Chapter 4 - The Honeymoon Trap
Emily dropped the phone.
Dominic caught it before it struck the floor.
"My mother is dead."
Rebecca's face had gone pale.
Daniel looked worse.
Emily turned toward him.
"Dad."
He said nothing.
"Dad."
"I watched her coffin go into the ground."
"Emily."
"You told me she died."
"She did."
"Then explain the photograph."
"I can't."
"Can't or won't?"
Daniel stared at the chapel floor.
Rebecca stepped toward him.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing."
"You always say that before the truth gets ugly."
Dominic held up one hand.
"Everybody stops."
His voice had changed.
Not louder.
More controlled.
That was somehow worse.
"We go back to the estate. We confirm the photograph. Nobody leaves alone."
Rebecca looked at him.
"You sound like your mother."
Dominic's expression tightened.
"From you, I'm not sure that's a compliment."
"It was."
They returned before dawn.
The photograph waiting on Emily's father's encrypted email showed a woman stepping from a pharmacy less than twenty-four hours earlier.
Same eyes.
Same posture.
Older face.
But Emily knew.
Children remembered their mothers in ways cameras couldn't explain.
The tilt of her head.
The way one hand rested near her collarbone.
The slightly inward turn of her right foot.
Emily sat down.
"That's her."
Daniel stared at the photograph.
"It can't be."
"You recognize her."
"Yes."
"Then stop saying it can't be."
Dominic crouched beside Emily.
Not touching.
Just there.
"What do you remember about the funeral?"
She looked toward him.
"Why?"
"If she disappeared deliberately, details matter."
Emily forced herself backward through eleven years.
Closed casket.
Her father saying the accident had been too severe.
No viewing.
A private service.
Her mother's sister supposedly too ill to attend.
Emily had accepted everything because grief made questions feel disloyal.
"It was closed."
Dominic looked toward Daniel.
"Convenient."
Daniel slammed his fist against the table.
"I believed she was dead."
Emily jumped.
Dominic stood instantly.
"Lower your voice."
Daniel looked at him.
"Don't tell me how to speak to my daughter."
Dominic stepped between them.
"Then stop frightening my wife."
Silence.
Emily stared at Dominic's back.
My wife.
Not contract.
Not arrangement.
Daniel heard it too.
He looked away.
Rebecca studied Dominic.
"You really weren't supposed to care about her."
Dominic turned.
"What does that mean?"
Rebecca sat across from Emily.
"The marriage was anticipated."
"By whom?" Emily asked.
"Gabriel."
Emily's stomach twisted.
Rebecca continued.
"For years, Gabriel has been dismantling Carter Logistics through shell companies. Loans pulled. Contracts canceled. Suppliers threatened."
Daniel nodded slowly.
"I suspected coordination."
"You were meant to become desperate."
"So I'd accept Moretti money."
"Yes."
Dominic frowned.
"Why force them toward us?"
Rebecca looked at Emily's ring.
"Because Isabella's belongings were divided after her death. The ring went to Dominic. Elaine knew it contained part of the vault mechanism."
Emily understood.
"Gabriel needed the ring and me together."
"Exactly."
"The wedding put both in one place."
Rebecca nodded.
"The honeymoon put you somewhere isolated."
Dominic's face turned lethal.
"This entire marriage was a trap."
"Originally."
Emily looked toward him.
"What does that mean?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"Gabriel expected you to treat Emily exactly the way you've been treating her."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"Coldly."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because a neglected wife is easier to approach."
Emily looked at him.
The sentence landed with brutal precision.
Rebecca continued.
"He expected Emily to feel humiliated. Lonely. Angry. Someone would eventually contact her with evidence that Dominic never wanted her. Then they'd offer answers about her mother."
Emily rubbed her thumb over the ring.
"And I would go willingly."
"That was the plan."
Dominic turned away.
Emily could almost see the guilt settling across his shoulders.
"You didn't know," she said.
He looked at her.
"I helped them anyway."
"You didn't."
"I told you our marriage meant nothing while somebody was counting on me saying exactly that."
She had no answer.
Because that part was true.
The bedroom where they were supposed to spend their honeymoon became an operations room.
Security screens.
Phones.
Laptops.
The white wedding flowers still sat beside the bed, absurdly beautiful among all the tension.
Emily finally changed out of her gown.
She wore one of Dominic's white shirts because her suitcase had been left in the first bedroom after the intrusion.
When she emerged from the bathroom, Dominic stared.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You've been looking at me for five seconds."
"That's not five seconds."
"Four?"
He turned back toward the monitor.
Emily almost smiled.
Then she noticed a dark stain beneath his sleeve.
"You're hurt."
"It's nothing."
She crossed toward him.
"Let me see."
"No."
"Dominic."
"I'm fine."
"You have blood on your shirt."
Everyone in the room went quiet.
Dominic glanced down.
The earlier confrontation had left a shallow graze along his ribs. He had apparently ignored it.
Emily's stomach tightened.
"When did that happen?"
"Before."
"You were bleeding this whole time?"
"It's barely a scratch."
Rebecca looked at him.
"Let her clean it."
Dominic gave her a look.
Rebecca shrugged.
"I'm your older sister. Apparently I get to be irritating immediately."
Emily found the medical kit.
Dominic sat on the edge of the bed.
She unbuttoned enough of his shirt to see the injury.
It was not severe.
But the sight of it made her hands tremble.
Dominic noticed.
"Emily."
"I'm fine."
"You're shaking."
"You were standing in front of me."
He looked at her.
"That was the point."
"You could have been killed."
"So could you."
"That's not comforting."
"It wasn't supposed to be."
Emily cleaned the wound.
Dominic watched her.
After a moment, he said, "I'm sorry."
She paused.
"For bleeding?"
"For the wedding night."
Emily resumed wrapping the bandage.
"Specifically?"
"Everything I said."
"You meant it."
"At the time."
Her fingers stopped.
Dominic looked down at her.
Emily forced herself to breathe.
"And now?"
A phone rang downstairs.
The moment broke.
Marco entered.
"We found Gabriel."
Dominic stood.
"Where?"
"Video feed from Carter Logistics. He entered through the loading dock twenty minutes ago."
Emily moved toward the monitor.
A gray-haired man appeared on screen.
Gabriel Santoro.
Older.
Very much alive.
He looked directly into the security camera.
Almost as though he knew they were watching.
Then he held up a photograph.
Elaine Carter.
Emily's mother.
A timestamp appeared.
LIVE.
Emily grabbed the desk.
Dominic swore.
Gabriel raised a phone toward the camera.
Emily's rang immediately.
She answered.
"Where is she?"
Gabriel's voice was calm.
"Still impatient. Just like Elaine."
"Let me talk to her."
"You'll see her soon."
"Where?"
"You have something I need."
"The key."
"Bring it."
Rebecca shook her head violently.
Emily ignored her.
"If I do, you release my mother."
Gabriel laughed softly.
"Emily, your mother isn't my prisoner."
Emily froze.
"What?"
"She came to me."
Daniel stood.
"He's lying."
Gabriel heard him.
"Daniel. Still playing the grieving husband?"
Emily looked toward her father.
"Dad?"
"Hang up."
Gabriel continued.
"Ask him why Elaine had to disappear."
Emily's breathing became uneven.
Dominic took the phone.
"Enough."
"Dominic Moretti."
Gabriel sounded amused.
"The groom who wasn't supposed to fall in love."
Dominic's face went still.
Emily looked at him.
Gabriel continued.
"Bring the key to the old Carter warehouse at noon."
Dominic said nothing.
"Come alone with Emily."
"No."
"Then Elaine leaves before her daughter ever sees her."
The call ended.
Emily turned toward Dominic.
"I'm going."
"No."
"Dominic."
"No."
"My mother—"
"Could be working with him."
Emily recoiled.
He hated himself immediately.
"I didn't mean—"
"You did."
"I'm trying to keep you alive."
"And I'm trying to find my mother."
Dominic closed the distance between them.
"Then we do it smart."
"You just said no."
"I said you're not walking into that warehouse alone."
Rebecca approached with the brass key.
"There's another problem."
She placed it beside the ring.
"The vault this opens requires two keys."
Emily frowned.
"Where's the second?"
Rebecca looked at Daniel.
"Elaine had it."
Daniel shook his head.
"No."
"Yes."
Rebecca stepped closer.
"And if Elaine is with Gabriel willingly, he may already have both."
Dominic's phone buzzed.
A security alert.
Marco opened the feed.
Someone was standing outside the estate gate.
A woman.
Alone.
Emily stopped breathing.
The woman lifted her face toward the camera.
Elaine Carter.
Alive.
Then she held up the second brass key.
May you like
And behind her, headlights appeared in the darkness.
Dozens of them.
