
Samuel nodded.
Dominic inserted the drive into a secure laptop.
A series of files appeared.
Photographs.
Financial documents.
Videos.
Then a folder titled PURPLE.
Dominic opened it.
Isabella’s plum gown appeared on screen.
A product photo from the designer.
Below it was a shipping record.
Dominic frowned.
“What am I looking at?”
Samuel said, “The gown was purchased through a Serrano corporate account.”
“I purchased it.”
“Yes. But someone changed the delivery route.”
Dominic opened the shipping history.
The dress had passed through a private alteration studio before reaching their townhouse.
“Why?”
Samuel walked closer.
“Check the hem.”
Isabella looked down at the gown she was still wearing.
Dominic’s hand immediately went to the skirt.
“Don't.”
Samuel pointed.
“The tracker is passive.”
Dominic carefully examined the inner hem.
A tiny metallic disc had been sewn beneath the lining.
His face became lethal.
Someone had tracked Isabella through the clothes he bought her.
The emerald dress.
The black velvet.
Every gown.
“Who?” he asked.
Samuel looked toward Marco, who had just entered the dining room.
The attorney stopped.
Dominic followed Samuel’s gaze.
Marco looked confused.
“What?”
Samuel said, “Your brother.”
Marco’s face drained.
“My brother has been dead eight years.”
Samuel shook his head.
“No.”
Isabella gave a stunned laugh.
“Apparently nobody in this family stays dead.”
Samuel almost smiled.
Then his expression darkened.
“Anthony Bellini disappeared after your father supposedly died because he knew I had evidence against him.”
Dominic looked at Victoria.
“What evidence?”
Samuel answered.
“Your father wasn't the only man running the old Serrano operation.”
Dominic stared.
“Anthony handled laundering.”
Marco whispered, “No.”
“He handled surveillance too.”
Marco shook his head.
“You're lying.”
Samuel looked at him with something close to pity.
“I wish I were.”
For twenty minutes, the truth unfolded.
Anthony Bellini had built a network inside the legitimate Serrano companies.
When Dominic began shutting down criminal operations after his father’s death, Anthony lost millions.
He disappeared.
Then spent years rebuilding influence through shell companies.
Samuel had resurfaced because Anthony had begun targeting Isabella.
“Why her?” Dominic asked.
“Because he discovered who she was.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning my daughter is the only person who can authenticate the ledger I took.”
Isabella stared.
“How?”
Samuel looked at her.
“When you were seventeen, you helped me organize papers at home.”
She remembered.
“You complained my filing system made no sense.”
“It didn’t.”
“It was a cipher.”
She froze.
“The color tabs?”
He nodded.
“You invented the order.”
Her stomach turned.
“You used me?”
Samuel’s face crumbled.
“No. I used a system you created without understanding how valuable it would become.”
“That's not better.”
“I know.”
Dominic looked at the files.
“Anthony wanted Isabella at tomorrow's dinner because?”
Samuel glanced at the dress.
“The tracker would tell him she was here.”
Dominic’s blood went cold.
“He knows she's here now.”
“Yes.”
Security alarms suddenly activated.
Dominic checked his phone.
North gate breach.
Two vehicles.
He immediately grabbed Isabella’s hand.
“Safe room.”
She resisted.
“My father—”
“He comes too.”
Victoria said, “Dominic.”
“You too.”
Serafina protested.
“What about us?”
Dominic looked at the security chief.
“Everyone downstairs.”
The estate erupted into controlled movement.
Isabella was guided through a private corridor she had never known existed.
Samuel stayed behind her.
Dominic remained at the rear.
Inside the safe room, he locked the steel door.
Security feeds covered a wall.
Two black SUVs sat abandoned outside the north gate.
No passengers.
No visible attackers.
Dominic hated it immediately.
“Decoy.”
Samuel nodded.
Then one camera went black.
Then another.
Then another.
Someone was already inside.
Isabella looked at her father.
“You came through the house before the power went out.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Samuel hesitated.
Dominic noticed.
“You had access.”
“I used an old passage.”
Victoria looked sharply at him.
“That passage was sealed.”
“No. You thought it was.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Who else knows about it?”
Samuel did not answer.
A sound came from behind the safe-room wall.
A soft metallic scrape.
Isabella turned.
Dominic reached inside his jacket.
The scrape came again.
Then the bookshelf at the back of the room moved half an inch.
Samuel went pale.
“No.”
Dominic faced him.
“What?”
Samuel whispered, “That passage isn't supposed to connect here.”
The bookshelf moved again.
May you like
A hidden door slowly opened.
And someone on the other side said Dominic’s name.
