Chapter 4 - The Bedroom That Waited Three Years
Lily stood in the doorway of Anna Moretti’s bedroom.
Nothing had been touched.
Yellow curtains.
Books arranged by size.
A stuffed rabbit on the bed.
Glow-in-the-dark stars covered the ceiling.
Lily stepped inside carefully.
“This was mine?”
Dominic remained near the doorway.
“Yes.”
She picked up the rabbit.
“I remember him.”
Dominic’s chest tightened.
“You do?”
“Maybe.”
She turned it over.
“There’s supposed to be…”
She pressed its left paw.
A tiny music box began playing.
Dominic gripped the doorframe.
Lily’s eyes widened.
“I knew that.”
“Yes.”
“What song is it?”
“Your mother used to sing it.”
Lily sat on the bed.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then she looked up.
“Do I have to be Anna now?”
Dominic frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“Everybody keeps saying Anna.”
He walked in and sat several feet away.
“What do you want me to call you?”
“Lily.”
“Then Lily.”
“But Anna was your daughter.”
Dominic’s voice softened.
“You’re my daughter.”
“Even if I don’t remember being her?”
“Especially then.”
She considered that.
“Can I be both?”
Dominic smiled.
“You can be whoever you want.”
From the hallway, Eleanor quietly wiped her eyes.
Victor appeared beside her.
“He means it.”
Eleanor glanced at him.
“He’s terrifying.”
Victor nodded.
“Also true.”
Downstairs, Dominic’s security team was going through every piece of evidence connected to the bridge crash.
Victor spread photographs across the dining table.
“The brakes weren’t damaged by the impact.”
Dominic studied the report.
“You told me investigators blamed mechanical failure.”
“That was the official report.”
“And the unofficial one?”
Victor slid over another document.
“A mechanic inspected the car six hours before the crash. Brakes were perfect.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“So somebody sabotaged them afterward.”
“There’s more.”
Victor placed a photograph down.
A younger man stood beside Dominic at a shipping terminal.
Marcus Bell.
Head of Moretti Port Operations.
One of Dominic’s oldest business associates.
Dominic stared.
“Why him?”
“Eleanor described the man from the shelter. Tall. Gray beginning at the temples. Expensive coat.”
“That describes half Manhattan.”
“She remembered something else.”
Eleanor entered.
“A ring.”
Dominic looked up.
“Tell him,” Victor said.
“The man wore a black ring with a silver anchor.”
Dominic slowly turned toward Marcus’s photograph.
On his right hand was a black signet ring.
Silver anchor.
Eleanor pointed.
“That’s him.”
Dominic stood so quickly the chair scraped backward.
Victor blocked him.
“Don’t.”
“Move.”
“Think first.”
“That man came looking for my daughter while I was still in intensive care.”
“Yes.”
“He threatened Eleanor.”
“Yes.”
“He burned her apartment.”
“Probably.”
Dominic’s voice became deadly calm.
“And you’re telling me to think?”
“I’m telling you Marcus wants you angry.”
Dominic stared at him.
Victor continued.
“Warehouse 19 was one of Marcus’s old shipping properties. Your kidnapping happened there. The bridge maintenance contractor worked for a company Marcus controlled through a shell corporation.”
Dominic’s anger changed into something colder.
“He wanted control of the ports.”
“He still does.”
“Three years ago he tried to kill me.”
“And Anna.”
A small voice came from the staircase.
“He was in the car.”
Everyone turned.
Lily stood halfway down the stairs.
Dominic moved toward her.
“What?”
She touched her temple.
“I remember a man.”
“From the crash?”
“I don’t know.”
She closed her eyes.
“Before the rain. You were talking to someone outside.”
Dominic froze.
Lily looked at Marcus’s photograph.
Her face changed.
“That’s him.”
Eleanor rushed forward.
“You don’t have to look at that.”
Lily pointed.
“He was angry.”
Dominic crouched.
“What did he say?”
“I don’t remember all of it.”
“Anything helps.”
Lily concentrated.
Then her eyes opened.
“He said, ‘Claire should have stayed out of it.’”
Dominic felt the room tilt.
Claire.
His dead wife.
Victor whispered, “What did Claire know?”
Dominic stood.
“Two weeks before she died, Claire told me something was wrong with the port accounts.”
Victor stared at him.
“You never mentioned that.”
“I thought she meant taxes.”
“And Claire died how?”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“A highway collision.”
Victor said nothing.
He didn’t need to.
Dominic looked at Marcus’s photograph.
“This didn’t start with my bridge accident.”
“No,” Victor said.
“It started with Claire.”
From the stairs, Lily asked, “Was he the bad man?”
Dominic turned toward her.
“Yes.”
“Are you going to hurt him?”
The room became silent.
Three years earlier, Dominic would not have hesitated.
But Lily was watching him.
His daughter was learning who her father was.
Dominic folded the photograph.
“No.”
Victor raised an eyebrow.
Dominic looked directly at Lily.
“I’m going to prove what he did.”
Lily nodded.
“Grandma says smart people don’t make the same mistake twice.”
Dominic glanced toward Eleanor.
“I’m beginning to understand why she wins every argument.”
Eleanor folded her arms.
May you like
“You’re learning.”
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