Chapter 4 - The Night Dominic Rossi Almost Died
The elevator doors opened completely.
I forgot how to breathe.
The woman standing inside was not my mother.
She was younger, perhaps forty-five, with dark hair cut just above her shoulders and a pale face that looked exhausted rather than frightened. A long charcoal coat covered most of her body.
But around her neck hung a thin gold chain.
And from that chain hung my mother’s pendant.
A tiny oval locket with a blue stone in the center.
I knew every scratch on it.
My mother had worn it every day of my childhood.
Dominic moved in front of me.
“Hands where I can see them.”
The woman slowly raised both hands.
Arthur aimed his weapon at her chest.
She didn’t flinch.
Her eyes stayed on me.
“You look like Evelyn.”
My stomach dropped.
“Take off the necklace.”
“Clara—”
“Take it off.”
My voice came out harder than I expected.
The woman carefully removed the chain and held it out.
Arthur took it first.
He examined the pendant before passing it to me.
The moment it touched my palm, I knew.
It was real.
There was a small dent near the clasp from when I had dropped it as a child.
My thumb moved automatically toward the locket.
I opened it.
Inside were two photographs.
One was me at age six.
The other was Ethan at nine.
My knees nearly gave out.
Dominic caught my elbow.
“Who are you?” I asked.
The woman looked at him.
Then at me.
“My name is Helen Ward.”
“I don’t know you.”
“No.”
“How did you get my mother’s necklace?”
“Evelyn gave it to me.”
“My mother is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then when?”
“Three days before she died.”
The answer hit harder than I expected.
My mother had spent her final week in hospice.
I had been there almost constantly.
Ethan had visited twice.
No Helen Ward.
No mysterious woman.
No conversation about a necklace.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Dominic spoke.
“Why are you here?”
Helen finally looked at him.
For the first time, fear appeared in her face.
“Because someone is trying to finish what started seven years ago.”
Arthur stepped closer.
“Who?”
Helen’s gaze returned to me.
“The person who sent Clara into that alley.”
Silence.
My hand closed around the pendant.
“You know who sent me?”
“Yes.”
“Then say the name.”
Helen looked toward the windows.
“No.”
Arthur almost laughed.
“You bypassed Rossi security, walked into his private elevator, and now you don’t want to talk?”
“I didn’t bypass anything.”
Dominic’s expression sharpened.
“What does that mean?”
“Someone activated the elevator for me.”
Arthur turned toward one of his men.
“Check the security system.”
The guard left.
Dominic’s voice became colder.
“Who let you in?”
Helen looked at him.
“Your father.”
Dominic went completely still.
“My father is dead.”
“So is Clara’s mother.”
The words landed between them.
I looked at Dominic.
His expression had changed.
Not disbelief.
Recognition.
He knew something.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nothing.”
“Dominic.”
He looked at me.
“Your father is connected to this.”
“My father was connected to everything.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
His jaw tightened.
“It isn’t.”
Helen stepped out of the elevator.
Arthur immediately blocked her.
“That’s far enough.”
She stopped.
“Dominic, if you want to know why Clara found you seven years ago, you need to understand what happened before the alley.”
Dominic stared at her.
“Talk.”
“You weren’t supposed to survive that night.”
“I figured that out when someone put a knife in me.”
“The knife wasn’t the plan.”
His eyes narrowed.
Helen continued.
“The plan was to make you disappear.”
Arthur glanced at Dominic.
“Why?”
“Because Dominic had found something his father didn’t want him to see.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
He frowned.
“What ledger?”
“One connecting several legitimate companies to offshore accounts. Money was disappearing from the Rossi organization.”
Dominic looked unimpressed.
“My father stole money?”
“No.”
Helen shook her head.
“He was hiding it.”
“For whom?”
She hesitated.
Dominic stepped closer.
“For whom?”
Helen whispered:
“Luca.”
The room went silent.
Dominic looked as though she had struck him.
“My brother was dead.”
“Your brother was hidden.”
“Stop.”
“I’m telling you—”
“I said stop.”
The force in Dominic’s voice made everyone freeze.
He walked toward Helen despite the pain pulling at his side.
“I watched my mother bury an eight-year-old boy.”
“You watched her bury a coffin.”
His eyes became murderous.
“Be very careful.”
Helen didn’t move.
“You never saw Luca’s body.”
Dominic said nothing.
“You were thirteen. Marco was sixteen. Your father refused to let either of you near the morgue.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I was there.”
That changed everything.
Dominic’s anger disappeared beneath shock.
“Who were you?”
Helen’s eyes filled with something like shame.
“I worked for your father.”
Arthur’s weapon lifted slightly.
Dominic didn’t seem to notice.
“In what capacity?”
“I moved records. Medical records. Birth certificates. Death certificates. Financial documents.”
“You forged them.”
“Yes.”
“Luca’s death certificate?”
Helen’s silence answered.
Dominic turned away.
His hand went to the edge of his desk.
I saw his fingers tighten.
For a moment, I thought he might collapse.
Not from the wound.
From the truth.
I went to him.
“Dominic.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
His eyes met mine.
Something inside them had broken open.
“My brother might have been alive.”
I didn’t know what to say.
So I didn’t say anything.
I simply stayed beside him.
Maybe that was why his hand found mine.
Not romantically.
Not consciously.
He just needed something solid.
And I let him hold on.
Helen watched us.
Then she said:
“That’s why Evelyn chose you.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Your mother.”
My hand slipped from Dominic’s.
“What do you mean, chose me?”
Helen looked toward my medical bag.
“She knew you would help him.”
A chill moved down my spine.
“You’re saying my mother sent me to Jackson Boulevard?”
“Yes.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“She didn’t tell you why.”
“No.”
“She couldn’t.”
“You said someone gave me an envelope.”
Helen nodded.
“That was me.”
The parking lot.
The gray coat.
Gloves.
A blurred face.
I stared at her.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t I remember you?”
“Because you were exhausted. And because I told you almost nothing.”
“What was in the envelope?”
“An address.”
“I remember a photograph.”
Helen hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Of whom?”
“Dominic.”
I looked at him.
His face was unreadable.
“But I didn’t know him.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
“Why would my mother send her daughter into an alley to help an injured criminal?”
Helen’s expression softened.
“Because Evelyn knew exactly who Dominic was.”
My chest tightened.
“How?”
“She had saved a Rossi before.”
Dominic frowned.
“Who?”
Helen looked at him.
“Your mother.”
Nobody spoke.
“My mother knew Clara’s mother?”
“Very well.”
Dominic released a slow breath.
“How?”
“That story belongs to Evelyn.”
“She’s dead,” I said.
Helen looked at my necklace.
“No. Her voice isn’t.”
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
Helen reached inside her coat.
Arthur instantly raised his weapon.
“Slow.”
She removed a small brass key.
Nothing else.
She placed it on the table.
“There’s a safe-deposit box at Lakeshore Federal.”
Dominic studied it.
“Number?”
“417.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who owns it?”
“Evelyn Hayes.”
I stared at the key.
“My mother didn’t have a safe-deposit box.”
“She did.”
“What’s inside?”
Helen looked at me.
“A recording.”
My pulse quickened.
“Of my mother?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two days before she died.”
I couldn’t stop looking at the key.
“What does she say?”
Helen’s expression changed.
“That’s the reason people are dying.”
Dominic immediately asked:
“Who else knows?”
“Too many people.”
Arthur’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face hardened.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at Dominic.
“We found the security breach.”
“Who authorized the elevator?”
Arthur hesitated.
“Your credentials.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s impossible.”
“I know.”
“I was sitting here.”
“I know.”
Dominic looked toward Helen.
She shook her head.
“I told you. Someone wanted me upstairs.”
“Why?”
Helen’s voice lowered.
“Because whoever is controlling this wants Clara to find that recording.”
I picked up the brass key.
“Then I’m going.”
Dominic immediately said:
“No.”
I looked at him.
“You don’t get to decide.”
“Someone just demonstrated that they can enter my home.”
“That makes the recording more important.”
“It makes you a target.”
“I already am.”
His jaw tightened.
“Clara.”
“My mother left something for me.”
“And someone may be waiting for you to retrieve it.”
“Then come with me.”
That stopped him.
I held his gaze.
“You wanted answers.”
His eyes moved toward the key.
“Yes.”
“So do I.”
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Finally:
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Tonight.”
“You’re not going anywhere tonight.”
“You’re injured.”
“And I’m still saying no.”
I folded my arms.
Arthur looked between us.
“This feels like a marriage conversation.”
“Arthur,” Dominic said.
“I’ll leave.”
He didn’t.
Helen almost smiled.
Then her expression suddenly changed.
She was looking at Dominic’s bandage.
Blood.
Fresh blood was spreading through it.
“Dominic.”
I turned.
The color had vanished from his face.
His knees buckled.
I caught him before he hit the floor.
“Dominic!”
Arthur rushed forward.
The stitches had torn.
Blood soaked my hands.
Too much.
Far too much.
“Get my bag!”
Someone shoved it toward me.
I pressed both hands against the wound.
“Dominic, look at me.”
His eyes fluttered.
“Stay awake.”
A weak smile touched his mouth.
“You said that before.”
“Don’t joke.”
“You liked my joke earlier.”
“I hated it.”
“Liar.”
“Dominic!”
His eyes closed.
Fear exploded through me.
I pressed harder.
“Stay with me.”
Arthur was already calling the private doctor.
I barely heard him.
All I could see was Dominic.
Seven years ago, he had been bleeding beneath my hands in an alley.
Now it was happening again.
And suddenly I understood something that frightened me.
I didn’t want to lose him.
Not because of the marriage.
Not because of Ethan’s debt.
Because somewhere between resentment and discovery, Dominic Rossi had become more than the man who had trapped me.
He had become the stranger I had once refused to let die.
His eyes opened slightly.
“Clara.”
“I’m here.”
“If something happens…”
“Nothing is happening.”
“Listen.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
I leaned closer.
His fingers closed weakly around mine.
“The marriage contract…”
“Stop.”
“There’s something you don’t know.”
My heart pounded.
“What?”
He struggled to breathe.
“I didn’t marry you because of Ethan’s debt.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“What did you say?”
But Dominic’s eyes closed.
“Dominic!”
Arthur pushed past me.
The doctor arrived minutes later.
Everything became noise.
Orders.
Medical equipment.
Blood.
I stood in the hallway with Dominic’s blood drying on my hands while strangers worked to keep my husband alive.
Helen stood beside me.
“You really didn’t know?”
I turned toward her.
“Know what?”
She looked at the closed bedroom door.
“That Dominic had been searching for you before Ethan ever borrowed a dollar.”
My heartbeat became painful.
“What?”
Helen lowered her voice.
“He spent seven years looking for the nursing student from Jackson Boulevard.”
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
She looked directly at me.
“Your brother’s debt only gave Dominic a way to bring you close without admitting why.”
I stared at her.
Anger.
Confusion.
Something else.
Something I refused to name.
My phone vibrated.
A message from Ethan.
Clara, don’t trust Dominic. He knows what Mom did.
Then another.
I’m coming to get you.
I called immediately.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Helen saw my face.
“What happened?”
“My brother.”
Arthur stepped into the hallway.
“Mrs. Rossi.”
I turned.
His expression told me something was wrong.
“What?”
“We just received security footage from the garage.”
He held out his phone.
A black car had entered the underground level ten minutes earlier.
The driver stepped out.
Ethan.
My brother.
But he wasn’t alone.
A second man emerged from the passenger side.
Helen gasped.
Arthur went completely still.
I looked between them.
“Who is that?”
Neither answered.
Then the bedroom door behind us opened.
Dominic stood there, pale, one hand against his fresh bandage.
He looked at the man on the screen.
And whispered one word.
“Luca.”
At that exact moment, the private elevator chimed.
The doors started opening.
May you like
Ethan stood inside.
And someone was standing directly behind him.
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