Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Never Left
Dominic crossed the corridor alone.
That was what the note demanded.
It did not mean he obeyed completely.
Marco followed through a hidden service passage behind the wall, while two security men moved toward the library windows from outside.
Dominic entered the room.
The fireplace had been extinguished.
Only the Christmas lights from the garden reached through the tall windows.
“Lily?”
No response.
Dominic reached inside his jacket.
His fingers closed around the pistol beneath his coat.
A chair moved near the far wall.
A woman stepped forward.
Dominic stopped.
She was perhaps sixty-five.
Gray hair.
Dark wool coat.
Thin face.
Familiar eyes.
Not Isabella.
The woman raised both hands.
“I’m not armed.”
“Where’s Lily?”
“Safe.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“She’s upstairs.”
Dominic drew his gun.
The woman did not flinch.
“Bring her to me.”
“I can’t.”
Dominic aimed at her chest.
“You have five seconds.”
“She was taken because someone else was trying to get her first.”
“Four.”
“My name is Teresa Bellini.”
Dominic paused.
Bellini.
“Sophia’s mother?”
Teresa nodded.
“And Lily’s grandmother.”
Dominic lowered the weapon slightly.
“Lily told me her grandmother was named Isabella.”
Pain crossed Teresa’s face.
“That’s what Sophia told her.”
“Why?”
“Because Sophia believed naming me would put Lily in danger.”
Dominic stared at her.
“Where is Sophia?”
Teresa looked toward the floor.
“That answer is complicated.”
Dominic raised the gun again.
“It isn’t.”
“She’s alive.”
The room became silent.
Dominic heard nothing but his own breathing.
“Say it again.”
“Sophia is alive.”
Four years of searching.
Four years of unanswered calls.
Four years of imagining every possibility except the one standing before him.
“Where?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“Why did she leave?”
“She didn’t leave.”
Teresa swallowed.
“She was forced out.”
“By whom?”
Teresa looked toward the library entrance.
“Your family.”
Dominic’s expression became cold.
“Be specific.”
“Your father’s organization.”
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then who?”
Teresa hesitated.
Dominic stepped closer.
“My mother?”
“No.”
The answer surprised him.
“Then why does Lily think Isabella is her grandmother?”
Teresa’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because Isabella protected them.”
Dominic lowered the gun.
“Protected them from whom?”
Teresa looked terrified.
“Your uncle.”
Dominic said nothing.
Salvatore Moretti.
His father’s younger brother.
Family strategist.
Advisor.
Godfather.
A man who had sat beside Dominic at every Christmas dinner since childhood.
“Salvatore ordered Sophia removed?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Teresa looked toward his hand.
At Sophia’s photograph.
“Because Sophia discovered what your father left behind.”
Dominic remembered his father’s death.
Five years ago.
Heart attack.
Sudden.
Private burial.
Dominic had inherited the organization at twenty-nine.
Salvatore had helped stabilize it.
“What did she discover?”
“A ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“Names. Payments. Judges. Politicians. Police officers.”
Dominic exhaled.
“That’s not enough to make Sophia disappear.”
“No.”
Teresa’s eyes met his.
“The ledger also contained proof your father had been planning to dissolve the organization.”
Dominic stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“He wanted you out.”
“My father built everything.”
“And then he watched it destroy everyone around him.”
Teresa stepped closer.
“He wanted you to have a legitimate life.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“My father never wanted anything legitimate.”
“Sophia found his letter.”
“What letter?”
“One addressed to you.”
Dominic felt the first real break in the foundation beneath him.
“My father wrote me a letter?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“Sophia had it.”
“Where is Sophia?”
“I told you, I don’t know.”
Dominic’s voice hardened.
“You’re asking me to believe Sophia discovered evidence that my father wanted to dismantle the family business, my uncle tried to silence her, and my mother somehow helped her escape.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because she was pregnant.”
Dominic froze.
Teresa closed her eyes.
“There it is.”
He stared at her.
“She was pregnant when she disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“How far?”
“Six weeks.”
Dominic turned toward the doorway.
Lily.
Three years old.
He had calculated it downstairs.
Now the answer stood directly in front of him.
“Who is Lily’s father?”
Teresa did not respond.
Dominic turned back.
“Say it.”
Her voice broke.
“You are.”
Dominic lowered his weapon.
He sat in the nearest chair because his legs suddenly did not feel reliable.
His daughter.
The child under the staircase.
The tiny hand that had slipped into his.
His daughter.
He remembered Lily’s eyes.
Sophia’s eyes.
No.
His eyes.
He had not seen it because he had not been looking for it.
Teresa watched him.
“Sophia wanted to tell you.”
“Then why didn’t she?”
“Because Salvatore threatened you.”
Dominic looked up.
“He told her that if she stayed, you would die before the baby was born.”
Dominic stood.
“And my mother?”
“She helped Sophia disappear.”
The betrayal cut differently now.
Not simple cruelty.
Still a lie.
Still four stolen years.
But perhaps not for the reason he had assumed.
“Isabella knew Lily was mine?”
“Yes.”
“For four years?”
“Yes.”
Dominic clenched his fists.
A sound came from the hallway.
Marco entered.
“We found Lily.”
Dominic moved immediately.
“Where?”
“Third floor guest room. She’s okay.”
Dominic pushed past him.
He took the stairs two at a time.
Lily sat on a bed surrounded by security guards.
When she saw him, her face changed.
“You came back.”
Dominic stopped in the doorway.
His daughter.
He had faced men carrying weapons without fear.
Yet crossing the room toward Lily was suddenly the hardest thing he had ever done.
He crouched.
“I told you I would.”
She held up her arms.
Dominic hesitated only a moment before lifting her.
Lily wrapped her arms around his neck.
Something inside him broke open.
He held her carefully.
Too carefully.
Like she might disappear.
“Did someone hurt you?”
She shook her head.
“A lady said I had to hide.”
“What lady?”
“She had gray hair.”
“Grandma Teresa?”
Lily frowned.
“I don’t know.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
“Who found her?”
“Security camera showed someone leaving the room ten minutes ago.”
“Show me.”
They entered the surveillance office.
Marco rewound the recording.
A woman in a black coat entered the hall.
Her face remained hidden.
She placed Lily inside the guest room.
Then she turned toward the camera.
Dominic leaned closer.
The woman lifted her face.
Isabella.
His mother.
Dominic felt anger surge.
Then Isabella looked directly into the security camera.
She held up a piece of paper.
Three words were written on it.
HE IS HERE.
The camera feed cut.
Dominic grabbed his phone.
He called Isabella.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
He handed Lily to Marco.
“Keep her with you.”
“Where are you going?”
“Finding my mother.”
Dominic returned to the ballroom.
Isabella was gone.
Salvatore was gone too.
The security chief approached.
“Boss, we found something.”
“What?”
“Your mother’s purse.”
Inside was Isabella’s phone.
Her jewelry.
Her keys.
And a small voice recorder.
Dominic pressed play.
Static.
Then Isabella’s voice.
“If Dominic hears this, Salvatore already knows.”
A pause.
Then another voice interrupted the recording.
A man’s voice.
Calm.
Familiar.
“Isabella, you should have kept the girl away from him.”
Dominic looked toward Marco.
Salvatore.
The recording continued.
“You had four years to keep Sophia silent,” Salvatore said. “Now I’ll finish what you couldn’t.”
A gunshot sounded.
The recording ended.
Dominic stared at the device.
Then every light in the mansion went out.
A child screamed upstairs.
May you like
And Marco shouted one word through the darkness.
“Lily!”
