Chapter 4 - The Fourth Child
Dominic Moretti had been declared dead four years earlier.
His funeral had filled three city blocks.
Vincent had carried the casket with five other men.
Emily stared at the security image and understood immediately.
The coffin must have been empty.
Just like her children’s graves.
Vincent’s expression became unreadable.
“My uncle.”
Lorraine backed against the wall.
“He found us.”
“No,” Vincent said. “We found him.”
Emily looked toward the sleeping triplets.
“You can’t take them there.”
“I won’t.”
“And Sofia stays here.”
“Yes.”
Emily stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
She stared at Vincent.
“You really want to argue about this?”
“Yes.”
“He stole my children.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“He faked my babies’ deaths.”
“Probably.”
“He might have killed your sister.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“Exactly why you’re staying here.”
Emily folded her arms.
“I spent six years being told what was safer for me.”
“This isn’t the same.”
“It feels exactly the same.”
Vincent looked ready to refuse again.
Then Marco stirred and whispered, “Mama?”
Emily sat quickly.
“I’m here.”
He settled.
Vincent watched.
Something in his face changed.
“You stay in the vehicle until I say otherwise.”
Emily nodded.
“That’s a terrible compromise.”
“It’s the only one you’re getting.”
They left Lorraine at the clinic under guard.
Emily kissed the sleeping triplets.
Then she stopped beside Sofia.
Her half-sister.
Sofia’s tiny hand curled around a stuffed rabbit.
Emily touched her hair.
Vincent stood behind her.
“She doesn’t know.”
“She’s five.”
“She knows I’m her father.”
“You are.”
He looked at Emily.
“You mean that?”
“DNA isn’t the only thing that makes a parent.”
The words hurt because she meant them.
Elena had been the triplets’ mother too.
Emily could hate what happened without erasing the woman who had loved them.
They drove toward the river.
Dominic’s house stood beyond abandoned industrial buildings.
Vincent’s men surrounded the property.
Emily remained in the SUV.
For exactly ninety seconds.
Then she saw movement in an upstairs window.
Curtis.
He looked down.
Saw her.
And smiled.
Emily opened the door.
Vincent’s driver grabbed her arm.
“Ma’am—”
“He knows I’m here.”
“Mr. Moretti said—”
A shot shattered the SUV’s rear window.
Emily dropped.
The driver pulled her behind the engine block.
Vincent’s men rushed toward the house.
Another shot.
Then silence.
Emily’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
Dominic’s voice.
“You look like your mother.”
Emily stared at the upstairs window.
“You stole my children.”
“I preserved them.”
“You told me they were dead.”
“I did what was necessary.”
“Come outside.”
Dominic laughed.
“You are my daughter.”
“No.”
“Blood disagrees.”
“You don’t get to claim me.”
“I already did.”
Emily’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Why Elena?”
“Because she wanted children.”
“Did she know?”
“Eventually.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Did you kill her?”
A pause.
Dominic said, “Elena became sentimental.”
That was enough.
Vincent’s voice came through Emily’s other phone.
He had called on a secure line.
“Keep him talking.”
Emily looked toward the house.
“Why Sofia?”
Dominic went silent.
“She’s your daughter too, isn’t she?”
“Yes.”
“Who is her mother?”
“That is irrelevant.”
“It isn’t to her.”
“She was a mistake.”
Emily felt rage unlike anything she had known.
“A child is not a mistake.”
“Spoken like a woman who spent years mourning children who were never dead.”
Emily heard movement through the line.
Vincent’s men.
Closer.
“Why steal my babies?”
Dominic sighed.
“Because Anthony was weak. Elena was desperate. And you were nobody.”
Emily almost laughed.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The truth.”
“You think this is about cruelty.”
“What was it about?”
“Legacy.”
Emily’s stomach turned.
Dominic explained without shame.
The Moretti family had been fracturing.
Anthony and Elena had no heirs.
Vincent had refused to marry.
Dominic feared control of the family would eventually pass outside the bloodline.
Then he discovered Emily was carrying triplets.
His grandchildren.
Moretti blood.
He saw opportunity.
“I gave them a family,” Dominic said.
“You stole their mother.”
“You were a waitress with a husband who had already left you.”
Emily flinched.
Her ex-husband, Aaron Mitchell, disappeared during the pregnancy.
She had assumed he was frightened.
Dominic continued.
“You had no money. No stability.”
“So you decided I didn’t deserve them.”
“I decided they deserved better.”
Emily’s voice went quiet.
“You sound exactly like every monster who thinks money makes him God.”
Silence.
Then Dominic said, “Your mother understood reality.”
“My mother was terrified of you.”
“She was paid.”
Emily froze.
“No.”
“Ask her.”
“Liar.”
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
Emily’s chest tightened.
“She said she took nothing.”
“Then perhaps she lied again.”
The line disconnected.
Vincent’s voice came through the secure phone.
“Emily, move away from the house.”
Too late.
A side door opened.
Curtis stumbled out.
His hands were tied.
Blood ran from his forehead.
“Help!”
Emily stared.
The driver raised his weapon.
Curtis fell to his knees.
“Emily!”
“Where’s Dominic?”
“He’s leaving through the river tunnel.”
Vincent’s voice crackled.
“Tunnel?”
Curtis nodded frantically.
“Basement!”
Vincent’s men moved.
Emily stepped toward Curtis.
“What did you do?”
His face twisted.
“I didn’t know at first.”
“About my babies?”
“I knew after.”
“When?”
“The night they were born.”
Emily’s heart broke all over again.
“You stood beside my hospital bed.”
“I was scared.”
“You helped them.”
“Dominic said he’d kill me.”
“You carried messages for him for six years.”
Curtis cried.
“I had debts.”
“So did Dr. Pike.”
“I’m sorry.”
Emily looked at him.
“No, you’re afraid.”
A sound came from the house.
Someone shouted.
Then Vincent emerged dragging Dr. Pike by the collar.
The doctor looked older.
Thinner.
But Emily recognized him instantly.
He saw her.
His face collapsed.
“Emily.”
She walked toward him.
“You told me they died.”
Pike looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying that.”
He swallowed.
“Dominic paid me.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
Her stomach twisted.
“Was I supposed to die?”
Pike looked at Dominic’s house.
Emily repeated the question.
“Was I supposed to die?”
“No.”
“Truth.”
Pike closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Vincent went still.
Emily felt suddenly cold.
“Why?”
“Because you woke up.”
“I woke up from surgery.”
“You heard Dominic.”
“So?”
“He thought you recognized his voice.”
“He was my biological father.”
“You didn’t know that.”
“But he knew.”
Pike nodded.
“He told me a dead mother created fewer problems.”
Emily looked at Vincent.
His face had become terrifyingly calm.
Pike rushed to add, “I refused.”
“You stole three newborns but murder offended you?”
Pike flinched.
“I stopped the medication he ordered.”
Emily remembered the nurse who had stayed beside her all night.
A woman named Ruth.
The nurse had insisted Emily’s IV be changed.
“Who helped you?”
Pike looked surprised.
“Nurse Ruth Campbell.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“She saved me?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
A bodyguard ran from the house.
“Vincent!”
Everyone turned.
“The tunnel leads to the old boat dock.”
Vincent moved.
Emily followed.
They reached the river as an engine roared.
A black speedboat pulled away from the dock.
Dominic stood at the rear.
Alive.
Gray-haired.
Older but unmistakable.
He looked directly at Emily.
Then he lifted something.
A photograph.
He tore it in half and dropped it into the river.
Vincent raised a weapon.
Emily grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
“He killed Elena.”
“I know.”
“He tried to kill you.”
“I know.”
“Then move.”
“No.”
Vincent looked at her.
“If you shoot him now, he becomes a dead man with secrets.”
She stared at Dominic’s retreating boat.
“I want every secret.”
Vincent lowered the weapon.
Police sirens approached in the distance.
Not ordinary local police.
State investigators Vincent trusted enough to call.
Curtis and Pike were taken into custody.
Emily rode back to the clinic near dawn.
Lorraine was gone.
The guard who had watched her had been found unconscious in the stairwell.
Emily’s phone contained one message from her mother.
I’m sorry. There’s something I have to fix before I can face you again.
Vincent read it.
“Do you know where she went?”
Emily shook her head.
Then she noticed an attachment.
A photograph.
An old bank receipt.
$50,000.
Dominic Moretti to Lorraine Reed.
Emily’s chest tightened.
Vincent said nothing.
The doctor entered.
“The children are awake.”
Emily went to them.
Marco ran into her arms.
Isabella followed.
Luca cried until she lifted him.
Sofia stood nearby holding her rabbit.
Emily crouched.
“Hi, sweetheart.”
Sofia looked worried.
“Uncle Vin said you’re my sister.”
Emily glanced at Vincent.
He shrugged.
“She asked.”
Emily smiled through tears.
“I guess I am.”
Sofia studied her.
“Can sisters hug?”
Emily opened her arms.
Sofia stepped into them.
For a moment, four children surrounded her.
Three hers.
One her sister.
All harmed by the same man.
Emily looked over Sofia’s shoulder at Vincent.
“We end this.”
He nodded.
“How?”
“Not with bullets.”
He waited.
“With proof.”
Curtis knew part.
Pike knew part.
Elena’s recording knew part.
Lorraine knew more.
But Dominic had spent decades building walls between pieces of truth.
Emily intended to tear them down.
Vincent received a call.
His bodyguard listened first.
Then handed him the phone.
Vincent’s expression hardened.
“What?”
He ended the call.
Emily stood.
“What happened?”
“They found Lorraine’s car.”
“Where?”
“Near the old Moretti cemetery.”
Emily grabbed her coat.
Vincent stopped her.
“There was blood inside.”
Emily’s face went numb.
“Was she there?”
“No.”
“Then where is she?”
Vincent looked at the photograph attached to the police message.
Lorraine’s car door stood open.
On the driver’s seat lay a black onyx ring with a gold eagle.
Beneath it was a handwritten note.
May you like
BRING EMILY TO HER FATHER.
ALONE.
