Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Grace did not bring Samuel.
She brought an empty infant carrier.
Victor drove.
Three vehicles followed.
Nobody spoke.
The address led to an abandoned Catholic school in Yonkers.
Grace’s pulse hammered.
“Stay in the car,” Victor said.
“No.”
“This is not Midtown. Stepping between people will get you killed here.”
“Dominic stepped into that car because he trusted Julian.”
“That is what we assume.”
“You don’t?”
“I assume nothing.”
Victor entered first.
The building was empty.
No Dominic.
No Julian.
No Matteo.
Only a phone sitting on a desk in the old principal’s office.
It rang.
Grace answered.
“Where is the child?”
Male voice.
Calm.
Not Dominic.
“Where is Dominic?”
“Safe.”
“I want proof.”
A pause.
Then Dominic’s voice came through.
“Grace, leave.”
She closed her eyes.
He was alive.
“Are you hurt?”
“Leave.”
The line switched.
The stranger returned.
“Samuel for Dominic.”
“No.”
Victor looked at her sharply.
The voice said, “Then he dies.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
Grace had no plan.
But she remembered something Dominic once said.
Change the board.
“You need Samuel alive.”
Silence.
“If you didn’t, you would have taken him already.”
Still silence.
“You need something from him.”
The man laughed softly.
Dominic had laughed that way the first time Grace surprised him.
The resemblance made her blood cold.
“Interesting,” the voice said.
“Matteo?”
Victor’s face changed.
The caller hung up.
A door slammed somewhere downstairs.
Victor’s men moved.
They found Julian in the basement.
Alive.
Bound to a chair.
Dominic was gone.
Grace crouched beside Julian.
“Who took him?”
Julian coughed.
“Matteo.”
“Why?”
“He thinks Dominic killed Eva.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Nothing about this family makes sense.”
Back at the mansion, Julian explained.
Fourteen years earlier Matteo had discovered documents suggesting Dominic had approved a payment to the doctor who covered Eva’s murder.
Dominic denied ever seeing such documents.
Somebody had forged his authorization.
Matteo believed Dominic had betrayed him.
He disappeared.
Let the family believe he died.
Built a life elsewhere.
Years later, he met Elena.
Then Samuel was born.
“Why come back now?” Grace asked.
Julian looked exhausted.
“Because Elias Martin found the original records.”
“The doctor?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“Nobody knows.”
Dominic returned at dawn.
Alone.
Bruised.
Furious.
Grace met him in the foyer.
“You escaped?”
“Matteo let me go.”
“Why?”
“To deliver a message.”
He handed Victor an envelope.
Inside was an old photograph.
Eva Valenti.
Two teenage boys.
Dominic.
Matteo.
A third man stood behind them.
Grace recognized him.
“Anthony’s father.”
Dominic nodded.
Carlo Valenti.
His uncle.
Dead six years.
On the photograph’s back someone had written:
ONE BROTHER LIED.
ONE BROTHER RAN.
THE SON PAID FOR BOTH.
Grace looked at Dominic.
“What does it mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Then the mansion alarm sounded.
Victor checked his phone.
“East gate.”
A car had arrived.
No plates.
Driver door open.
Nobody inside.
In the back seat lay a wooden box.
Dominic opened it.
Grace expected a weapon.
Instead there were files.
Hundreds of pages.
Bank records.
Property transfers.
Medical documents.
Photographs.
Dominic lifted one sheet.
His mother’s death certificate.
The signature belonged to Elias Martin.
But beneath it was another authorization.
Carlo Valenti.
Dominic’s uncle.
“So Carlo killed her?” Grace asked.
“No.”
Dominic turned the page.
A payment record carried Carlo’s account number.
Recipient:
DR. ELIAS MARTIN.
Julian read over his shoulder.
“That proves enough.”
“Too easy,” Grace said.
They looked at her.
“If someone hid this for twenty-six years, why leave it at your gate now?”
Dominic slowly nodded.
“Because they want us to believe it.”
Grace examined the box.
Then she noticed something underneath the papers.
A small cassette tape.
Sofia found an old player.
They gathered in Dominic’s study.
He inserted the tape.
Static.
Then a woman’s voice.
Eva.
Dominic stopped breathing.
“If you are hearing this, then I failed.”
Sofia began crying silently.
Eva continued.
“The danger is not Carlo.”
Dominic looked at Grace.
“Carlo is frightened. He is weak. But he is not the one controlling this.”
Static swallowed several words.
Then:
“…inside our home.”
Dominic leaned closer.
Eva’s voice returned.
“The person who betrays us will be the one my sons trust most.”
The tape clicked off.
Nobody moved.
Victor.
Julian.
Sofia.
Anthony.
Every person in the house became a question.
Dominic turned slowly.
“Lock the estate.”
Victor reached for his radio.
Nothing happened.
He frowned.
“Signal’s dead.”
The lights went out.
Samuel began crying upstairs.
Grace ran.
Dominic followed.
They reached the nursery.
The crib was empty.
Grace screamed.
“SAMUEL!”
The window stood open.
A white curtain moved in the cold air.
On the floor lay a familiar silver bracelet.
Dominic picked it up.
This one carried one set of initials.
M.V.
Matteo Valenti.
Then Grace heard something behind them.
A hidden door in the nursery wall clicked open.
Someone was standing inside.
May you like
And Sofia whispered:
“Oh, God.”
