Chapter 3 - WHY SHE DISAPPEARED
Dominic returned to Saint Mercy's before sunrise.
He entered Mara's room alone.
She looked smaller than he remembered.
Maybe because the woman in his memories had always stood straight when confronting him, even when she was furious. This Mara lay beneath white sheets with bruises spreading across her shoulder and stitches hidden beneath bandages.
Her left hand rested on the blanket.
No ring.
Dominic remained near the door.
“Tell me.”
Mara looked at him.
“Where's Celeste?”
“Gone.”
“That's not what I asked.”
“She was communicating with Gideon.”
Something passed through Mara's eyes.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
Dominic noticed.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
She pointed weakly toward the chair.
“My belongings.”
Dominic found a damaged leather purse in a hospital bag.
“Inside lining.”
He tore it open.
A tiny flash drive dropped into his palm.
“I was going to give it to you the night I left.”
“What is it?”
“Proof that someone inside your organization was moving money through shell companies. I found Gideon's initials on two authorizations.”
Dominic stared.
“You never told me.”
“I called you six times that night.”
His face changed.
“I was in Providence.”
“You were with Celeste.”
He remembered.
Celeste had arrived at his hotel unexpectedly. His phone had disappeared for hours.
He had assumed he'd misplaced it.
Mara continued.
“When you came home, I tried again. You told me you were tired of my paranoia.”
Dominic remembered that too.
Every word.
He wished he didn't.
“Then someone left photographs of me sleeping outside our bedroom window.”
She swallowed.
“And a threat against you.”
“Why wouldn't you show me?”
“Because the message included your private route to the federal courthouse. Only four people knew it. You, me, your driver…”
“And Gideon.”
“And Celeste.”
Dominic sat.
“When did you discover the pregnancy?”
“The morning after I filed.”
His gaze dropped toward where her belly had been.
“You could have told me later.”
“I tried.”
“How?”
“Three letters.”
“I never received them.”
“I know that now.”
The silence between them became unbearable.
Dominic had spent eight months believing his wife had abandoned him without explanation.
Mara had spent eight months believing someone intercepted every attempt she made to reach him.
And while the distance widened, Celeste had stepped neatly into it.
“Was the crash an accident?” he asked.
“No.”
Mara's voice shook.
“A black SUV hit me twice.”
Dominic stood.
“Dominic.”
He stopped.
“If you go after everyone now, you'll lose her.”
Our daughter.
Neither said it.
They did not have to.
Dominic returned to the chair.
“Tell me everything.”
For the next hour, Mara did.
Anonymous calls.
Bank transfers.
The investigator Dominic had hired appearing outside places she had never told Dominic she was visiting.
A stranger entering her apartment while she slept.
Her decision to move repeatedly.
Her secret prenatal appointments under her maiden name.
“And yesterday?” Dominic asked.
“I received a message saying they had proof you ordered my surveillance because you planned to take the baby after she was born.”
“I didn't know she existed.”
“I know.”
“Now.”
Mara looked away.
“Yes. Now.”
Someone knocked.
Marco entered carrying a laptop.
His expression told Dominic something had changed.
“The Ridgeway crash wasn't random.”
He placed the computer on the table.
Traffic footage showed Mara's blue sedan approaching the bend.
A black SUV accelerated behind her.
Hit once.
Again.
The sedan broke through the barrier.
Marco paused the image.
The SUV's license plate was visible.
“Registered to a security subsidiary.”
“Whose?”
“Vascari Holdings.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
Marco continued.
“And there's more. Gideon hasn't been stealing from you.”
Mara looked up.
“What?”
“He's been buying you.”
Marco opened financial records.
Companies.
Properties.
Politicians.
Police officials.
Judges.
All quietly moved under holding corporations Gideon controlled.
“For twelve years,” Marco said, “he's been transferring pieces of the organization into entities Dominic doesn't legally own.”
Dominic stared at the screen.
“How much?”
“Forty-one percent that I can confirm.”
Mara understood before Dominic did.
“This isn't kidnapping for leverage.”
Marco nodded.
“It's a coup.”
A phone rang.
Not Dominic's.
Mara's damaged purse vibrated.
Everyone stared.
Dominic found a cheap prepaid phone hidden inside a side pocket.
Mara frowned.
“That isn't mine.”
He answered.
A woman's voice whispered, “Mrs. Vascari?”
“Who is this?”
The woman gasped.
Dominic switched to speaker.
“My name is Elena Ruiz. I'm a neonatal nurse.”
Hannah stepped closer.
“Elena? Where are you?”
“I didn't know the transfer was fake. They told me Children's Memorial requested an emergency transport. When we reached the ambulance, they put a gun against the driver's neck.”
Mara gripped the sheets.
“My daughter?”
“Alive. She's stable. I stayed with her because she needs oxygen.”
“Where?”
“I don't know exactly. An old medical clinic, maybe south of the city.”
Dominic leaned toward the phone.
“What can you see?”
“Nothing. Basement windows.”
“Sounds?”
Elena went silent.
Then—
“Bells.”
Dominic frowned.
“Church bells?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Four, then two.”
Marco was already searching.
Elena whispered urgently.
“They're coming.”
“Wait.”
“One more thing.”
Her voice dropped.
“The man running this keeps calling the baby Francesca.”
Dominic went still.
Mara stared at him.
Nobody had named their daughter.
Except Dominic's mother had once told him, when he was seventeen, that if he ever had a little girl, he should name her Francesca after the sister Dominic's father had erased from the family history.
Only family knew that.
The call disconnected.
Mara watched Dominic's face.
“What is it?”
May you like
He looked at her.
“Gideon isn't working alone.”
