Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN DOMINIC COULDN’T BUYDominic wanted Claire and Lily out of New York before sunrise.
Claire refused.
“You’re taking this personally,” Dominic said.
“Your psychotic brother has a wall of pictures of my daughter. Yes. I’ve developed feelings about it.”
“I can put you on a private plane.”
“And send us where?”
“Anywhere.”
“Anywhere isn’t a security plan.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“I am trying to protect you.”
“No. You’re trying to move one problem far enough away that you don’t have to look at it.”
His eyes flashed.
“You think I don’t care?”
“I think you care so much it makes you controlling.”
They stood in the library at six in the morning, whisper-fighting while four children slept upstairs.
Dominic ran a hand over his face.
“What do you want from me?”
“The truth.”
“About?”
“Everything Gabriel could use.”
His expression closed.
Claire nodded.
“Exactly.”
She walked away.
“Claire.”
She stopped.
“If I tell you everything, you will leave.”
“Maybe.”
“And take Lily.”
“Yes.”
“And the boys?”
She turned.
“That’s your problem.”
The words were harsher than she meant.
Dominic looked like she had struck him.
Claire softened.
“You cannot ask me to trust you while keeping me blind.”
For a long time, he said nothing.
Then he locked the library door.
“My father was Carlo Moretti.”
“I know.”
“He built his wealth through construction, shipping, gambling, extortion and other things.”
Claire sat.
Dominic continued.
“When I took control, I started dismantling the worst parts.”
“How noble.”
“No. Practical.”
At least he admitted it.
“Human trafficking was already forbidden under my father. Drugs around schools were forbidden. Gabriel didn’t care about either.”
Claire’s stomach twisted.
“He wanted expansion.”
“Yes.”
“You stopped him.”
“I ordered him removed.”
“Removed?”
“From the organization.”
Claire searched his face.
“You didn’t order him killed.”
“No.”
“Does he believe you did?”
“Yes.”
The explosion that supposedly killed Gabriel had happened three days later.
Dominic always suspected rivals.
Gabriel apparently believed Dominic orchestrated it.
“And Elena?” Claire asked.
His expression changed.
“What about her?”
“Was she part of this world?”
“She was a physician.”
Claire blinked.
“Your wife was a doctor?”
“Pediatric oncologist.”
“That’s almost aggressively ironic.”
“She hated everything about my family business.”
“Yet married you.”
“I was different around her.”
Claire smiled sadly.
“Everyone says that about the person who saw the best version of them.”
Dominic stared.
“She made me want that version to be real.”
Claire suddenly understood him better.
After Elena died, he hadn’t only lost a wife.
He had lost the person who reminded him what kind of man he wanted to become.
“What did cancer do?” she asked.
“Brain tumor.”
“How long?”
“Fourteen months.”
“You never left her?”
“Not once.”
The answer explained Luca.
The boy had interpreted death as abandonment because nobody had given him another language for it.
Dominic continued.
“The night Elena died, Luca asked whether she left because they were bad.”
Claire’s throat tightened.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“Dominic.”
“I couldn’t speak.”
His voice fractured slightly.
It was the first crack Claire had seen in him.
“I walked out of the room.”
He closed his eyes.
“I’ve regretted it every day.”
Claire moved closer.
“Then answer him now.”
“He hasn’t asked again.”
“He asks every time he drives somebody out of this house.”
That landed.
Dominic sank into a chair.
For all his money, power and armed men, he looked completely helpless.
Claire touched his hand.
He looked down at their fingers.
Then at her.
This time neither stepped back.
His lips touched hers once.
Briefly.
Carefully.
Claire pulled away first.
“That was a terrible idea.”
“Yes.”
“We’re not doing it again.”
“No.”
They stared at each other.
Then Claire kissed him again.
Three seconds later a small voice said, “I KNEW IT.”
Claire jumped away.
Luca stood in the doorway.
Nico and Matteo appeared behind him.
Lily pushed between them.
“Were you kissing my mom?”
“No,” Claire said immediately.
Dominic said, “Yes.”
Claire glared.
“Really?”
Lily looked horrified.
“Mom!”
“It was an accident.”
Nico frowned.
“How do you accidentally kiss someone?”
Dominic finally laughed.
For ten seconds, danger disappeared.
Then Vincent entered.
His expression killed the moment.
“We found Gabriel.”
Everyone went quiet.
“Children upstairs,” Dominic said.
Claire started to object.
Then saw his face.
She took them.
Twenty minutes later Dominic joined her.
“We know where he’s staying.”
“Police?”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“He’ll run.”
“And what are you planning?”
“To finish this.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“Meaning?”
No answer.
She stood.
“You told me you were trying to become someone different.”
“I am.”
“You don’t become different by repeating everything that made you who you were.”
“He threatened my sons.”
“He threatened my daughter too.”
“And you want me to forgive him?”
“I want you to survive what you do next.”
Dominic stared at her.
She stepped closer.
“If you kill your brother, maybe nobody prosecutes you. Maybe nobody knows. But you will know.”
His jaw hardened.
“So?”
“So Luca will know something changed. Nico will know. Matteo will know.”
She touched his chest.
“And every time they look at you, you’ll wonder whether they see what you did.”
Dominic looked away.
“What would you have me do?”
“Be the father your sons believe you are.”
Before he could answer, an alarm sounded.
Not the perimeter.
Upstairs.
Claire ran.
Lily’s room was empty.
The window stood open.
A rope hung outside.
On the bed lay a single note.
FRIDAY CAME EARLY.
Claire screamed Lily’s name.
Nothing.
Matteo appeared behind her.
His face white.
“We saw a man.”
Claire spun.
“What man?”
“He said Dad sent him.”
Luca was shaking.
“He took Lily.”
Claire looked at Dominic.
All warmth vanished.
“You promised she was safe.”
Dominic’s face became terrifying.
“I will bring her back.”
Claire stepped toward him.
“No.”
May you like
Her eyes burned.
“We bring her back.”
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