Chapter 2 - The Voice on the Recording
“Stop him.”
Dominic did not shout.
He didn’t need to.
Two security men crossed the ballroom before the man near the doors could make it five steps.
Jenna couldn’t see his face at first.
Guests moved aside.
Then the man turned.
Richard Whitmore.
Charles’s younger brother.
The uncle of one of the teenagers.
He was in his early forties, dressed in a navy tuxedo, with a pleasant face Jenna remembered from charity photographs displayed near the gala entrance.
Chairman of the Hawthorne Children’s Mobility Fund.
Jenna almost laughed at the cruelty of the title.
Richard looked at Dominic.
“This is insane.”
Dominic held Sophie’s phone.
“Then you won’t mind listening.”
The recording played again.
At first there was laughter.
Teenage laughter.
A wheel squeaking.
Leo saying, “Give it back.”
Then Richard’s voice.
Clear.
Unmistakable.
“Maybe now your father will understand that money can’t fix everything.”
A boy laughed.
Richard continued.
“Leave him. Someone will find him eventually.”
Jenna watched Dominic absorb the words.
Leo looked at the floor.
Charles Whitmore whispered, “Richard, what the hell did you do?”
Richard scoffed.
“Oh, don’t pretend you care.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Why my son?”
Richard’s confidence slipped.
“It wasn’t supposed to go this far.”
“You removed his mobility controller.”
“I didn’t remove anything.”
“But you watched.”
Richard said nothing.
Dominic’s voice remained level.
“You watched three boys trap my son in a corridor.”
“They’re teenagers.”
“You’re not.”
Richard looked around for support.
He found none.
People who had laughed with him an hour earlier now studied chandeliers, champagne glasses, and floral centerpieces.
Anything except Richard.
Jenna knew that kind of cowardice too.
People loved power until it became dangerous to stand beside it.
Dominic crouched next to Leo again.
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
“Did anybody?”
“They pushed my chair.”
“Did you fall?”
Leo hesitated.
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
“Leo.”
“A little.”
Jenna knelt.
“Where?”
Leo touched his left shoulder.
Dominic carefully moved the jacket fabric.
Leo winced.
That was enough.
Dominic stood.
His security men tightened around Richard.
Jenna’s heart started pounding.
This was where stories about men like Dominic became stories people whispered afterward.
She stepped in front of him.
“Don’t.”
Every person nearby stared at her.
Dominic looked at Jenna.
“Don’t what?”
“Do something in front of him that he’ll have to remember forever.”
Jenna nodded toward Leo.
Dominic’s expression became unreadable.
Charles whispered, “Who is this woman?”
Jenna answered without looking at him.
“The caterer who ruined the suit.”
A nervous laugh almost escaped someone nearby.
Dominic didn’t smile.
But something in his face shifted.
He turned to his head of security.
“Call the police.”
Richard stared.
“What?”
“And hotel management.”
Charles stepped forward.
“Dominic.”
“No private settlement.”
“Think about what you’re doing.”
“I am.”
Charles lowered his voice.
“You want police looking into this room?”
Dominic’s eyes became colder.
“I want them looking at him.”
Richard’s face collapsed.
The threat hidden inside Charles’s question was obvious even to Jenna.
Men like Dominic didn’t invite law enforcement into their affairs.
Calling the police meant putting the boy’s humiliation into official records.
It also meant Dominic was choosing his son over whatever secrets he normally protected.
Leo watched his father carefully.
Jenna saw something soften in the child’s face.
Dominic noticed too.
That seemed to decide everything.
“You did nothing wrong,” he told Leo.
Leo’s chin trembled.
“I should’ve fought them.”
“You shouldn’t have had to.”
“I could’ve yelled louder.”
“You shouldn’t have had to.”
Leo finally cried.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
His face simply folded.
Dominic knelt and pulled him close.
One hand rested against the back of Leo’s head.
The feared man in Boston stood on a marble floor with cream still covering his suit while his son cried into his shoulder.
Nobody moved.
Jenna looked away to give them privacy.
That was when Sophie touched her arm.
“Jenna.”
Something about her voice was wrong.
“What?”
Sophie glanced toward Charles.
“He knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That Richard hated them.”
Jenna frowned.
“Why?”
Sophie lowered her voice.
“I heard them arguing near the service kitchen before guests arrived.”
“Who?”
“Charles and Richard.”
“About Dominic?”
“About Leo’s mother.”
Jenna felt a chill.
“What did they say?”
Sophie swallowed.
“I only heard pieces.”
“Tell me.”
“Richard said she destroyed everything.”
Jenna glanced toward Dominic.
“He means Leo’s mother?”
“I think so.”
“What happened to her?”
Sophie shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Jenna remembered the way Leo had reacted when Sophie mentioned the teenagers saying something about his mother.
Something deeper existed beneath tonight’s cruelty.
Something old.
Police arrived twenty minutes later.
Hotel management suddenly discovered a passion for cooperation.
Security footage was requested.
Names were collected.
Parents made phone calls.
Lawyers appeared from nowhere.
Jenna expected Marlene to send her back to the kitchen.
Instead Dominic asked her to remain.
“Why?”
“Leo wants you here.”
She looked toward him.
Leo sat with an emergency manual control unit attached to his chair.
A paramedic had checked his shoulder.
Bruised.
Nothing broken.
Still, the boy looked at Jenna as though she were the only person in the ballroom who had not spent the evening deciding what his father might do.
She walked over.
“How are you doing?”
“I hate parties.”
“Same.”
That earned the smallest smile.
“You dropped thirty cream puffs.”
“Thirty-one.”
“There were thirty.”
“One was already missing.”
Leo looked suspicious.
“You ate it?”
“I call it quality control.”
His smile widened.
Across the ballroom, Dominic watched.
Jenna noticed.
She looked away.
Leo said, “Dad doesn’t laugh much anymore.”
“That sounds exhausting.”
“He used to.”
“What happened?”
Leo’s expression closed.
Jenna immediately regretted asking.
“You don’t have to answer.”
“My mom died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Three years ago.”
Jenna nodded.
Leo looked toward Richard.
“He said she hated my dad.”
Jenna felt anger return.
“Tonight?”
Leo nodded.
“He said she wanted to leave us.”
“Do you believe him?”
“No.”
The answer came hard.
“But Dad never talks about her.”
Jenna looked toward Dominic.
He was speaking with police.
Cream had dried across his jacket.
For a man who supposedly controlled half of Boston, he suddenly looked tired.
“Maybe talking hurts.”
Leo stared at his hands.
“Not talking hurts too.”
That sentence stayed with Jenna.
An hour later, the gala had effectively ended.
Police escorted Richard out.
The teenagers left with parents and attorneys.
Charles remained.
Dominic approached him near the empty dance floor.
Jenna didn’t mean to listen.
But the entire room had become quieter than church.
Charles said, “This never should have happened.”
“No.”
“Richard has problems.”
“That didn’t start tonight.”
Charles rubbed his forehead.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
Charles looked at Leo.
Then Jenna.
Then Sophie.
“This involves Elena.”
Dominic froze.
Jenna knew immediately.
Leo’s mother.
Charles continued.
“I should’ve told you years ago.”
“Told me what?”
Charles’s throat moved.
“Richard knew Elena before you did.”
Dominic stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“It isn’t.”
“What are you saying?”
Charles took a breath.
“Your wife came to my brother for help three weeks before she died.”
The room went silent again.
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“Help with what?”
Charles looked genuinely afraid now.
“I never found out.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she asked him not to tell you.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“That makes no sense.”
“I know.”
“No. You know more.”
Charles looked toward the ballroom exit.
Dominic stepped in front of him.
“What did Elena give Richard?”
Charles stared.
Jenna saw the answer before he spoke.
“An envelope.”
“What was inside?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic grabbed his arm.
Charles winced.
“Dominic.”
“What was inside?”
“I said I don’t know.”
Leo called out.
“Dad.”
Dominic released him instantly.
Charles adjusted his sleeve.
Jenna walked closer.
“Where is the envelope now?”
Charles looked at her.
Then he laughed bitterly.
“You really don’t know when to stay out of things.”
“No.”
He almost smiled.
Then his face turned grave.
“Richard kept everything in a safe at his Back Bay office.”
Dominic’s phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then Dominic’s expression changed.
“What?”
Jenna watched the color drain from his face.
He listened for several seconds.
Then looked directly at Charles.
“The police car transporting your brother never reached the station.”
Charles stared.
“What do you mean?”
Dominic lowered the phone.
“The driver was found unconscious.”
Leo whispered, “Dad?”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Then another message appeared on his screen.
A photograph.
He opened it.
Jenna saw an envelope resting on a wooden desk.
Across the front, in faded handwriting, were four words:
FOR DOMINIC IF I’M GONE.
Dominic looked up.
May you like
The message beneath it contained an address.
And someone was waiting there.
