Chapter 2 - The Name She Was Afraid to Say
Vivian stared at Dominic for so long that he began to understand the answer was worse than he expected.
Her fingers tightened around the ultrasound photograph.
“Leo.”
Dominic did not move.
Outside, rain struck the bedroom window.
For five seconds, the only sound was Vivian’s uneven breathing.
“Say it again.”
“Leo Rossi.”
The name entered the room like a bullet.
Dominic stood.
Vivian recoiled immediately.
That reaction stopped him.
He had spent half his life becoming the kind of man whose anger could empty a room. Until tonight, he had considered fear useful.
Watching Vivian instinctively protect her unborn child from him made that philosophy feel different.
Dominic slowly sat again.
“Tell me everything.”
Vivian wiped her face.
“It started four months ago.”
Leo had discovered her pregnancy before anyone at Apex.
He had followed her after a prenatal appointment.
At first, he had congratulated her.
Then he had asked a question.
Who was the father?
Vivian refused to answer.
Leo began watching her.
Two weeks later, he appeared inside her apartment.
He knew Dominic’s security schedules. He knew when the men assigned to Vivian changed shifts. More importantly, he knew how to convince those men that he had Dominic’s authorization.
“He wanted access to a reserve account,” Vivian whispered.
“How much?”
“Twenty million.”
Dominic’s jaw hardened.
“I refused.”
Leo had smiled.
Then he had shown Vivian photographs of herself leaving the obstetrician’s office.
Other photographs showed her asleep inside her bedroom, taken through the window from a neighboring building.
The final photograph showed an ultrasound image she had never given anyone.
“He said if I helped him, nobody would know. If I didn’t…”
Her hand covered her stomach.
Dominic understood.
“The $2.5 million?”
“A test.”
Leo forced her to transfer it through routes designed to implicate her.
He controlled the receiving wallets.
Afterward, he ordered Vivian to erase evidence.
She had pretended to obey.
“I built a shadow ledger.”
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
“Where?”
Vivian looked toward the nursery.
Inside the half-assembled crib was a stuffed gray elephant.
She had removed the manufacturer’s electronic sound module and hidden an encrypted flash drive inside.
Dominic retrieved it.
“Everything is there,” she said. “Account numbers. Dates. Copies of messages. Audio.”
“You recorded Leo?”
“Twice.”
For the first time that night, something close to admiration entered Dominic’s expression.
Terrified, pregnant, and physically threatened, Vivian had still gathered evidence against the second-most-powerful man in the Russo organization.
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
Her answer hurt more than Dominic expected.
“Because Leo said you ordered it.”
Dominic became still.
“He told me you wanted to know whether I could be controlled.”
“And you believed him?”
“I work for criminals, Dominic.”
No accusation filled her voice.
Only exhaustion.
“You’ve had people disappear for less.”
Dominic could not deny it.
Vivian looked down.
“And I had someone else to protect.”
“Your child.”
She nodded.
Dominic looked toward the ultrasound picture.
Then another thought occurred to him.
“You've hidden a seven-month pregnancy from an entire building full of men trained to notice weakness.”
A faint, broken laugh escaped her.
“Oversized sweaters are apparently more powerful than organized crime.”
Against every expectation, Dominic almost smiled.
Almost.
Then he noticed blood.
A small dark stain had appeared on the sheet beneath Vivian.
His expression changed instantly.
“Vivian.”
She followed his gaze.
Her face drained of color.
“No.”
She stood too quickly.
Pain crossed her face.
Her knees buckled.
Dominic caught her before she hit the floor.
“Something’s wrong.”
The words were barely audible.
Dominic lifted her into his arms.
She was lighter than he expected.
“Hospital.”
“No!”
Her panic returned violently.
“Leo has people everywhere.”
Dominic carried her toward the door.
“Then we don’t use a hospital he knows.”
He called one person.
Dr. Samuel Kane had patched bullet wounds for the Russo family for twenty years and asked no questions.
Tonight Dominic gave him one instruction.
“Open the clinic.”
Twenty-five minutes later, Vivian lay beneath white sheets while Kane performed an examination.
Dominic waited outside.
He had faced federal raids, assassination attempts, and armed rivals without feeling what he felt during those twenty minutes.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For her.
Kane finally emerged.
“Mother and baby are stable. Stress caused some bleeding and contractions. She needs rest. No excitement. No threats.”
His eyes moved pointedly toward Dominic.
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
Dominic stared at him.
Kane had known Dominic since childhood and was one of perhaps three people alive who could speak to him that way.
“Yes.”
Dominic returned to Vivian’s room.
She was awake.
“Baby’s okay?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes closed with relief.
Then she whispered, “I need to tell you something else.”
Dominic moved closer.
“About Leo?”
“No.”
Vivian looked at him.
“About the baby.”
The expression in her eyes made his pulse change.
“I never told you who the father was.”
Dominic waited.
Vivian swallowed.
“The father is dead.”
A strange relief came over him before he could understand why.
Then she continued.
“His name was Daniel Mercer.”
Dominic frowned.
“Your husband?”
“My brother.”
Dominic’s confusion deepened.
Vivian reached for the ultrasound.
“This baby isn't biologically mine.”
Silence.
“My sister-in-law died in the same crash that killed Daniel. They had embryos stored from IVF. I was their designated guardian.”
Dominic stared at her.
Vivian touched her stomach.
“I’m carrying their daughter.”
Everything Dominic had assumed shattered again.
Vivian had risked her life for a child whose parents were already dead.
Before he could respond, his phone vibrated.
A message from Leo.
Problem handled. Vivian Mercer is gone.
Attached was a photograph.
Vivian’s apartment was burning.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Leo believed he had just erased her.
Dominic slowly raised his eyes.
May you like
For the first time in ten years, he knew exactly what betrayal looked like.
And Leo Rossi had no idea the dead woman sitting beside Dominic was still alive.
