Chapter 6 - The Birthday Gift That Exposed Everything
Mia stopped hearing the room.
For several seconds, Eleanor’s words made no sense.
Lily had been in the secure apartment.
Two officers.
Marco’s team.
Alvarez’s people.
How could Antonio have taken her?
“No.”
Mia pushed past Dominic.
“No, Lily isn’t here.”
Eleanor looked confused.
“He called. He said he had her.”
Mia’s legs weakened.
Alvarez grabbed her phone.
“Check Lily. Now.”
The response came quickly.
Lily was safe.
Sleeping.
Mia nearly collapsed.
Eleanor had been manipulated.
Antonio wanted Dominic to panic.
He wanted them away from New York.
“Why?” Dominic asked.
Eleanor sat on the edge of the bed while a medic examined her arm.
“He came here himself.”
Alvarez looked sharply at her.
“Antonio?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Maybe an hour ago.”
“What happened?”
“He wanted the memory card.”
Dominic stared.
“How did he know we found it?”
Eleanor looked at him.
“He has someone with you.”
The room went silent.
Marco stiffened.
Dominic looked at everyone.
Mia suddenly understood why Julian refused to reveal everything.
The leak remained close.
Very close.
Alvarez asked, “Did Antonio say who?”
“No.”
“What happened to your arm?”
“I tried to stop him leaving.”
Dominic knelt beside his mother.
“You fought him?”
Eleanor gave her son a tired look.
“I raised you. Do you think I scare easily?”
Despite everything, Mia almost smiled.
Dominic did not.
“You should have told me about Gabriel.”
Eleanor’s face changed.
Not now, Mia thought.
But seventeen years had apparently waited long enough.
“I tried.”
“No.”
“You were twenty-one. Your father made me choose.”
“Between what?”
“You and the truth.”
Dominic went silent.
Eleanor looked at Mia.
“His father told me if I accused Antonio, Dominic would become the next target.”
“So you stayed quiet,” Mia whispered.
“I stayed quiet and hated myself every day.”
Dominic stood.
“Dad protected Antonio.”
“He protected the empire.”
The word sounded ugly in Eleanor’s mouth.
“He believed Gabriel’s death was the cost of preserving the family.”
Dominic looked physically sick.
Mia realized this was the moment something inside him finally broke.
Not his courage.
His loyalty.
The Moretti system had demanded sacrifice from everyone.
Gabriel.
Eleanor.
Julian.
Mia.
Nearly Ethan.
And now Lily.
Dominic walked to the window.
“I’m done.”
Eleanor stared at him.
“With what?”
“All of it.”
“Dominic—”
“The businesses that are legitimate stay. Everything else ends.”
Marco looked shocked.
“Sir.”
Dominic turned.
“My son will not inherit this.”
Eleanor’s eyes filled.
“Your father would—”
“My father is dead.”
The room went silent.
Dominic continued.
“Gabriel died protecting a truth we buried. Ethan almost died because I kept living inside that lie.”
He looked at Mia.
“And a three-year-old girl had more courage than every adult in this family.”
Mia could not speak.
Alvarez’s phone rang.
She answered.
Then frowned.
“Someone accessed the secure apartment building.”
Mia’s heart stopped.
“Lily?”
“Still safe.”
“Who?”
Alvarez looked at Marco.
“Your credentials.”
Marco went pale.
“No.”
Dominic turned toward him.
Marco immediately removed his phone and sidearm, placing both on the table.
“I didn’t do it.”
Alvarez took the items.
“Where were you at 2:14 this afternoon?”
“With Dominic.”
Dominic nodded.
“He was.”
“Then someone cloned his access.”
Marco looked furious.
“Luca.”
Everyone remembered.
Luca had let the intruder through the service gate.
And Luca had vanished.
Alvarez called New York.
A search began.
Then Mia remembered something Ethan had said before the cake cutting.
“Where is Ethan’s birthday gift?”
Dominic looked at her.
“What gift?”
“The large blue box.”
“What blue box?”
Mia’s stomach tightened.
“There was a box beneath the cake table. Ethan told Lily he wasn’t allowed to open it until after the cake.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
“Did you see one?”
“No.”
Mia described it.
Blue wrapping.
Silver ribbon.
No card.
A server had moved it after Lily destroyed the cake.
Dominic’s face changed.
“Where did it go?”
Nobody knew.
They rushed back to New York.
The ballroom had been sealed as a crime scene.
Alvarez’s team searched storage areas.
Finally, the box was found inside a service closet.
Unopened.
Bomb technicians examined it before anyone approached.
It contained no explosive.
Inside was a wooden toy train.
Ethan loved trains.
Dominic stared at it.
“Antonio knew that.”
Mia noticed a small inscription.
“For Ethan.”
Below it:
“From Uncle A.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Alvarez examined the train.
One car felt heavier than the others.
Inside was a flash drive.
A deliberate delivery.
That did not make sense.
“Why would Antonio give you evidence?” Mia asked.
Dominic shook his head.
“Maybe he didn’t.”
The drive contained a single video.
Luca appeared on screen.
He looked terrified.
“If you’re watching this, I’m probably dead or arrested.”
Marco cursed softly.
Luca continued.
“I let the man through the kitchen because Antonio told me the man was federal security. I didn’t know about the cake.”
He held up photographs.
Antonio meeting the stranger.
Antonio paying him.
Then another photograph.
Antonio with Julian.
Recent.
Mia stopped breathing.
Julian.
Not three years ago.
Three weeks ago.
Luca continued.
“Julian came back because Antonio contacted him. Antonio told him Dominic had discovered everything and planned to kill Mia and Lily.”
Mia’s stomach twisted.
They had both been manipulated.
“Julian believed him?” Dominic asked the screen.
The video could not answer.
Luca continued.
“Antonio wants Julian’s evidence. Julian wants his family safe. Both think the other side is hunting them.”
Alvarez whispered, “Classic divide.”
Then Luca held up one final photograph.
The unknown man from the kitchen.
“He wasn’t hired to kill Ethan.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“What?”
“He was hired to create panic.”
Mia frowned.
“But the cake was contaminated.”
“Enough to make someone sick,” Alvarez said slowly. “Maybe Antonio expected a medical emergency, not death.”
Dominic’s voice hardened.
“Why?”
The video continued.
“Because Antonio needed Dominic to lock down the house. He needed every guard focused inward.”
Marco understood first.
“The party wasn’t the target.”
Luca nodded on screen as if answering him.
“The vault was.”
Dominic stared.
“What vault?”
Eleanor whispered behind them.
“Your father’s private archive.”
Dominic turned.
She had followed them from Connecticut.
“What archive?”
Eleanor looked exhausted.
“Your father kept records of everyone he ever paid.”
Alvarez’s expression sharpened.
“Judges?”
Eleanor nodded.
“Police?”
Another nod.
“Politicians?”
“Yes.”
Dominic swore.
If Antonio obtained those files, he could blackmail half the city.
“Where is the archive?”
Eleanor looked toward the floor.
“In this house.”
Dominic stared.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
She whispered:
“Behind Gabriel’s old bedroom.”
They ran upstairs.
The room had been untouched for years.
Dominic moved a bookcase.
Behind it was a steel door.
Open.
The archive was empty.
Except for one blue birthday ribbon lying on the floor.
Antonio had taken everything.
Alvarez immediately alerted federal authorities.
Dominic stood in the empty vault.
Years of his father’s secrets had vanished in one night.
Then Mia noticed something stuck beneath a shelf.
A greeting card.
Happy Birthday, Ethan.
Inside was another message.
Dominic read it.
YOU PROTECTED THE WRONG CHILD.
Mia’s blood chilled.
“What does that mean?”
Dominic looked at her.
He did not know.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Mia answered.
Silence.
“Hello?”
A man breathed on the other end.
Then Julian’s voice.
“Mia.”
Her knees weakened.
“Julian.”
Dominic turned.
Mia hit speaker.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t have much time.”
“Are you safe?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
Julian ignored the question.
“Listen to me. Antonio never wanted Ethan.”
Mia looked at Dominic.
“Then who?”
A pause.
Julian’s voice broke.
“Lily.”
Mia stopped breathing.
“Why?”
“Because she has something he needs.”
“She’s three!”
“I know.”
“What could she possibly have?”
Julian began crying.
The sound stunned Mia more than anything else.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I hid it with her.”
Mia’s blood turned cold.
“What did you hide?”
Before Julian answered, another voice spoke behind him.
Antonio Russo.
Calm.
Close.
May you like
“Tell her.”
Then the phone went dead.
