Chapter 9 - The Last Moretti Secret
Dominic moved before the camera completed its turn.
He pulled the plug from the monitor, ordered the hospital floor secured, and called his security team.
No one entered or left the ward without identification.
But the message had already accomplished its purpose.
Someone had penetrated the hospital.
Someone had photographed Lily while she slept.
And someone wanted Dominic to know that the danger wasn't over.
Elena sat beside the bed, holding Lily's hand.
"We should take her somewhere safe."
"There is nowhere safe until we know who's behind this."
"Then find out."
Dominic looked at his phone.
For years, he'd believed power meant controlling every variable. He'd built an organization designed to anticipate threats before they emerged.
Yet the people who had betrayed him were the people he'd trusted most.
His father.
His sister-in-law.
His oldest friend.
He had mistaken obedience for loyalty and silence for trust.
Not again.
He called his financial director and demanded a full audit of the Northstar accounts. Within an hour, the team discovered dozens of unauthorized transfers, all approved through a security credential assigned to a deceased executive.
The money led to a private holding company in Delaware.
The company had one director.
Vivienne Moretti.
But the account's controlling beneficiary was someone else.
A man named Gabriel Cross.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Gabriel had been his father's personal attorney. He had arranged the funeral, handled the estate, and drafted the trust that governed the family's wealth.
He had also disappeared six months earlier.
"Find him," Dominic ordered.
The financial director hesitated.
"Sir, there's something else. The original trust document was amended shortly before your father's death."
"By whom?"
"Anthony Moretti. The amendment grants controlling authority over several family assets to a beneficiary whose identity was sealed."
"Open it."
"We need a court order."
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
"Then get one."
Within hours, a judge authorized the release of the sealed document.
Dominic read the beneficiary's name in silence.
Lily Moretti.
His daughter had been the intended heir to a fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The document contained another clause: if Lily were declared legally deceased before reaching adulthood, control of the trust would pass to Gabriel Cross.
Dominic understood immediately.
Anthony hadn't merely hidden his granddaughter to protect his criminal empire.
He had created a system that would reward the people who kept her from being found.
The money was the motive.
But it wasn't the whole story.
Dominic returned to Lily's room.
She was awake, drawing with her uninjured hand. When he sat beside her, she showed him a picture of a house with a garden and a wide front door.
"I made another room," she explained.
"For whom?"
"For Mommy."
Elena, standing by the window, covered her mouth.
Dominic smiled faintly.
"That's a good idea."
Lily studied him.
"Are you still sad?"
"Sometimes."
"Because you lost my mommy?"
He looked at Elena.
"Yes."
Lily thought about that.
"Maybe you can be sad together."
The simplicity of it nearly undid him.
He took her drawing and carefully placed it in his jacket pocket.
"Maybe we can."
Then his phone rang.
The caller was Gabriel Cross.
Dominic answered on speaker.
"Where are you?"
Gabriel chuckled softly.
"Still asking questions as though you have the power to make people answer."
"You used my father's money to keep my daughter hidden."
"I followed the instructions of a dying man."
"You threatened a child."
"I never ordered anyone to shoot her. That was Vivienne's mistake."
Dominic's expression darkened.
"Where are you?"
"At the place where all of this began."
"The hospital?"
"No. The cemetery."
Dominic went still.
Gabriel continued.
"Your father's mausoleum has a compartment beneath the stone floor. Inside is the original record of Elena's death, along with the document proving who ordered the hospital switch."
"Hospital switch?"
"Ask your wife what happened to the baby who died that night."
Dominic looked toward Elena.
Her face had gone white.
"Gabriel," he said, "if you've harmed anyone else—"
"You still think this is about money. It isn't. Anthony knew that if you ever discovered Lily was alive, you'd destroy everything he built to protect her."
"Then why hide the truth?"
"Because the truth would destroy more than his empire."
The line went dead.
Dominic turned to Elena.
"What did he mean by the baby who died?"
She looked at Lily, then at him.
"I didn't know what they did after they took her."
"Elena."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I remember hearing another baby cry in the room next to mine. The nurse told me my daughter was healthy. Then she said the other baby hadn't survived."
Dominic stared at her.
"You think they switched the records?"
"I think someone died in that hospital and was buried under our daughter's name."
Before he could answer, a nurse entered the room carrying a sealed envelope.
"This was delivered for Lily."
Dominic took it.
Inside was a photograph of two newborn babies lying side by side.
One wore a blue hospital bracelet.
The other wore a white one.
On the back, a message had been written in black ink.
One daughter was stolen. The other was never yours to begin with.
Dominic looked at Elena.
She began to shake.
May you like
Then she whispered the words he had dreaded most.
"Dominic, I think Lily may have a sister."
