Chapter 5 - A Knife, a Name, and a Locked Room
Emily read the note three times.
Vincent tore it in half.
“You’re not going alone.”
“He has my mother.”
“He wants you.”
“That’s why I’m going.”
“That’s why you’re not.”
Emily faced him.
“Do you think I’m still the woman who woke up in that hospital bed?”
“No.”
“Then stop treating me like her.”
Vincent looked at the sleeping children.
“I’m trying to make sure they don’t lose you twice.”
That silenced her.
Not because he was right.
Because he was afraid.
She could see it.
The feared Vincent Moretti was afraid for her.
Emily softened.
“I’m afraid too.”
“Good.”
“That wasn’t agreement.”
“I know.”
They created a plan.
Emily would appear alone.
Vincent’s men would remain outside the cemetery property.
A tracking device went inside her shoe.
Another beneath her coat collar.
Police waited two miles away.
Vincent hated every part of it.
Emily hated that she needed him to do it safely.
At noon, she entered the old Moretti cemetery.
Dominic sat inside the family mausoleum.
Lorraine was tied to a chair.
Alive.
Emily exhaled.
“Mom.”
Lorraine cried.
“I’m sorry.”
Dominic stood.
He looked exactly like the old photographs.
Emily could see pieces of her own face in his.
That angered her more than anything.
“You came.”
“Let her go.”
“After we talk.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“There is everything.”
Dominic gestured to the stone walls.
Names covered them.
Generations of Morettis.
“You belong here.”
Emily looked at the graves.
“No.”
“You are my eldest child.”
“Sofia is your child too.”
His mouth tightened.
“Sofia complicates matters.”
“She’s five.”
“She has no place in this.”
Emily almost smiled.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“You built your entire life around blood. Now your own daughter has no place because she’s inconvenient.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You misunderstand power.”
“No. I understand it perfectly.”
Emily stepped closer.
“Power is what scared people call control.”
Lorraine whispered, “Emily, don’t.”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“She has your stubbornness.”
“She has nothing from you,” Lorraine said.
Dominic’s smile disappeared.
Emily looked at her mother.
“The money.”
Lorraine closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“You took it.”
“Yes.”
Emily felt the pain even though she expected it.
“Why?”
“To run.”
“What?”
Lorraine looked at Dominic.
“He paid me fifty thousand to disappear after your birth.”
Dominic said, “She stayed.”
Lorraine continued.
“I used the money to create Samuel Reed. Documents. Records. A life you could believe.”
Emily frowned.
“You spent it hiding me?”
“Yes.”
“Not on yourself?”
“No.”
Dominic laughed.
“Do not romanticize her.”
Lorraine looked at Emily.
“When you became pregnant, I thought enough time had passed. Then Dominic called me.”
Emily’s stomach twisted.
“He knew.”
“He always knew.”
Dominic stepped toward Emily.
“I watched from a distance.”
“That isn’t fatherhood.”
“I protected you.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“A decision made in anger.”
Emily stared at him.
“That might be the most insane sentence anyone has ever said to me.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“You heard something you shouldn’t have.”
“What?”
He looked toward Lorraine.
Lorraine whispered, “The ledger.”
Emily remembered the red folder stolen from the hospital.
“Project Four?”
Dominic smiled.
Now she understood.
It was not about a fourth baby.
Not originally.
Project Four was something else.
“What was it?”
Dominic walked to a stone altar.
He opened a hidden drawer.
Inside sat a red folder.
“The Moretti family survived because politicians, businessmen, and criminals all needed each other.”
Emily said nothing.
“Project Four was insurance.”
“Evidence?”
“Names. Payments. Accounts.”
Vincent’s family empire was not built solely on fear.
It was built on leverage.
Dominic had compiled decades of corruption.
Emily said, “Why was my name in the hospital file?”
“Because the night you delivered, I was carrying the ledger. You woke during an argument. You heard names.”
“I was drugged.”
“You repeated one name afterward.”
“Which?”
Dominic smiled.
“Senator Halbrook.”
Emily vaguely recognized it.
A powerful state politician.
Currently running for governor.
Vincent had never mentioned him.
Dominic continued.
“I could not risk you remembering.”
“So you took my babies to control me?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Dominic looked almost offended.
“They were mine.”
Emily’s skin crawled.
“They were never yours.”
“Blood—”
“Stop saying blood.”
Her voice echoed through the mausoleum.
“You didn’t love them. You collected them.”
Dominic’s face changed.
Emily knew she had hit something true.
Lorraine whispered, “He collected people too.”
Emily looked at her.
“What?”
“Curtis. Pike. Others. Debt. Fear. Secrets. That’s how he controlled everyone.”
Dominic stepped toward Lorraine.
Emily moved between them.
“Touch her and we’re done.”
He laughed.
“You think you’re negotiating?”
“Yes.”
“With what?”
Emily lifted her chin.
“Me.”
Dominic paused.
“You want me here. That means I have value.”
He studied her.
Emily continued.
“You could have killed Mom. You didn’t. You could have killed Curtis. You didn’t. You needed them until they stopped being useful.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“So?”
“So tell me what you actually want.”
He smiled.
“Vincent.”
Emily understood.
“You want Vincent.”
“He ruined everything after Elena died.”
“He thought you were dead.”
“And yet he dismantled half my network.”
“So this is revenge.”
“This is succession.”
Emily frowned.
Dominic wanted Vincent removed.
Then he wanted Emily publicly recognized as his daughter.
Why?
Because Vincent controlled the legitimate Moretti businesses.
Emily, as Dominic’s biological daughter, could be used to challenge certain family trusts.
“You need my signature.”
Dominic nodded.
“Now you understand.”
“You stole my babies because you thought someday I might be useful?”
“I placed them inside the family. I preserved your connection.”
Emily felt sick.
Every tragedy in her life had been a chess move to him.
She reached for the papers he offered.
“Let Mom go first.”
“Sign first.”
Emily looked at Lorraine.
Her mother shook her head.
“Don’t.”
Emily took the pen.
Dominic smiled.
Then Emily snapped it in half.
“No.”
His face darkened.
“You came here alone.”
“No, I came here angry.”
Dominic reached inside his coat.
Emily saw the same motion Curtis had made in the diner.
A knife.
Her body went cold.
Dominic held the blade against Lorraine’s neck.
“Sign.”
Emily’s tracking signal would have brought Vincent close.
But where was he?
She glanced at the door.
Dominic noticed.
“You think Vincent followed?”
Emily said nothing.
Dominic laughed.
“This mausoleum blocks radio frequencies.”
Her stomach dropped.
He had planned for it.
“Sign.”
Lorraine whispered, “Don’t.”
Dominic pressed the blade closer.
A red line appeared on Lorraine’s skin.
Emily grabbed the documents.
“Fine.”
She signed the first page.
Dominic relaxed slightly.
“Second.”
Emily signed.
“Third.”
She reached for it.
Then the mausoleum door slammed open.
Dominic spun.
Not Vincent.
Curtis.
Emily stared.
Curtis stood in the doorway wearing a police evidence jumpsuit.
“How did you—”
Curtis ran at Dominic.
The knife fell.
Lorraine screamed.
Emily dragged her mother away.
Dominic struck Curtis.
Curtis fell.
Then Vincent appeared.
Two bodyguards behind him.
Dominic froze.
Vincent’s voice was quiet.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Dominic backed toward the altar.
“You won’t shoot me in front of her.”
Vincent glanced at Emily.
“You’re right.”
Police flooded the doorway.
Dominic looked stunned.
Emily held up her coat collar.
“You blocked the tracker.”
She tapped her shoe.
“You missed the second one.”
Dominic’s face twisted.
For the first time, he looked old.
Police cuffed him.
Lorraine collapsed into Emily’s arms.
Curtis lay on the floor bleeding from his mouth.
Emily crouched beside him.
“Why?”
He laughed weakly.
“I’ve been asking myself that for six years.”
“You escaped custody.”
“I asked to make a deal.”
Vincent said, “He led us to the cemetery.”
Emily looked at Curtis.
“You still helped steal my children.”
“I know.”
“I can’t forgive that.”
“I know.”
“But you saved my mother.”
Curtis closed his eyes.
“Maybe I wanted to do one thing that wasn’t cowardly.”
Paramedics took him away.
Dominic was escorted outside.
As he passed Emily, he smiled.
“You think this ends with me?”
Emily stared.
“It ends with you telling the truth.”
“I’ll never talk.”
“You won’t need to.”
She held up the red folder.
Dominic’s expression changed.
During the struggle, Lorraine had taken it from the altar.
Inside were names.
Payments.
Dates.
Including Senator Halbrook.
Vincent opened the folder.
His face became grave.
“This is bigger than Dominic.”
Emily looked toward the cemetery gates.
News helicopters were already gathering.
Someone had leaked the arrest.
Dominic smiled from the police vehicle.
“Exactly.”
Emily turned pages.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Warren Pike.
Another.
Curtis Bell.
Another made her stop.
LORRAINE REED.
Her mother saw it.
“Emily.”
There were payments dated long after Emily’s birth.
Long after the triplets disappeared.
Every year.
Ten thousand dollars.
Emily turned toward Lorraine.
“You said you took money once.”
Lorraine looked devastated.
“I can explain.”
“How many lies are left?”
“Emily—”
Vincent suddenly took the folder from her.
His eyes locked on the final page.
“What?”
He did not answer.
“Vincent.”
His face had gone pale.
Emily grabbed the page.
A payment record.
One million dollars.
Recipient:
ELENA MORETTI.
Date:
Three days before her fatal car crash.
Emily stared at Vincent.
“She took money from Dominic.”
Vincent shook his head.
“No.”
“It’s here.”
“No.”
“What was the payment for?”
Vincent turned the page.
Attached was a signed receipt.
Elena’s signature.
Beside it were four handwritten words.
FINAL PAYMENT—TRANSFER OF CHILDREN.
Emily’s heart stopped.
Elena had planned to transfer the triplets.
But to whom?
Below the signature was a destination.
Emily read the name.
Then she looked at Vincent.
May you like
The children had been scheduled to disappear again.
And the person who was supposed to receive them was sitting inside the diner where everything had begun.
