Chapter 3 - THE HOUSE WITH EYESBy sunset, the Moretti estate was locked down.
Security gates closed.
Dogs swept the grounds.
Every employee was searched.
Every camera recording from the previous forty-eight hours was copied and reviewed.
Nobody left.
Nobody entered.
Dominic moved through the mansion with controlled fury while Claire sat inside the library with the triplets.
For once, none of them were causing trouble.
Leo stared at the floor.
Nico kept asking questions nobody answered.
Matteo had positioned himself close enough to Claire that their shoulders touched.
“Is Uncle Victor bad?” he finally asked.
Claire glanced toward the security camera in the corner.
“I don’t know.”
Leo scoffed.
“Yes, you do.”
“No. I know somebody used his name.”
“Same thing.”
“It isn’t.”
Leo finally looked at her.
“Adults always say that before they lie.”
Claire let the words settle.
“What adults?”
He shrugged.
“Everybody.”
That answer stayed with her.
Two hours later Dominic entered.
“Boys, bedrooms.”
“No,” Leo said.
Dominic stopped.
It was apparently not a word his sons used often with him.
“I said upstairs.”
“And I said no.”
“Leonardo.”
Claire heard the warning.
Leo heard it too.
His shoulders tightened.
But he stood.
“We want to know what’s happening.”
“You’re eight.”
“Our phone got the message.”
“My phone,” Nico corrected.
Leo glared.
Dominic stepped forward.
Claire stood between the emotional lines before they collided.
“They deserve an explanation that won’t frighten them unnecessarily.”
Dominic looked at her.
“I didn’t request advice.”
“No. You hired it.”
For several seconds nobody moved.
Then Dominic exhaled.
“There may be someone on the property who should not be here.”
Nico’s eyes widened.
“A killer?”
“No.”
“A spy?”
“No.”
“An assassin?”
“Why is that somehow better?”
Nico considered.
“It sounds cooler.”
Dominic pinched the bridge of his nose.
Claire almost smiled.
“Someone is trying to scare us,” Dominic continued. “Security is handling it.”
Leo crossed his arms.
“Why did they say the nanny?”
Dominic hesitated.
Claire answered.
“Because I asked questions about somebody I knew a long time ago.”
“Who?”
“My husband.”
“You have a husband?”
“Had.”
The boys became quiet.
Matteo looked up.
“He died?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Matteo’s expression changed.
“Like Mom.”
Claire looked at Dominic.
He looked away.
“Yes,” she said softly. “Like your mom.”
That night the triplets refused to sleep separately.
Claire found them building a fortress of blankets across Leo’s bedroom.
She helped.
Dominic stood in the doorway watching as three boys who had tortured seventeen caregivers into resignation handed Claire pillows and obeyed her instructions.
“Dad,” Nico said, “you have to sleep here too.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I am thirty-eight years old.”
Matteo pointed to Claire.
“She’s old too.”
Claire gasped dramatically.
“Betrayal.”
For the first time, Dominic laughed in front of his sons.
It was brief.
Almost rusty.
But the boys froze as though they had heard a forgotten sound.
Claire saw it.
Dominic saw them seeing it.
His smile vanished.
Later, after the triplets slept, Claire found Dominic on the balcony outside the library.
“You should laugh more.”
“I’m paying you to supervise my children, not psychoanalyze me.”
“You may be overpaying.”
He looked toward the gardens.
“Michael used to tell me the same thing.”
Claire’s heart tightened.
“What was he like then?”
“Annoying.”
She smiled despite herself.
“That sounds right.”
“He questioned everything. Especially me.”
Dominic leaned against the stone railing.
“My father, Salvatore, ran Moretti businesses differently. Cash. intimidation. politicians. unions. construction. Michael understood where every dollar went.”
“And Victor?”
“My younger brother.”
“I know that.”
“Victor liked the old way.”
Claire studied him.
“What happened eleven years ago?”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“My father discovered money missing from three companies.”
“Michael?”
“No.”
“You?”
“No.”
“Victor?”
Dominic said nothing.
That was enough.
“Michael found evidence,” Claire said.
“Yes.”
“He was in danger.”
“Yes.”
“So you helped him disappear.”
Dominic turned toward her.
“I gave him cash, documents, and a contact in Vermont. He chose the name Donovan.”
Claire’s eyes filled before she could stop them.
“He never told me.”
“He wanted you clean.”
“I was his wife.”
“He wanted you alive.”
The sentence landed differently.
Claire wiped at her face.
“Was his car crash an accident?”
Dominic’s silence stretched.
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t good enough.”
“I investigated when I learned about his death.”
“In four days?”
“I have resources.”
“Clearly.”
Dominic looked toward the house.
“The driver who hit Michael was Daniel Reese. Blood alcohol over twice the legal limit. Reese survived, pled guilty, served time.”
“I know.”
“What you don’t know is that twenty-three thousand dollars was deposited into his mother’s account two weeks before the crash.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“From who?”
“A shell corporation.”
“Victor?”
“Possibly.”
“You knew this and didn’t tell me?”
“I confirmed it this afternoon.”
Claire’s hands shook.
Michael had not simply been taken by random tragedy.
Someone might have chosen him.
“Where is Reese?”
“Released eleven months ago.”
Claire looked at Dominic.
“And?”
“Missing.”
Inside the mansion, glass shattered.
Dominic moved instantly.
He pulled Claire behind him as two security guards rushed from the corridor.
A scream came from upstairs.
Claire recognized it.
Matteo.
She ran.
Dominic shouted her name but she was already taking the stairs two at a time.
The boys’ corridor was dark.
The backup lights flickered red.
Power failure.
Claire reached Leo’s bedroom.
The window was open.
Curtains moved in the cold night air.
Nico stood screaming beside the bed.
Leo was gone.
Matteo pointed toward the balcony.
“A man!”
Dominic arrived with security.
“Leo!”
Claire rushed outside.
Below, the estate gardens stretched into darkness.
One of the guards aimed a flashlight across the lawn.
A small figure ran toward the hedge maze.
Leo.
And twenty yards behind him, another shadow moved.
An adult.
Dominic jumped the balcony rail onto the lower terrace.
Claire followed the stairs.
Security scattered.
“Leo!” she screamed.
The boy looked back.
The shadow gained on him.
Claire ran harder.
Her lungs burned.
The hedge maze entrance swallowed Leo.
Dominic reached it seconds before Claire.
They split.
“Leo!”
No answer.
Then Claire heard crying.
Not ahead.
Behind a hedge wall.
She shoved through branches.
Leo sat on the ground.
Claire dropped beside him.
“Where is he?”
Leo pointed.
“Gone.”
Dominic arrived.
He grabbed his son, checking his face, neck, arms.
“Did he touch you?”
Leo shook his head.
Then his fingers opened.
Something lay in his palm.
A small silver medallion.
Dominic stared.
Claire saw recognition.
“What is that?”
Dominic’s face went pale.
“My father’s.”
Claire looked toward the dark maze.
“But your father is dead.”
Dominic closed his hand around the medallion.
“Yes.”
A voice came over the security radio.
“Mr. Moretti, we found an intruder.”
Dominic grabbed the device.
“Alive?”
A pause.
“No, sir.”
Claire’s stomach turned.
“Who?”
May you like
The guard answered.
“Daniel Reese.”
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