Chapter 3 - Four Stolen Years
Dominic ran.
People shouted behind him.
Emergency lights flickered on along the hallway.
He ignored everyone.
“Lily!”
Marco’s voice came from upstairs.
“She’s here!”
Dominic reached the guest room.
Marco stood beside the bed.
Lily was crying but unharmed.
The window had been opened.
A bullet hole marked the wall.
Dominic crossed the room.
“Who fired?”
“Outside.”
Marco pointed toward the garden.
A dark vehicle disappeared through the rear gate.
Dominic looked at Lily.
She lifted her arms.
He picked her up immediately.
Her small body trembled against him.
“Where’s Grandma?”
The question hurt more than it should have.
“Which grandma?”
“The flower one.”
Isabella.
Dominic swallowed.
“I’m finding her.”
Lily rested her head against his shoulder.
“Mommy said Grandma was brave.”
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
Sophia had said that?
“Did Mommy talk about Isabella?”
Lily nodded.
“Mommy said she saved us.”
Dominic felt his anger shift.
Not disappear.
Shift.
His mother had lied.
But perhaps every lie had been designed to protect him.
Marco entered carrying a tablet.
“We tracked Salvatore’s phone.”
“Where?”
“Warehouse district.”
Dominic handed Lily to Teresa, who had arrived upstairs under guard.
He looked into her eyes.
“If anything happens to her—”
Teresa nodded.
“I understand.”
Dominic turned to Marco.
“Get the car.”
They arrived at an abandoned Moretti warehouse twenty minutes later.
No lights.
No guards.
Too easy.
Dominic entered through the side door.
A chair stood beneath a single hanging bulb.
Isabella sat tied to it.
Alive.
Dominic rushed forward.
“Mother.”
She looked at him.
Relief flashed across her face.
Then fear.
“Get out.”
He cut the rope.
“Where’s Salvatore?”
“This is a trap.”
A slow clap came from the darkness.
Salvatore stepped into the light.
Seventy years old.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Calm smile.
“Still impulsive, nephew.”
Dominic raised his gun.
Salvatore laughed.
“You think I came unprepared?”
Men emerged from the shadows.
Eight.
Armed.
Marco cursed behind him.
Isabella stood beside Dominic.
“Salvatore, enough.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You had one job.”
“Protecting Dominic was my job.”
“You betrayed the family.”
“I protected my son.”
Salvatore’s expression hardened.
“You protected weakness.”
Dominic aimed directly at him.
“Where is Sophia?”
Salvatore smiled.
“So Teresa told you.”
“Where is she?”
“You still don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
Salvatore opened his hands.
“Sophia found your father’s transition plan. She found accounts, names, private agreements.”
“My father wanted out?”
“He wanted you out.”
Dominic remained silent.
“He intended to sell legitimate holdings, expose corrupt partners, and hand the criminal operations to prosecutors.”
“Why?”
“Because he had become sentimental.”
Salvatore looked at Isabella.
“Like your mother.”
Dominic’s gun remained steady.
“And you killed him.”
Salvatore’s smile answered first.
Isabella whispered, “Dominic…”
He looked at her.
She was crying.
“Your father didn’t die of a heart attack.”
Dominic felt the world narrow.
“Salvatore poisoned him.”
Dominic looked back at his uncle.
Salvatore shrugged.
“He forced my hand.”
“You murdered your own brother.”
“He was going to destroy everything.”
Dominic stepped forward.
The armed men raised their weapons.
Marco aimed his.
Isabella grabbed Dominic’s arm.
“Don’t.”
Salvatore smiled again.
“You see? Your mother always understood restraint.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You threatened Sophia.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened my unborn child.”
“I didn’t know the child existed.”
“Would it have mattered?”
Salvatore considered.
“No.”
Dominic almost fired.
Then Isabella moved between them.
“Dominic, if you shoot him, everyone shoots.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Mother.”
“You have Lily now.”
Her voice broke.
“Do not make her lose her father the same night she found him.”
The words stopped him.
Lily.
Dominic lowered the gun an inch.
Salvatore smiled.
“That’s better.”
Then Marco’s phone vibrated.
Everyone noticed.
Marco glanced at the screen.
A message.
He looked at Dominic.
“It’s from Sophia.”
Silence.
Dominic’s heart stopped.
Marco read the message aloud.
Take Dominic out through the south loading door. Now.
Salvatore’s face changed.
For the first time, fear.
Dominic noticed it.
“What does she know?”
Then the warehouse alarm began screaming.
Sprinklers activated.
Smoke poured from the ventilation system.
Salvatore’s men looked around.
Marco grabbed Isabella.
“Move!”
Dominic fired once into the ceiling.
Chaos erupted.
They ran.
Bullets struck metal shelves behind them.
Dominic reached the south door.
A black SUV waited outside.
The passenger door opened.
A woman stepped out.
Dominic stopped.
Four years disappeared.
Sophia stood beneath the warehouse light.
Alive.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar crossed her left temple.
But alive.
Dominic forgot the gun in his hand.
Forgot Salvatore.
Forgot everything.
“Sophia.”
Her eyes filled.
“Dominic.”
He walked toward her.
Then stopped.
Anger collided with relief.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let me think—”
“I know.”
“You had my daughter.”
“I know.”
“You let me search for you for four years.”
Sophia’s voice shook.
“I was trying to keep you both alive.”
Dominic stared at her.
“Both?”
Sophia looked past him.
“Where is Lily?”
“Safe.”
Her knees nearly gave way.
Dominic caught her instinctively.
For one second, they were the people they had been four years earlier.
Then Sophia pulled away.
“We have to go.”
“Not until you tell me everything.”
“Salvatore has people everywhere.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
She grabbed his lapel.
“He wasn’t the only person who betrayed your father.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
Sophia looked toward Isabella.
Dominic followed her gaze.
His mother went pale.
Sophia whispered, “The night your father died, someone inside your house opened the door for Salvatore.”
Dominic looked between them.
“No.”
Isabella stepped backward.
“Sophia—”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“What are you saying?”
Sophia’s eyes filled with pain.
“I’m saying Salvatore didn’t kill your father alone.”
Behind them, the warehouse door opened.
A familiar man stepped outside holding a gun.
Dominic knew him immediately.
May you like
It was Marco’s father.
And he said, “Sophia, you should have stayed dead.”
