Chapter 3 - THE LETTERS THAT NEVER ARRIVEDAmelia spent four hours in Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Seven stitches.
A mild concussion.
A bruised shoulder.
No fracture.
The physical injuries were almost reassuring because they were things doctors could name.
The rest was harder.
A father who wasn’t dead.
A mother who had apparently lied.
An abusive ex whose family somehow connected the two.
Amelia sat in the examination room with her discharge papers folded in her lap.
Her coworker Jasmine waited beside her.
“You’re sure you don’t want me to stay tonight?”
“I’m sure.”
“You say that like someone who absolutely should not be alone.”
Amelia managed a tired smile.
Jasmine had become her closest friend at Castellano’s. Twenty-nine, relentlessly sarcastic, and protective enough to threaten customers with dessert forks when they grabbed servers.
“I need quiet.”
“You need a locked door and somebody nearby.”
“I have both.”
Jasmine studied her.
“And the surprise billionaire dad?”
“Restaurant millionaire.”
“Not helping.”
Amelia looked away.
Dominic had kept his promise.
He had not entered the hospital.
But he had apparently remained downstairs for the entire four hours.
Amelia knew because Jasmine had gone for coffee and returned pale.
“He’s sitting in the lobby.”
“He said he would stay at the restaurant.”
“Apparently he upgraded his stalking location.”
“Jasmine.”
“He hasn’t approached. He’s just sitting there with some terrifying lawyer-looking woman.”
Amelia frowned.
“What woman?”
“Gray suit. Silver hair. Face like she charges six hundred dollars every time she blinks.”
Despite everything, Amelia laughed.
The sound hurt her head.
When she finally left the examination room, Dominic stood immediately.
Beside him was the woman Jasmine had described.
Dominic did not approach.
He waited.
That mattered.
Amelia stopped ten feet away.
“You stayed.”
“I said I would.”
“You said at the restaurant.”
“I reconsidered.”
The lawyer-looking woman stepped forward.
“Amelia, I’m Evelyn Shaw.”
Amelia’s stomach tightened.
“Attorney?”
“Yes.”
“For him?”
“For Dominic’s business interests. But I’m not here to represent you unless you specifically request that.”
Amelia appreciated the precision.
“What are you here for?”
Evelyn held out a thin folder.
“Because Raymond Fletcher was released pending further investigation.”
Amelia froze.
“How?”
“The responding officers took statements. He was cited and released while prosecutors review the evidence.”
Jasmine swore under her breath.
Dominic’s face was unreadable.
Evelyn continued.
“The restaurant retained every camera angle from tonight. Multiple guests voluntarily provided recordings. Raymond has also been issued a trespass notice covering every Vale Hospitality property.”
Amelia looked at Dominic.
“You own Castellano’s through another company.”
“Yes.”
“I never knew.”
“Most employees don’t.”
Something else bothered her.
“Did you know I worked there?”
Dominic’s silence answered before he did.
“For six weeks.”
Amelia took a step backward.
“You knew?”
“I received a quarterly employee-relations report. Your surname caught my attention.”
“And you didn’t say anything?”
“I wasn’t certain.”
“You had six weeks.”
“I had spent twenty-seven years believing you were somewhere I could never reach.”
“What does that even mean?”
Dominic rubbed a hand across his face.
Evelyn quietly moved away with Jasmine, giving them space.
Dominic looked nothing like Amelia had imagined wealthy men to look when frightened.
He looked helpless.
“Your mother and I met in 1997.”
Amelia said nothing.
“She was a pastry chef at a hotel where I was managing a kitchen. I had no money. Neither did she. We were young, stubborn, and convinced being in love was enough.”
“Were you married?”
“No.”
“Engaged?”
“Yes.”
The word hurt for reasons Amelia didn’t understand.
Dominic continued.
“My business partner was Malcolm Fletcher.”
Amelia’s stomach twisted.
Raymond’s father.
“Malcolm had money. I had restaurant experience. We opened one place together.”
“Castellano’s?”
“The first version. Different location.”
“What happened?”
“We discovered Malcolm was stealing.”
“How much?”
“Eventually? Millions.”
Amelia stared.
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“When I threatened to go to the authorities, he threatened me. Then Claire.”
“Mom?”
“He knew she was pregnant.”
Amelia’s throat tightened.
“He told me she had taken money from the business and disappeared. He produced bank records, letters, even a note supposedly written by her.”
“Did you believe him?”
“That is the question I have hated myself for twenty-seven years.”
Amelia stared at the floor.
“You did.”
“For several months.”
Dominic’s voice cracked almost imperceptibly.
“Then I learned the documents were false.”
“Why didn’t you find her?”
“I tried.”
“For twenty-seven years?”
“Yes.”
Amelia looked up sharply.
Dominic reached into the folder Evelyn had brought.
He withdrew three photographs.
A private investigator’s report from 2002.
Another from 2009.
Another from 2017.
Addresses.
Search records.
Old telephone numbers.
Claire had changed states repeatedly.
Wisconsin.
Indiana.
Michigan.
Back to Illinois.
Always one move ahead.
“My mother was hiding from you?”
“I thought so.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Did you ever consider she had a reason?”
“Every day.”
Anger rose inside Amelia.
“My mother worked double shifts. We lived in apartments where the heat barely worked. She sold her wedding ring—”
“She had a wedding ring?”
Amelia stopped.
Dominic looked shaken.
“She wore it until I was sixteen.”
“She and I were never married.”
Amelia stared.
Dominic’s eyes narrowed with realization.
“Describe it.”
“Gold. Tiny blue stone inside the band.”
Dominic went pale.
“I gave her that ring.”
“But you said—”
“It was an engagement ring. Sapphire hidden inside the band because Claire hated diamonds.”
A memory returned.
Her mother touching the ring whenever frightened.
Amelia’s anger faltered.
Dominic pulled an envelope from the folder.
“This arrived at my office two months after Claire disappeared.”
The paper was yellowed.
Amelia unfolded it.
The handwriting looked like Claire’s.
Dominic,
I don’t want you looking for me. The baby isn’t yours. There is someone else. Please leave us alone.
Claire.
Amelia read it twice.
“She would never write this.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Because twenty years later, Malcolm admitted he forged it.”
Silence.
“Why would he admit that?”
“He was drunk. Dying of pancreatic cancer. He wanted me to know he had won.”
Amelia’s skin turned cold.
“What else did he say?”
Dominic looked toward Evelyn.
The attorney came closer.
“Amelia,” she said carefully, “this is where things become more complicated.”
“How complicated?”
Evelyn opened the folder.
Inside was a photocopy of another letter.
This one was unmistakably Claire’s handwriting.
Dominic had never received it.
Dominic,
Malcolm found me. He said if I contacted you, he would kill you and make it look like an accident. I don’t know what is true anymore. I only know I have our daughter to protect.
Her name is Amelia Claire Hayes.
She has your eyes.
Amelia’s vision blurred.
At the bottom, her mother had written:
Maybe someday she’ll be safer knowing you.
Amelia lowered the letter.
“Where did this come from?”
“Malcolm’s estate,” Evelyn said. “It was discovered after litigation over company records.”
“When?”
Dominic answered.
“Three weeks ago.”
Amelia looked at him sharply.
“You found out three weeks ago that I might be your daughter.”
“Yes.”
“And six weeks ago you found my employee record.”
“Yes.”
“You knew before tonight.”
“I suspected.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I was waiting for DNA confirmation.”
Amelia laughed bitterly.
“From what?”
Dominic hesitated.
“A water glass you used during employee training.”
Jasmine’s eyes widened.
“That feels extremely illegal.”
Evelyn immediately answered, “The test was privately commissioned and cannot establish legal paternity without consent. Dominic was advised not to contact Amelia based solely on that result.”
Amelia felt violated anyway.
“You tested my DNA?”
Dominic’s face hardened with regret.
“I did.”
“And?”
He looked directly at her.
“Ninety-nine point nine-eight percent probability.”
Amelia’s knees nearly weakened.
For years she had imagined her father as a dead man.
Then as an unknown man.
Now he stood before her, alive, powerful, and looking at her as though losing her once had been the defining tragedy of his life.
Her phone rang.
Everyone jumped.
Unknown number.
Amelia stared at it.
Then answered.
“Hello?”
For several seconds there was only breathing.
Then Raymond spoke.
“You always did know how to find someone richer to hide behind.”
Amelia’s blood turned cold.
Dominic reached for the phone.
She shook her head.
“No.”
Raymond laughed.
“So you found Daddy.”
Amelia gripped the device.
“How did you get this number?”
“You really think changing numbers makes you disappear?”
Dominic’s expression became lethal.
Raymond continued.
“You should ask Dominic what happens to people who betray the Vale family.”
Amelia looked at her father.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ask him about October 2001.”
Dominic went perfectly still.
Raymond laughed softly.
“See? He remembers.”
The line went dead.
Amelia slowly lowered the phone.
“What happened in October 2001?”
Dominic did not answer.
“Dominic.”
He looked at her.
For the first time, Amelia saw fear in his eyes.
Not fear of Raymond.
May you like
Fear of what Amelia would think of him.
“I nearly killed his father.”
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