Chapter 4 - The Road to My Mother
I grabbed Marco's phone.
“When was this taken?”
“Timestamp says six minutes ago.”
“Call the hospital.”
Dominic was already dialing.
He put the call on speaker.
Security checked Mom's room.
Empty except for her.
No visitor.
No sign anyone had harmed her.
I wanted to turn the SUV into a weapon and drive through every wall between me and my mother.
Dominic stopped me.
“We go carefully.”
“Carefully?”
“That's what keeps her alive.”
I hated him for being right.
We changed vehicles.
Marco sent two men ahead.
Dominic refused to leave Lucy or me.
The remaining drive felt endless.
Daniel's rabbit sat between us like a bomb.
I kept staring at it.
My dead husband's voice had come from inside that toy.
“Trust the numbers, not the names.”
What numbers?
The partial plate?
714?
Invoices?
Accounts?
Dominic thought Daniel had hidden financial evidence.
But Daniel had been an accountant.
Numbers were his language.
Names could lie.
Numbers didn't.
We reached the hospital shortly after sunset.
Security was waiting.
Mom's room was safe.
I entered with Lucy.
Mom looked smaller than she had a month earlier.
Lucy ran toward her.
“Grandma!”
Mom smiled.
There are smiles that hurt more than crying.
That was one.
“My baby.”
Lucy climbed carefully beside her.
For twenty minutes, the world narrowed to three generations of Bennett women.
Mom stroked Lucy's hair.
Lucy told her about Dominic's terrible ponytail.
Mom laughed weakly.
Dominic waited outside.
Eventually Mom looked toward the door.
“That's him?”
“Yes.”
“The boyfriend?”
I nearly choked.
“Lucy talks too much.”
Mom smiled.
“She's a Bennett.”
“She asked him to be my boyfriend in front of half the staff.”
“And?”
“And nothing.”
Mom studied me.
“You're blushing.”
“I am not.”
“You always turn pink near your ears.”
Cancer had apparently not damaged her ability to embarrass me.
I changed the subject.
“Mom, I need to ask about Daniel.”
Her smile faded.
“What?”
“Before he died, did he give you anything?”
She looked toward Lucy.
“Why?”
“Please.”
Mom hesitated.
Then nodded.
“A key.”
My heart accelerated.
“What key?”
“I don't know.”
“Where is it?”
“Safe-deposit box.”
“What bank?”
She whispered the name.
Dominic entered when I called him.
Mom watched him carefully.
“You're the man keeping my girls safe.”
“I'm trying.”
“Try harder.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
I almost smiled.
Mom told him about the key.
Daniel had visited her three days before his death.
He said if anything happened, she should keep it until I asked the right question.
“What question?” Dominic asked.
“He didn't say.”
“Did he mention Creston Freight?”
Mom's eyes widened.
“Yes.”
I leaned forward.
“What?”
“He said he'd found something that could destroy men who believed they were untouchable.”
Dominic became still.
“Did he mention my family?”
“No.”
“Raymond Voss?”
“No.”
Then Mom remembered something.
“He said there were two books.”
“Books?”
“One told the truth. One told what they wanted people to believe.”
Accounting ledgers.
Dominic understood too.
“Double books.”
Mom nodded.
“He said he copied the real one.”
Bunny.
Maybe.
The hospital lights flickered.
Dominic looked toward the hallway.
Once.
Twice.
Then darkness.
Emergency lights came on.
“Stay here.”
He stepped outside.
Marco appeared.
“Power issue.”
“In one wing?”
“Looks like it.”
Dominic didn't believe him.
Neither did I.
Lucy hugged Mom.
I heard footsteps.
Fast.
A nurse passed.
Then another figure.
Dark jacket.
Brown hair.
Silver watch.
My blood froze.
“Dominic.”
He turned.
The man disappeared around the corner.
Dominic followed.
Marco went the opposite direction.
I locked Mom's door.
Lucy whispered, “Watching man.”
“I know.”
For the first time, I believed every picture she had drawn.
A minute later, lights returned.
Dominic came back furious.
“He's gone.”
“How?”
“Service stairs.”
Mom looked frightened.
I hated that.
She was dying.
She deserved peace.
Instead, Daniel's ghosts had found her hospital room.
I took Dominic aside.
“We end this.”
“Yes.”
“Open Bunny.”
He looked at me.
“Tonight.”
“Elena—”
“They already know we have it.”
He knew I was right.
After Mom fell asleep, Dominic arranged a private room elsewhere in the hospital.
Marco brought tools.
Lucy sat beside me.
I explained that Bunny needed a tiny operation.
She looked suspicious.
“Will it hurt?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Dominic carefully cut the hidden seam.
Inside was ordinary stuffing.
Then his fingers found plastic.
He removed a tiny voice recorder.
That explained Daniel's message.
Then another object emerged.
A memory card sealed inside clear plastic.
Marco whistled.
“That could be it.”
Dominic connected it to an isolated laptop.
Folders appeared.
Invoices.
Shipping manifests.
Account numbers.
Photographs.
Names.
Hundreds.
Daniel had documented years of criminal transactions at Creston Freight.
Some involved Moretti companies.
Dominic's face hardened.
“My father.”
“What?”
“He was being robbed too.”
Daniel hadn't been exposing Dominic's family.
He had discovered people stealing through companies connected to them.
Raymond Voss was among the names.
But there was another name repeated beside his.
Thomas Vale.
“Who is that?”
Dominic looked troubled.
“My father's attorney.”
“Former attorney?”
“No.”
I stared.
“He works for you?”
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
Thomas Vale had been inside Dominic's mansion.
I had served him coffee.
He had smiled at Lucy once.
Silver hair.
Expensive suits.
No silver watch.
“Could he be behind this?”
“I don't know.”
Dominic opened another folder.
Daniel had organized it by dates.
The final date was the day before his death.
A scanned note appeared.
IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME, VOSS IS ONLY THE HAND.
THE MAN PAYING HIM IS INSIDE.
My pulse hammered.
“Inside what?”
“Could mean Creston.”
“Could mean your organization.”
Dominic nodded.
Then the screen changed.
A file began deleting itself.
Marco swore.
“Disconnect it!”
He pulled the card.
Too late.
Several folders vanished.
“Remote trigger?”
“Impossible. We're offline.”
“Then timer.”
Daniel had protected the evidence.
Or someone else had.
Marco recovered part of it.
One final image remained.
A photograph of a handwritten ledger.
Numbers.
Dates.
Initials.
D.M.
I looked at Dominic.
His face became unreadable.
“D.M.?”
“Yes.”
“Dominic Moretti?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because on those dates I was in Italy.”
“Then who?”
He zoomed in.
Another notation appeared.
D.M. / SECOND ACCOUNT.
Dominic stared at it.
“Daniel was trying to separate two people using the same initials.”
A nurse knocked.
“Ms. Bennett?”
I opened the door slightly.
“Your mother is asking for you.”
I returned to Mom.
She was awake.
“Elena.”
“I’m here.”
She squeezed my hand.
“Daniel told me something else.”
“What?”
“I forgot until now.”
Her breathing became shallow.
“He said if you ever met a Moretti, ask about the photograph from St. Christopher's.”
Dominic, standing behind me, went pale.
“What photograph?”
Mom looked at him.
“You know.”
Dominic didn't answer.
“Dominic?”
He walked out.
I followed.
“What is St. Christopher's?”
He stopped.
“A church.”
“And the photograph?”
“My father kept it locked in his office.”
“Of what?”
“I never knew.”
His phone rang.
Marco.
Dominic answered.
“What?”
Marco spoke rapidly.
Dominic's eyes moved toward me.
“What happened?”
He ended the call.
“The mansion was breached.”
My heart stopped.
“Bunny?”
“Decoy is still there.”
“What did they take?”
Dominic looked toward the laptop containing Daniel's files.
“Nothing.”
“Then why break in?”
His phone buzzed.
A photograph arrived.
An old framed picture.
A group of men outside a church.
One was Dominic's father.
One was Raymond Voss.
One was Thomas Vale.
And standing between them was a man I recognized immediately.
My husband.
Daniel Bennett.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written four words.
ELENA MUST NEVER KNOW.
Then my mother's hospital door slowly opened behind us.
A man's voice said my name.
“Elena?”
May you like
I turned.
Thomas Vale was standing there.
