Chapter 5 - The Mother Who Had Already Lost One Child
Julian survived.
Barely.
The man outside the interview room did not reach him because a courthouse officer recognized the security breach and pulled the emergency alarm.
By the time the lights returned, the stranger was gone.
Julian was moved.
This time, nobody told Dominic where.
Alvarez insisted.
Dominic hated it.
Mia agreed with her.
“If you know, Antonio may assume you know.”
Dominic gave her a dark look.
“You’re getting comfortable telling me what to do.”
“No. I’m getting comfortable telling you when you’re being reckless.”
Marco looked away to hide a smile.
Dominic noticed.
“Something funny?”
“No, sir.”
For the first time in two days, Mia almost felt normal.
Then Alvarez requested to speak to her alone.
Mia knew it involved Julian.
She followed the detective into another room.
“What did he say?”
Alvarez closed the door.
“He asked about Lily.”
Mia’s throat tightened.
“What did you tell him?”
“That she’s safe.”
“Did he ask about me?”
“Yes.”
Mia hated that her heart reacted.
After everything.
After three years.
“Can I see him?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“He’s negotiating.”
“For immunity?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
Alvarez sat.
“That’s complicated.”
“Try me.”
“Julian did move Moretti money.”
“So Dominic was right.”
“Partly.”
Mia closed her eyes.
“But Julian claims he did it to document a larger laundering operation controlled by Antonio Russo.”
“Why not go to police?”
“He says Russo owned police.”
Mia looked at Alvarez.
“Did he?”
“Some.”
That answer frightened her.
“Julian also says Dominic’s brother found out.”
“And was killed.”
“Yes.”
Mia sat opposite her.
“What does this have to do with Lily?”
Alvarez hesitated.
“Julian kept copies of everything.”
“Where?”
“He won’t say yet.”
“Why?”
“Because he believes someone close to Dominic is still working with Russo.”
Mia thought of Marco.
Of guards.
Employees.
Friends.
Family.
“Who?”
“He won’t say.”
“Then how is Lily connected?”
Alvarez looked almost reluctant.
“Julian hid the access key to his evidence somewhere only you could retrieve.”
Mia remembered the key in the fourth envelope.
“The key.”
“Yes.”
“What does it open?”
“He won’t tell us.”
“Why?”
“Because he says you’ll know.”
Mia laughed bitterly.
“I haven’t seen him in three years. How would I know?”
Alvarez slid the key across the table inside an evidence bag.
Mia stared.
Small brass key.
Number 314 engraved on one side.
Her breath caught.
Alvarez noticed.
“You do know.”
Mia remembered.
Union Station.
Washington, D.C.
Eight years earlier.
Julian had taken her there on their first weekend trip.
They had stored their luggage in an old locker area while sightseeing.
Locker 314.
It became a joke between them because Julian lost the claim ticket and spent twenty minutes convincing an attendant the bags belonged to them.
“He used to say 314 was our lucky number,” Mia whispered.
“Where?”
“Washington.”
Alvarez was already standing.
They left that afternoon.
Dominic insisted on coming.
Alvarez allowed him only because federal investigators had joined the case and wanted to question him about Antonio Russo.
The old locker area had been renovated years earlier.
But the number led them elsewhere.
A private luggage storage company across from the station.
Box 314.
The key worked.
Inside was nothing except a children’s book.
Mia recognized it instantly.
The Little Prince.
Julian had read passages from it during her pregnancy.
Dominic frowned.
“That’s it?”
Mia opened the cover.
A photograph fell out.
It showed Dominic seventeen years younger beside his brother Gabriel.
Antonio Russo stood behind them.
Julian stood at the edge.
On the back, Julian had written:
THE MAN WHO SMILES AFTER FUNERALS.
Dominic stared.
“Antonio.”
Mia flipped through the book.
A hollowed section had been cut into the center.
Inside was a small memory card.
Alvarez exhaled.
“There it is.”
Dominic looked at Mia.
“Lily was targeted because they thought you had this.”
Mia shook her head.
“I didn’t even know it existed.”
“But Julian did.”
Anger rose.
“He used us.”
Dominic did not defend him.
“He may have believed hiding it from you kept you alive.”
“He left his daughter without a father.”
“I’m not saying he was right.”
Mia looked at him.
“My mother died last year.”
Dominic’s expression softened.
“She was the only person helping me with Lily. Julian knew she was sick. He never came.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
She closed the book.
“I spent years making excuses for him.”
Dominic understood more than she expected.
“Sometimes loving someone means you become talented at explaining their failures.”
Mia studied him.
“Who did you explain?”
“My father.”
That surprised her.
Dominic looked at the photograph of Gabriel.
“My father believed power made everything forgivable.”
“And you?”
“I used to.”
“What changed?”
His answer came immediately.
“Ethan.”
Mia thought of Lily.
Children had a brutal way of exposing the lies adults tolerated.
Back in New York, the memory card was analyzed.
It contained financial records.
Audio files.
Security videos.
Enough information to connect Russo to Gabriel Moretti’s death and years of financial crime.
But one folder was encrypted.
Its title was a date.
Lily’s birthday.
Dominic stared at the screen.
“Why would Julian create this folder the day Lily was born?”
Mia felt sick.
The password clue was one sentence.
THE CHILD WHO SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN KNOWS THE NAME.
Mia recoiled.
“What does that mean?”
Alvarez tried several possibilities.
Lily.
Mia.
Julian.
Nothing.
Dominic looked at Mia.
“Did Julian choose Lily’s name?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“My mother.”
“Middle name?”
“Grace.”
No.
“Hospital?”
No.
“Doctor?”
No.
Then Mia remembered.
Julian had arrived at the hospital shortly after midnight.
He had held Lily.
Cried.
And whispered a strange sentence.
Mia had assumed he was emotional.
“Gabriel would have loved you.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What?”
Mia repeated it.
Dominic went pale.
“Try Gabriel.”
The folder opened.
Nobody spoke.
Inside were photographs.
Bank records.
Audio recordings.
And one video.
Date stamped three hours before Gabriel Moretti died.
Alvarez played it.
Gabriel appeared in a parking garage.
He was arguing with Antonio Russo.
The audio was weak.
But one sentence was clear.
Gabriel said, “You used my mother’s foundation.”
Dominic leaned closer.
Antonio replied, “Your father approved more than you know.”
Then the recording ended.
Dominic stepped back.
“My father knew.”
Alvarez paused.
“We don’t know how much.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“He buried Antonio’s interview. He knew enough.”
Mia watched grief reshape his face.
Not grief for Gabriel.
That wound was old.
This was grief for the father Dominic had spent years defending.
Then another file appeared.
A document labeled ELEANOR MORETTI.
Dominic stared.
“My mother.”
“She’s alive?” Mia asked.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Connecticut.”
Alvarez opened the file.
A medical report.
Then a sworn statement that had never been filed.
Eleanor Moretti claimed she saw Antonio leave the family garage shortly before Gabriel’s car exploded.
Dominic looked stunned.
“She never told me.”
Mia whispered, “Maybe she was afraid.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“My mother isn’t afraid of anyone.”
Alvarez continued reading.
Then stopped.
“What?”
She looked at Dominic.
“Your mother says Antonio threatened Ethan before Ethan was born.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“He couldn’t. Ethan wasn’t—”
Alvarez turned the page.
The statement was dated seven years earlier.
Months before Ethan’s birth.
Dominic read the line himself.
If Dominic ever has a child, the boy will pay for Gabriel.
Mia’s skin prickled.
Antonio had been waiting.
Planning.
For years.
Dominic reached for his phone.
“I’m calling my mother.”
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Marco called the security team at Eleanor’s Connecticut estate.
Nothing.
Dominic’s face turned white.
“Get the cars.”
Alvarez was already moving.
They drove north.
Two hours later, they reached Eleanor Moretti’s estate.
The front gates were open.
That was wrong.
Dominic entered first.
“Mom!”
No answer.
The living room was empty.
A teacup remained warm.
A chair had been overturned.
Mia saw a photograph on the floor.
Dominic picked it up.
It showed Ethan.
Across the glass someone had drawn a lion.
Then they heard a woman’s voice from upstairs.
Weak.
“Dominic?”
He ran.
At the top of the staircase, a bedroom door slowly opened.
Eleanor stood there.
Blood marked one sleeve.
May you like
She looked at her son and whispered:
“Antonio took Lily.”
