Chapter 4 - The Night Claire Disappeared
We returned to the Valenti estate before sunset.
This time, I didn't enter as an employee.
Dominic brought Sophie and me through the private entrance surrounded by six armed security men.
Sophie thought it was exciting.
I knew better.
“Are we having a sleepover?” she asked.
“For a few days,” I said.
“With Dominic?”
Dominic glanced at me.
“Yes,” I reluctantly answered.
Sophie celebrated like she'd won the lottery.
By nine, she was asleep in a guest bedroom twice the size of our apartment.
Dominic and I sat downstairs with Marco.
On the table lay everything his investigators had uncovered.
The story began eleven years earlier.
My biological father had been Anthony Moretti, accountant and financial adviser to three criminal organizations.
But secretly, Anthony had been collecting evidence.
Not for the police.
For insurance.
A ledger containing names, payments, judges, politicians, businesses and hidden accounts.
Then Anthony discovered someone was using those networks for human trafficking.
He decided to expose everything.
Three days later, he died.
Officially, heart attack.
Dominic believed murder.
I disappeared six months afterward.
“Who arranged the crash?” I asked.
“We never proved it.”
“And you thought I died.”
“Yes.”
“Then who found me?”
Marco slid a photograph across the table.
A man named Dr. Raymond Hale.
He had operated a private neurological clinic in Wisconsin.
Hale specialized in trauma patients.
My adoptive parents had taken me there after the accident.
Then I saw another photograph.
Vivienne Russo stood beside Hale at a charity gala.
I looked at Dominic.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“She's connected to him.”
“Apparently.”
The front doors opened.
Vivienne entered.
I stood so quickly my chair scraped backward.
She stopped.
“Dominic?”
He didn't answer.
He simply turned the photograph around.
Vivienne looked at it.
Then laughed softly.
“That's your evidence?”
“You knew Hale.”
“So did half of Chicago.”
“Did you know Claire survived?”
“No.”
“Careful.”
Dominic's voice became quiet.
Dangerously quiet.
Vivienne looked at me.
“I don't know what story she's selling you—”
“She isn't selling me anything.”
“She's a maid who conveniently arrives with your child.”
“DNA confirmed Sophie is mine.”
That hit her.
For several seconds she couldn't hide it.
Then she recovered.
“Congratulations.”
She turned toward me.
“You certainly planned well.”
Dominic stood.
“Leave.”
“Dominic—”
“Before I forget your father's name protects you.”
Her expression changed.
“You're making a mistake.”
“No. I made one four years ago.”
Vivienne went pale.
Dominic noticed.
So did I.
“What happened four years ago?” I asked.
Vivienne smiled.
“I have no idea.”
But she did.
We all knew it.
She left.
Marco followed her with two guards.
I turned to Dominic.
“You think she made me disappear.”
“I think she's afraid you remember something.”
“I remember nothing.”
“Maybe that's why you're alive.”
At midnight, I woke screaming.
Dominic reached my bedroom before the guards.
I was sitting upright.
My heart hammered.
“What happened?”
“A memory.”
“What did you see?”
“Vivienne.”
Dominic froze.
I closed my eyes.
The fragment returned.
A staircase.
Snow against windows.
Mr. Buttons sitting on a chair.
Vivienne holding a glass.
“You should drink,” she had said.
Then another image.
My legs failing.
A man carrying me through a garage.
A needle.
A woman's voice.
Make sure she forgets him this time.
I opened my eyes.
“Vivienne drugged me.”
Dominic's expression became terrifying.
But another memory came.
“No.”
“What?”
“She wasn't alone.”
“Who?”
I saw a hand.
A man's hand wearing a ring.
A black onyx ring engraved with a V.
I'd seen that ring recently.
At the mansion.
Dominic wore no rings.
Marco wore none.
But one man did.
Dominic's uncle.
Salvatore Valenti.
The man who had raised Dominic after his parents died.
The man everyone called Uncle Sal.
I whispered his name.
Dominic stepped backward.
“No.”
“Dominic—”
“No.”
Then the security alarm sounded.
Marco's voice exploded through the intercom.
“Boss, Sophie's room!”
We ran.
The bed was empty.
The window stood open.
Mr. Buttons lay on the carpet.
And beside him was a note.
Dominic picked it up.
Five words.
Bring the ledger. Come alone.
Dominic looked at me.
“What ledger?”
A violent pulse struck behind my eyes.
And suddenly I remembered.
Not everything.
Just enough.
I looked at Sophie's rabbit.
“It's not in the rabbit.”
“What?”
I grabbed Mr. Buttons.
My fingers found the black plastic button sewn onto his chest.
I twisted it.
The button opened.
Inside was a tiny memory card.
I stared at Dominic.
“My father didn't lose his ledger.”
May you like
My hand shook.
“He gave it to me.”
