Chapter 3 - Dominic’s Final Secret
Noah stared at Vincent for a long time.
Not frightened.
Not excited.
Just thinking.
Vincent stayed crouched in front of him, as if standing would make the moment too large.
“You really didn’t know?” Noah asked.
“No.”
“My mom never told you?”
Vincent glanced at Evelyn.
“She had reasons.”
Noah looked at her.
“You said my dad was gone.”
Evelyn’s throat tightened.
“I said he wasn’t part of our life.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
“Were you lying?”
Evelyn knelt beside him.
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
“From him?”
“No.”
She looked at Vincent.
“From people around him.”
Vincent absorbed that quietly.
Noah turned back to him.
“So you’re dangerous, but you’re not dangerous to me.”
Vincent nodded.
“That’s right.”
“That’s confusing.”
“It is.”
Noah considered this.
“Do I have to call you Dad?”
Vincent’s expression changed.
“No.”
“Good.”
A faint smile touched Noah’s face.
“I don’t know you yet.”
Vincent swallowed.
“That’s fair.”
Marco Bellini stood near the door, looking like a man waiting for judgment.
Vincent rose.
“You have ten minutes to tell me everything.”
Marco nodded.
“Dominic suspected Alessandro years before Evelyn disappeared.”
“Suspected him of what?”
“Building his own network inside the family.”
Luca folded his arms.
“That isn’t news.”
“It wasn’t just influence.”
Marco looked directly at Vincent.
“Alessandro was selling information.”
The room went silent.
Vincent’s face hardened.
“To who?”
“Caruso. Duca. Federal contacts. Anyone who paid enough.”
Luca cursed under his breath.
Vincent walked toward Marco.
“My grandfather knew?”
“He knew someone was leaking information. He didn’t know it was Alessandro until much later.”
“And Evelyn?”
Marco looked ashamed.
“She became collateral.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed.
“Collateral?”
Marco immediately corrected himself.
“That was badly phrased.”
“You think?”
Marco lowered his head.
“Alessandro discovered you were pregnant.”
“How?”
“A doctor’s office employee had gambling debts. Alessandro paid them.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
Evelyn looked disgusted.
“So he knew about Noah before Vincent did.”
“Yes.”
“And decided I had to disappear.”
“Yes.”
Noah was still in the room.
Evelyn turned.
“Luca, please.”
Luca understood.
“Come on, kid.”
Noah shook his head.
“I want to stay.”
“Noah.”
“I’m not a baby.”
“I know.”
“Then stop making everyone hide stuff from me.”
That hit harder than Evelyn expected.
Vincent watched her carefully.
She finally sighed.
“Fine. But if I tell you to leave, you leave.”
“Okay.”
Marco opened the leather case he had brought.
Inside were folders, photographs and copies of old financial documents.
He placed one file on the table.
“This is the first forged order.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
Her breath caught.
She recognized it immediately.
Same letterhead.
Same signature.
Same sentence that had destroyed her life.
Evelyn Carter is to be removed immediately. No contact. No witnesses.
Vincent picked it up.
“That isn’t my signature.”
Evelyn stared.
“It looks exactly like it.”
“Exactly.”
Vincent studied the page.
“I stopped signing security directives by hand eight years ago.”
Marco nodded.
“That was the flaw Dominic found.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“When?”
“Two years after you disappeared.”
“Two years?”
“Yes.”
She laughed bitterly.
“So everyone finally discovered I was telling the truth after I had already spent two years hiding?”
Marco did not defend himself.
Vincent asked, “Why didn’t Dominic tell me?”
“Because by then Alessandro knew Noah existed.”
Vincent’s expression froze.
Marco continued.
“Dominic believed that if you learned Evelyn was alive, you would find her.”
“He was right.”
“And Alessandro would follow.”
Vincent stared at him.
“So my grandfather decided ignorance was protection.”
“Yes.”
“Protection for who?”
“Evelyn. Noah. And, in his mind, you.”
Vincent suddenly swept the file off the table.
Papers scattered across the floor.
Noah flinched.
Vincent immediately stopped.
He looked at the boy.
“Sorry.”
Noah nodded, but his eyes stayed on him.
Vincent took one breath and stepped back.
“Dominic stole seven years from me.”
Marco answered carefully.
“He believed he was saving your son.”
“He could have told me.”
“He didn’t trust what you would do.”
Vincent laughed without humor.
“My own grandfather didn’t trust me?”
“He trusted you completely.”
“That makes no sense.”
“He didn’t trust what love would make you do.”
That silenced him.
Evelyn understood before Vincent did.
“Dominic knew Vincent would start a war.”
Marco nodded.
“He said exactly that.”
Vincent looked toward her.
“If I had known someone tried to kill you while you were carrying my child…”
“Yes,” Marco said. “You would have burned New York down.”
Vincent didn’t deny it.
Noah spoke quietly.
“That sounds bad.”
Everyone looked at him.
Vincent gave a short nod.
“It would have been.”
Noah pointed at the brass key on the table.
“What does that open?”
Marco’s face changed.
“The deposit box.”
Vincent picked up the key.
“You know where?”
“Yes.”
“Then we go now.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
Vincent stared at her.
“What now?”
“You think we’re walking into a bank while Alessandro knows we have the key?”
“It’s a private Moretti institution.”
“Exactly.”
Luca nodded.
“She’s right.”
Vincent looked at him.
Luca shrugged.
“You want honesty.”
Vincent turned back to Marco.
“Who controls security at Moretti Trust?”
Marco hesitated.
Vincent’s expression darkened.
“Marco.”
“Alessandro installed the current security director.”
Evelyn spread her hands.
“There you go.”
Vincent paced once across the room.
“Then Dominic wouldn’t have left us a key to a box Alessandro could simply open.”
Marco frowned.
“The boxes require two-part verification.”
“What’s the second part?”
“I don’t know.”
Evelyn unfolded Dominic’s letter again.
She examined it line by line.
“There’s nothing here.”
Vincent took the photograph.
He flipped it over.
Alessandro lied to both.
Nothing else.
Noah walked toward him.
“Can I see?”
Vincent handed him the photograph.
Noah examined it.
“That’s me?”
“Yes,” Evelyn said.
“You look tired.”
“I was.”
Noah turned the photograph toward the window.
Then frowned.
“There’s writing.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“That’s what we already read.”
“No. On the front.”
Vincent took the photograph.
At first he saw nothing.
Then he tilted it toward the light.
Faint numbers had been written in the lower corner with nearly invisible ink.
Marco’s eyes widened.
“Dominic.”
Vincent read the sequence.
“10-14-46.”
Evelyn frowned.
“A date?”
Luca shook his head.
“Dominic was born in 1944.”
Marco looked toward the cathedral.
“Not a date.”
“What?”
“St. Michael’s.”
Marco pointed through the wall toward the church.
“Dominic funded the restoration twelve years ago.”
Vincent looked at him.
“So?”
“The pews.”
Marco’s voice lowered.
“They’re numbered by section.”
Evelyn understood.
“Ten. Fourteen. Forty-six.”
They returned to the cathedral while the funeral reception was beginning in the adjoining hall.
Most mourners were occupied.
Vincent, Evelyn, Noah, Luca and Marco moved toward the eastern transept.
Pew ten.
Seat fourteen.
There was nothing.
Vincent crouched.
He ran his hand beneath the wooden bench.
His fingers stopped.
A small metal plate had been attached underneath.
Engraved into it was the number:
46
Luca pulled out a pocketknife.
“Allow me.”
He loosened the screws.
Behind the plate sat a tiny compartment.
Inside was a folded strip of paper.
Vincent opened it.
One sentence.
The ledger is not money. The ledger is names. Trust no blood but the boy’s.
Vincent stared at the words.
Evelyn went cold.
“What does that mean?”
Marco whispered, “Dominic was afraid of everyone.”
Vincent looked at Noah.
“Trust no blood but the boy’s.”
Noah frowned.
“Why me?”
Nobody answered.
Then a voice came from behind them.
“Because Dominic always did enjoy theatrics.”
Vincent turned.
Alessandro Moretti stood at the end of the aisle.
Three men behind him.
Perfect black suit.
Silver hair.
Calm smile.
Evelyn’s body went rigid.
She had seen that face only once before.
Seven years ago.
Outside her apartment.
Seconds before the first bullet shattered her window.
Alessandro looked directly at Noah.
“So.”
May you like
His smile widened.
“The missing heir finally comes home.”
