Chapter 2 - The Man in the Photograph
The lock clicked.
Dominic stepped away from the butcher table.
Marco's entire body stiffened.
Riley had been expecting one man.
But when the door opened, two people entered.
The first was an elderly man in a dark wool coat, his posture slightly bent, his silver hair wet from the rain.
The second was a woman in her early sixties.
Dominic recognized her immediately.
“Teresa?”
His voice barely carried.
Teresa Castelli shut the door behind her.
Dominic's aunt had disappeared from family gatherings almost nine years ago.
Officially, she'd moved to Arizona after developing heart problems.
The truth was far less convenient.
Teresa had spent those years collecting evidence against her own family.
The older man beside her removed his hat.
Marco stared.
Riley saw recognition strike him.
“Mr. Baines?”
Louis Baines nodded.
The former Castelli accountant looked older than his seventy-two years.
But alive.
Very much alive.
Dominic recovered quickly.
He always did.
“This is getting ridiculous.”
Teresa looked at him.
“You've always said that when the truth becomes inconvenient.”
Dominic ignored her.
His attention settled on Louis.
“You disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Louis looked toward Riley.
“Because her father saved my life.”
Marco stepped toward him.
“My brother.”
Louis closed his eyes briefly.
“I know.”
“Where is Nicholas?”
Nobody answered.
Marco's voice became rough.
“Where is my brother?”
Teresa touched Louis's arm.
Louis looked at Marco.
“I don't know.”
Marco's shoulders sagged.
It was almost worse than confirmation.
For years he'd imagined Nicholas in Mexico, Canada, Europe, anywhere that kept hope alive.
Now there was a man standing in front of him who clearly knew why Nicholas had vanished.
“Tell me everything,” Marco said.
Dominic interrupted.
“You don't take orders from him.”
Marco turned.
“I wasn't asking you.”
That sentence would once have been unthinkable.
Dominic's three men had entered Hayes Prime Cuts as an extension of his authority.
Twenty minutes later, they were becoming witnesses.
Teresa walked toward the butcher counter.
She looked at the documents.
“You found Samuel's box.”
Riley nodded.
“Behind the freezer wall.”
Teresa smiled sadly.
“He always was too clever for his own good.”
“You knew my father?”
“Very well.”
Riley's stomach tightened.
Her father had died eighteen months earlier.
He had been stubborn, funny, difficult, protective, and nearly impossible to surprise.
But he had also kept secrets.
Riley was discovering that some of them had been enormous.
“Why didn't he tell me?”
“To protect you.”
“I hate that answer.”
“So did he.”
Louis leaned his hands against the counter.
“In 2019, Nicholas Bellini discovered that Dominic had been moving money through redevelopment companies.”
Anthony frowned.
“So?”
“Not Castelli money.”
Dominic's eyes sharpened.
Louis continued.
“Money belonging to people inside the organization.”
Marco stared at Dominic.
“How much?”
“Millions.”
Dominic laughed.
It sounded forced.
“You're listening to a man who stole from my father.”
Louis looked at him.
“I kept your father's books for twenty-six years.”
“And vanished with records.”
“Records you wanted destroyed.”
Dominic looked at Teresa.
“You brought him here?”
“No. Samuel did.”
Riley frowned.
“My father?”
Teresa nodded.
“Years ago.”
Louis reached into his coat and removed a small leather notebook.
“Samuel gave me a place to hide when I learned Nicholas was collecting evidence.”
Marco looked at the notebook.
“What evidence?”
“Dominic was buying property through shell companies. He created fake debts. Inflated invoices. Loans that never existed. When business owners couldn't repay money they'd never borrowed, East Mercer bought their buildings.”
Riley's expression hardened.
“That happened to the bakery on Seventh.”
Louis nodded.
“And the pharmacy. And the laundromat. And six apartment buildings.”
Vincent cursed quietly.
His mother had lived in one of those buildings.
Dominic noticed.
“This is ancient history.”
Vincent turned.
“My mother lost her apartment because the landlord supposedly owed East Mercer.”
“That had nothing to do with me.”
Louis opened the notebook.
“Yes, it did.”
Dominic moved toward him.
Anthony stepped between them.
That stopped everybody.
Dominic stared at Anthony.
“Move.”
Anthony didn't.
“I just want to hear him.”
“You've heard enough.”
“Then it shouldn't matter.”
Dominic's eyes shifted around the shop.
One by one, the men he had brought to intimidate Riley were separating themselves from him.
Dominic still possessed enormous power.
But power becomes strangely fragile when people stop lending theirs to it.
Louis continued.
“Nicholas traced the money. He came to Samuel because Hayes Prime Cuts sat over an old service tunnel connecting two buildings East Mercer wanted.”
Riley frowned.
“What tunnel?”
Her father had never mentioned it.
Teresa looked toward the freezer room.
“You'll see.”
Dominic's voice turned sharp.
“There is no tunnel.”
Louis glanced at him.
“You sealed it yourself.”
Marco stepped closer.
“Why?”
Louis looked at him.
“Because Nicholas hid something down there.”
Dominic's face betrayed him.
Only for a fraction of a second.
But Marco caught it.
“What?”
Dominic turned toward Riley.
“This ends now.”
Riley folded her arms.
“No.”
“I offered you six hundred thousand dollars for a building worth four.”
“You offered me money stolen from people you pushed out.”
“I offered you a future.”
“You offered me surrender.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“You have no idea what happens when people like you interfere in things like this.”
Riley's eyebrows lifted.
“People like me?”
He realized too late.
Riley smiled without warmth.
“You mean women who don't scare easily?”
“I mean civilians.”
Riley looked around her shop.
“My father stood behind that counter for forty-two years. He fed half this neighborhood on credit when factories closed. He gave people jobs when nobody else would. You walk in wearing a suit and call me a civilian like that makes me small.”
Dominic lowered his voice.
“I could destroy this place tomorrow.”
Teresa answered from behind him.
“That's exactly what your father said once.”
Dominic turned.
Teresa continued.
“He regretted it.”
A strange expression passed across Dominic's face.
“My father didn't regret anything.”
“You never knew your father as well as you thought.”
Dominic laughed.
“And you did?”
“I was his sister.”
“You left.”
“He sent me away.”
The room became silent.
Dominic stared at her.
Teresa touched the signature on the document Riley had revealed earlier.
“Salvatore found out what you'd been doing.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
“He confronted you.”
“No.”
“He signed that order because he wanted Louis protected.”
Dominic grabbed the paper.
“You forged this.”
Teresa's gaze remained steady.
“I watched him sign it.”
Dominic's breathing grew heavier.
Riley realized this wasn't merely a financial secret.
Something personal was breaking open.
Dominic had built his identity around his father.
Salvatore Castelli had been feared throughout the neighborhood, but also respected in a way Dominic never managed to reproduce.
Salvatore had rules.
Dominic had appetites.
There was a difference.
Marco picked up the photograph showing Nicholas and Samuel.
“My brother knew Salvatore?”
Louis nodded.
“He went to him.”
“When?”
“The night before he disappeared.”
Marco looked at Dominic.
“You knew that?”
“No.”
Louis said, “Yes, he did.”
Dominic slammed his fist against the counter.
“Enough.”
No one flinched this time.
That was the moment Dominic noticed his voice had lost some of its effect.
Riley saw it too.
He was beginning to understand why the secret on her table mattered.
The evidence wasn't simply accusing him.
It was giving other people permission to trust their own doubts.
Marco pointed at the notebook.
“What did my brother hide beneath this shop?”
Louis looked toward Riley.
“Samuel never told me exactly.”
Teresa answered.
“But we know where.”
They moved toward the back.
Dominic stepped in front of them.
“Nobody goes anywhere.”
Riley walked straight toward him.
“Move.”
His eyes dropped to hers.
“You really think you've won something?”
“No.”
“You should.”
“Why?”
“Because winners get careless.”
Riley studied him.
Then she smiled faintly.
“Funny.”
“What?”
“That's what my father wrote about you.”
Dominic froze.
Riley pulled a folded note from her apron pocket.
“He left instructions with the box.”
Dominic's gaze fixed on it.
“What did he write?”
Riley unfolded the paper.
“My father said, ‘Dominic is dangerous when he's in control. He's predictable when he thinks he's losing it.’”
Vincent almost smiled.
Dominic didn't.
Riley continued toward the freezer.
Dominic did not stop her.
The freezer room contained hanging rails, storage racks, crates, and a worn tile floor Riley had scrubbed thousands of times.
Teresa pointed toward the back wall.
“Third panel.”
Riley looked.
It appeared ordinary.
Louis found a metal hook and pulled against the edge.
Nothing.
Marco joined him.
Together they shifted the panel.
Behind it was a narrow brick opening.
Cold air moved through.
Riley stared.
“You've got to be kidding me.”
Teresa looked at her.
“Your father didn't tell you everything.”
Riley turned on her flashlight.
A steep set of concrete stairs descended beneath the building.
Marco went first.
Riley followed.
Anthony and Vincent came behind them.
Dominic remained above.
Teresa turned.
“You coming?”
He stared into the darkness.
For the first time that night, he seemed reluctant.
That alone told Riley more than anything else.
They descended.
The tunnel smelled of damp concrete and rust.
At the bottom stood an old steel cabinet.
A chain wrapped around it.
Marco examined the lock.
“New.”
Dominic's voice came from the stairs.
“Don't open that.”
Everyone turned.
He stood above them.
Riley shined her flashlight upward.
“Why not?”
“You don't know what's inside.”
Marco faced him.
“You do.”
Dominic looked at the cabinet.
Then at Marco.
“Some things should stay buried.”
Marco's eyes filled with rage.
“My brother is one of those things?”
Dominic didn't answer.
Marco grabbed a crowbar lying against the wall.
He drove it beneath the chain.
Once.
Twice.
The lock snapped.
Dominic rushed down the stairs.
Anthony blocked him.
Marco opened the cabinet.
Inside were folders.
Cash.
A small recorder.
And a plastic evidence bag.
Marco picked it up.
Inside was a silver watch.
He stopped breathing.
Riley saw his hands begin to shake.
“Nicholas wore this,” he whispered.
Dominic backed away.
Marco slowly turned toward him.
“You said he left town.”
Dominic stared at the watch.
Marco's eyes became wet.
“You told me my brother abandoned us.”
Dominic said nothing.
Marco moved toward him.
Riley caught his arm.
“Not yet.”
He looked at her.
Riley pointed toward the recorder.
“The truth first.”
Louis picked it up.
The batteries had corroded, but the device had a removable memory card.
Anthony examined it.
“I can get this copied.”
Dominic stepped backward again.
Then Riley saw something else inside the cabinet.
A sealed white envelope.
Her name was written across the front.
RILEY HAYES.
In her father's handwriting.
Her stomach dropped.
She reached for it.
Dominic said, “Don't.”
Riley looked at him.
“Why?”
He knew.
Somehow, Dominic knew what her dead father had left for her.
Riley tore the envelope open.
There was one sheet inside.
She unfolded it.
Her father's first sentence made her knees weaken.
Riley, if you're reading this, then Dominic has finally come for the shop.
She continued.
Her hands began trembling.
Marco watched her.
“What does it say?”
Riley reached the final paragraph.
Then she stopped.
Because her father had written a name.
A name Riley had never expected to see.
She looked at Teresa.
Teresa closed her eyes.
Dominic whispered, “Don't say it.”
Riley lifted her gaze.
And read the name aloud.
“Evelyn Hayes.”
Her mother.
A woman Riley had believed died twenty-eight years earlier.
Teresa opened her eyes.
“She didn't die, Riley.”
Riley stared at her.
“What?”
Teresa looked toward the darkness beyond the tunnel.
“Your mother is alive.”
Then a sound came from behind the sealed door at the far end.
Three knocks.
Slow.
May you like
Deliberate.
Someone was on the other side.
