Chapter 5 - What Dominic's Mother Hid
Emily ran toward the door.
Dominic caught her around the waist.
"Wait."
"That's my mother!"
"And twenty cars just arrived behind her."
"Let me go."
"No."
She struggled once.
Dominic released her immediately but stayed between her and the entrance.
"I'm not stopping you from seeing her. I'm stopping you from opening a gate before we know who's behind those headlights."
Emily stared through the security monitor.
Elaine stood motionless outside.
The vehicles behind her stopped.
Doors did not open.
Marco zoomed the camera.
Rebecca leaned closer.
"They're empty."
Dominic looked at her.
"What?"
"The cars."
One by one, headlights switched off.
No drivers emerged.
Remote vehicles.
A distraction.
Dominic understood first.
"Rear entrance."
An alarm sounded.
Marco cursed.
Dominic grabbed Emily's hand.
"Upstairs."
She didn't argue this time.
They moved toward the reinforced interior room.
Rebecca and Daniel followed.
A crash sounded below.
Not gunfire.
Breaking glass.
Dominic locked the door behind them.
Emily pulled up the security feed.
Three men entered through the rear terrace.
Gabriel was not among them.
They moved through the house quickly.
Searching.
Not attacking.
"They want the key," Rebecca said.
Dominic looked at Emily.
"Where is it?"
She reached toward her pocket.
Empty.
Her face changed.
"The bedroom."
Dominic swore.
"I left it beside the ring."
Marco's voice came through the radio.
"They're heading upstairs."
Dominic opened the room's weapons cabinet.
Emily caught his wrist.
"Don't."
"They're coming toward us."
"They're looking for the key."
"And they'll go through anyone between them and it."
Rebecca stepped toward the monitor.
"Wait."
One intruder entered the honeymoon bedroom.
He picked up the ring.
Then the brass key.
And left.
No attempt to reach the secure room.
Two minutes later, the house went silent.
"They got what they came for," Emily whispered.
Dominic looked furious.
Rebecca looked relieved.
"Good."
Everyone turned toward her.
She smiled faintly.
"That wasn't the real key."
Emily stared.
"You switched it?"
"Before we left the chapel."
Dominic almost laughed.
"You might actually be related to me."
"I've been told worse."
Outside the estate, Elaine remained at the gate.
Alone now.
Dominic finally allowed it to open.
Emily stood in the entrance hall.
Her mother walked inside.
Eleven years collapsed into ten steps.
Emily did not move at first.
Neither did Elaine.
Her mother looked older.
Thinner.
A faint scar ran along her jaw.
But her eyes were the same.
"Emily."
One word.
Emily crossed the distance and slapped her.
The sound echoed through the room.
Everyone froze.
Elaine closed her eyes.
Emily's hand shook.
"I buried you."
"I know."
"I cried over an empty coffin."
"I know."
"You let me believe you were dead."
Tears filled Elaine's eyes.
"I know."
Emily hit her chest with both hands.
"How could you?"
Elaine caught her.
Emily fought the embrace.
For three seconds.
Then eleven years of grief broke open.
She clung to her mother and sobbed.
Dominic looked away.
Rebecca did too.
Daniel did not.
He stared at his wife as though the dead had walked through a wall.
Elaine eventually lifted her eyes toward him.
"Daniel."
His face crumpled.
"Don't."
"Please."
"You don't get to say my name."
Emily pulled back.
"Dad really didn't know?"
Elaine shook her head.
"No."
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"How generous."
Elaine wiped her face.
"Gabriel found me before the accident."
"What accident?" Emily asked.
"The one that killed Isabella."
Dominic looked up sharply.
Elaine turned toward him.
"Your mother's death was not an accident."
The room changed.
Dominic stepped closer.
"Say it again."
"Gabriel ordered it."
Rebecca closed her eyes.
Dominic's fists tightened.
Elaine continued.
"Isabella had decided to expose him. She had the ledger."
"I thought you had it."
"I did later."
"What happened?"
"Isabella gave it to me two days before she died."
Emily stared.
"And then?"
"Gabriel came for it. I escaped. Years later, he found me again."
"Eleven years ago."
"Yes."
"The day you died."
Elaine nodded.
"He gave me a choice. Disappear or watch him go after you."
Emily swallowed.
"So you left."
"I thought it would be temporary."
"Eleven years."
"I know."
"Where were you?"
"Moving. Different names. Different states."
"With Gabriel?"
"No."
"Then why did he say you came to him?"
"Because two weeks ago, I finally did."
Daniel exploded.
"Why?"
Elaine turned toward him.
"Because he was destroying your company to force Emily into this marriage."
Dominic's expression hardened.
"And you knew."
"I realized too late."
Rebecca held up the real brass key.
"What does the vault contain?"
Elaine looked at it.
"Not the ledger."
Everyone stared.
"What?" Rebecca said.
Elaine reached beneath her coat.
She removed a small notebook.
Old leather.
Faded edges.
"The ledger has been with me the entire time."
Dominic looked at the notebook.
"Then what's in the vault?"
Elaine's eyes moved toward him.
"Your mother's confession."
Dominic went still.
"What confession?"
"Proof of who Gabriel really was."
Rebecca frowned.
"We know who he was."
"No."
Elaine looked at her.
"You know who you were told he was."
A strange fear entered Rebecca's expression.
Elaine continued.
"Gabriel Santoro wasn't born Gabriel Santoro."
Daniel seemed to understand before the others.
"No."
Elaine nodded.
"His birth name was Gabriel Vale."
Rebecca stepped backward.
"That's impossible."
"He was your father's younger brother."
Rebecca covered her mouth.
Dominic stared at Elaine.
"So this wasn't about three rival families."
"No."
"It was a family inheritance."
"At first."
Emily looked down at the ring.
"What does that make me?"
Elaine's eyes softened.
"The last legal heir to the original Vale holdings through my branch."
Emily stopped.
"My branch?"
Elaine nodded.
"Your grandfather wasn't a hardware-store owner."
"I gathered that."
"He was the eldest surviving Vale."
Dominic exhaled.
"And by marrying her—"
"Emily joined two inheritance lines Gabriel spent decades trying to keep separate."
Rebecca understood.
"If Dominic and Emily remain married, they control enough legitimate holdings to remove Gabriel from every company he rebuilt."
Emily looked toward Dominic.
Their meaningless marriage had suddenly become the most consequential document in the room.
Elaine reached for her hand.
"That's why he needed you isolated. Humiliated. Ready to leave Dominic."
Dominic looked away.
Emily saw the guilt again.
Elaine noticed too.
"You didn't know."
"No," he said.
"But I made it easy."
Emily stepped toward him.
"We deal with that later."
His eyes met hers.
"Later?"
"Yes."
The smallest change crossed his face.
Hope.
He tried to hide it.
Failed.
Rebecca opened the old ledger.
"We can end this."
Elaine nodded.
"But only if we get Isabella's confession."
"The vault."
"Yes."
They reached the bank shortly after sunrise using a private entrance arranged through Moretti attorneys.
The vault had not been accessed in eleven years.
Emily inserted the brass key.
Elaine inserted the second.
The box opened.
Inside lay a cassette tape.
Documents.
And a sealed letter addressed to Dominic.
His hand trembled slightly when he picked it up.
He opened the letter.
My son,
If you are reading this, then you have already learned that families survive by telling children which truths they are old enough to hear.
I was wrong.
Dominic swallowed.
Emily stood beside him.
He continued.
Rebecca is your sister.
Gabriel is responsible for more pain than anyone knows.
But Vittorio is not innocent.
Dominic stopped.
Elaine closed her eyes.
He looked toward his father, who had joined them through a secured video call.
"What did you do?"
Vittorio's face appeared on the screen.
Older.
Gray.
Powerful.
Suddenly fragile.
"I made a deal."
"What deal?"
"To protect you."
Dominic laughed without humor.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
Vittorio's eyes lowered.
"Gabriel wanted Rebecca."
Rebecca went still.
"And you gave him my location."
Silence.
Dominic stared at his father.
"You betrayed my sister."
"I thought he would send her away."
"He tried to kill me," Rebecca whispered.
Vittorio closed his eyes.
"I know."
Dominic turned from the screen.
Emily touched his hand.
His fingers closed around hers.
For once, he did not pull away.
Then the bank lights went out.
Emergency lamps flashed red.
The vault door began closing.
Marco shouted from outside.
"Dominic!"
Emily turned.
A shadow appeared beyond the narrowing gap.
Someone pushed Marco aside.
Gabriel Santoro stepped into the vault.
The steel door locked behind him.
He looked at Emily.
May you like
Then at Dominic.
"Now," Gabriel said, "we can finally discuss what your marriage is worth."
