Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Knew Too Much
Dominic didn't remember leaving the office.
One moment he was staring at Elena's signature; the next, he was outside beneath the gray October sky, gripping the document so tightly its edges bent.
His chief of security, Victor Hale, approached.
"Boss, what's wrong?"
"Find out who filed this birth certificate."
Victor glanced at the paper.
"That's Mrs. Moretti's signature."
"I know what it is."
"Sir, Elena died in childbirth."
Dominic turned on him.
"That's what the hospital told me."
Victor went silent.
Dominic had spent six years believing the worst night of his life had ended with two coffins: one for his wife, one for his newborn daughter.
He'd buried Elena.
He'd mourned a child he'd never held.
And he'd hunted the men he believed responsible for the attack that had supposedly killed them both.
Now a little girl in a wheelchair had his wife's eyes.
"Bring me every document connected to Lily's arrival," he ordered. "Hospital records, intake forms, anything the orphanage has."
"And the caller?"
"Find them before they find her."
Dominic returned to the courtyard.
Lily was showing Mrs. Bell a drawing of a house with a crooked chimney and a garden full of birds.
"That's my dream house," she explained when Dominic approached. "The mommy and daddy can live upstairs, and I can have a room downstairs so nobody has to carry me up steps."
The words struck him harder than any accusation.
She had already designed a home where she wouldn't inconvenience anyone.
Dominic crouched beside her.
"That's a beautiful house."
"I made the doors wide for my wheelchair."
"Smart."
"And there's a room for Mr. Bear."
"Obviously. He looks like a demanding roommate."
Lily laughed again.
Dominic wanted to scoop her into his arms, take her away from every person who'd ever made her feel unwanted, and lock the world outside.
Instead, he asked, "Would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow?"
Her eyes widened.
"At your house?"
"If Mrs. Bell and the agency approve."
She looked toward the caretaker.
Mrs. Bell nodded, smiling through her tears.
Lily turned back to him.
"Will there be spaghetti?"
"Probably."
"Can I bring Mr. Bear?"
"I wouldn't dream of leaving him behind."
She hugged him suddenly.
Her arms barely reached around his neck, and her teddy bear got wedged between them.
Dominic froze.
He hadn't been hugged like that since Elena.
Slowly, awkwardly, he wrapped one arm around Lily's shoulders.
For the first time in six years, the future seemed like something other than a battlefield.
Then his phone rang.
Victor's voice came through immediately.
"We found the caller."
"Who?"
"Your sister-in-law."
Dominic's expression hardened.
"Vivienne?"
"She's at the orphanage's front gate."
Dominic looked toward the courtyard entrance.
A silver sedan had stopped beside the black SUVs. A woman in a cream coat stepped out, her blond hair perfectly arranged and her face composed in the way only practiced liars could manage.
Vivienne Moretti.
Elena's older sister.
The woman who had stood beside Dominic at the funeral and told him that some tragedies were too cruel for anyone to understand.
She walked toward them with tears in her eyes.
"Oh, Dominic," she whispered. "I was afraid you'd discover the truth this way."
He stood.
"What truth?"
Vivienne looked at Lily.
For a fraction of a second, her expression revealed something colder than surprise.
Recognition.
Then she knelt beside the wheelchair.
"Hello, sweetheart. I'm your aunt."
Lily glanced uncertainly at Dominic.
"I don't have an aunt."
"You do now," Vivienne said softly. "I've been looking for you for years."
Dominic stepped between them.
"You knew?"
"I suspected."
"Suspected what?"
"That Elena's baby survived."
His hands curled into fists.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Vivienne's tears spilled over.
"Because I was trying to protect you."
"From what?"
She looked at Lily, then back at him.
"From the people who took your daughter."
Dominic's entire body went still.
"Who took her?"
Vivienne hesitated.
Then she leaned closer and whispered a name.
"Your own father."
Dominic stared at her.
His father, Anthony Moretti, had been dead for three years.
He had been buried in a marble mausoleum beneath a cross that cost more than most people's homes.
And according to the official records, he had never even met Lily.
"You're lying," Dominic said.
"I wish I were."
Vivienne reached into her handbag and removed a folded photograph.
It showed a younger Anthony standing outside a hospital, holding a newborn baby.
On the back was a date.
The date Lily had been born.
Dominic took the photograph.
Then he noticed the second figure standing in the background.
A nurse.
He recognized her immediately.
She had been the last person to enter Elena's hospital room before his wife died.
Dominic looked up.
"Where is she now?"
Vivienne's face lost its color.
"Dominic, there's something else you need to know."
"What?"
"The nurse didn't just disappear after Elena's death."
Vivienne looked toward Lily.
"She's been working at this orphanage for six years."
At that exact moment, the courtyard doors opened.
A gray-haired woman stepped outside carrying a tray of tea.
She saw Dominic.
The tray slipped from her hands.
May you like
Porcelain shattered across the stone.
And before anyone could stop her, she ran.
