Chapter 8 - The Truth in the Blood
"Lily!"
Dominic caught her before she slipped from his arms.
The gunshot had come from the doorway. Vivienne stood frozen, her pistol pointed toward the floor.
Elena screamed.
For several seconds, Dominic couldn't understand what he was seeing. Lily's eyes were wide with confusion, and her little hands clutched his jacket.
"Dominic?" she whispered.
"I'm here."
"It hurts."
He pressed his hand against the blood spreading across her dress. His mind tried to reject the sight.
"Call an ambulance!" he roared.
Elena dropped beside them.
"Baby, look at me. Stay with me."
Lily's breathing grew shallow.
"I didn't do anything wrong," she whispered.
Dominic bent his forehead against hers.
"No, sweetheart. You didn't. You didn't do anything wrong."
He had survived gunfights, ambushes, and betrayals. None of them had prepared him for the terror of holding a child who trusted him while blood warmed his hands.
His men rushed into the room.
"Get the car!" he shouted. "Now!"
Elena climbed into the back seat with Lily while Dominic held pressure against the wound. The driver sped toward the nearest trauma center.
Lily's eyes fluttered.
"Am I going back to the orphanage?"
"No."
"Promise?"
Dominic's voice broke.
"I promise."
At the hospital, doctors took Lily behind double doors.
Dominic stood beneath fluorescent lights, staring at the blood on his hands.
Elena wrapped both arms around herself.
"She'll survive," she whispered, as if repeating it could make it true.
Dominic couldn't answer.
Minutes stretched into hours.
A surgeon finally emerged.
"The bullet passed through the soft tissue of her upper arm. She's lost blood, but we were able to stabilize her. She'll need surgery and observation, but she's going to recover."
Elena collapsed into a chair, sobbing.
Dominic closed his eyes.
He had never prayed for anything in his life.
That night, he silently promised every god he could imagine that if Lily survived, he would do whatever it took to give her a life without fear.
When the doctors allowed them into her room, Lily was pale and sleepy, her arm bandaged.
Dominic sat beside her bed.
"Hey, princess."
She opened her eyes.
"Did I do something bad?"
His chest tightened.
"No."
"Then why did the lady shoot me?"
"Because she made a terrible choice. It wasn't your fault."
Lily considered that.
"Are you going to send her to jail?"
Dominic glanced toward the door, where two officers stood speaking with Elena.
"Yes."
"Even though she's family?"
"Especially if she's family and thinks that means she can hurt you."
Lily nodded sleepily.
Then she held out her uninjured hand.
"Can you stay until I fall asleep?"
Dominic took it.
"I'll stay as long as you need."
Within minutes, she drifted off.
Elena watched him from the window.
"She already loves you."
Dominic looked at the sleeping child.
"I don't deserve it."
"Neither of us gets to decide whether we're worthy of her love. We only get to decide what we do with it."
He turned toward Elena.
"Why didn't you come back?"
Her expression crumpled.
"After Anthony took Lily, I was threatened. When I escaped, I was told you had become more dangerous than your father. They said you would use our daughter to punish everyone who'd betrayed you."
"You believed that?"
"I didn't know what to believe. I watched from a distance. I sent money to the orphanage through intermediaries. I thought it was the only way to keep her safe."
"You could have trusted me."
"I should have."
Silence settled between them.
Then Elena reached into her handbag and took out a folded document.
"There is something I never told you."
Dominic stared at the paper.
"What now?"
"Anthony wasn't the only person who knew Lily was alive."
She unfolded the document.
It was a bank transfer authorization, dated six months earlier. The recipient was an account registered to a company called Northstar Holdings.
Dominic recognized the name.
It had been one of his father's oldest shell companies.
Elena pointed to the signature.
"Someone has been funding the people who kept Lily hidden. Someone with access to the family accounts."
Dominic read the name printed beneath the authorization.
Dominic Moretti.
His own signature.
The transfer had been approved three months earlier.
He looked at Elena.
"I didn't authorize this."
"I know."
"Then someone has forged my signature."
Elena nodded.
"And whoever did it has access to your private files, your accounts, and your security system."
Dominic's phone vibrated.
An encrypted message had arrived from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of Lily sleeping in her hospital bed, taken from inside the room.
Beneath it were seven words.
You saved her once. You cannot save her twice.
Dominic looked up.
May you like
The two officers had disappeared from the doorway.
And the security camera above Lily's bed was slowly turning toward him.
