Chapter 3 - The Photograph Beneath the Floorboard
By morning, Dominic's fever had begun to respond to treatment, but his condition remained serious.
Norah had slept for forty minutes in a chair outside his room.
She woke when Leo placed a cup of coffee beside her.
"You're still here," he said.
"Good morning to you, too."
"Most people would have taken the money and left."
"Most people probably value their lives."
Leo studied her face.
"You heard him last night."
It wasn't a question.
Norah took a sip of coffee.
"I heard him having a nightmare."
"You heard a name."
"Elena."
Leo's jaw tightened.
"Forget it."
"Is she his sister?"
He turned away.
"Some questions have expensive answers."
"Then I'm glad I don't have any money."
Leo almost laughed, but the expression vanished when Dominic called from the bedroom.
Norah entered to find him sitting upright, pale and exhausted.
He had shaved sometime during the night, though the effort appeared to have cost him.
"You talk too much," he told her.
"You dream too loudly."
His eyes narrowed.
"What did I say?"
"That someone named Elena couldn't breathe."
For several seconds, he didn't move.
Then he reached for the water on his nightstand.
"Never mention her again."
Norah didn't argue.
She checked his condition and explained the next steps in his care. Dominic listened with visible impatience, but he no longer threw things.
It was progress, though neither of them would have admitted it.
Later that afternoon, Norah went to the linen closet for clean towels.
The room was narrow, tucked behind a staircase, and smelled of cedar and old fabric. As she reached for a stack of sheets, a small object slipped from the pocket of a folded robe.
A photograph landed faceup on the floor.
Norah picked it up.
It showed a younger Dominic standing beside a smiling woman with dark hair. He looked perhaps twenty-five, without the hard lines around his eyes. The woman had one arm linked through his.
She wore a silver necklace with a tiny star-shaped pendant.
On the back, someone had written three words.
You promised, Dom.
Norah was about to return it when a shadow fell across the doorway.
Leo.
His expression turned dangerous.
"Where did you get that?"
"It fell out of the robe."
He took the photograph from her hand.
"Forget you saw it."
"That's the second time someone has told me to forget something."
"Then perhaps you should start listening."
He placed the photograph in his pocket and left.
That evening, Norah noticed Dominic watching her as she changed his dressing.
"Leo told me you were snooping."
"I was looking for towels."
"And you found something."
"A photograph."
His expression hardened.
"Did you look at it?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because it was on the floor, and I'm a human being with functioning eyes."
He stared at her for so long that she began to wonder whether she had gone too far.
Then he said, "She was my sister."
Norah waited.
"Elena died three years ago," he continued. "A car went off the road during a storm. The driver survived."
He stopped.
"Who was driving?" Norah asked softly.
"I was."
The answer landed between them.
Dominic turned toward the window.
"She was twenty-six. She had a husband, a little boy, and a habit of believing everyone could be saved."
His voice became rough.
"She spent the last five minutes of her life calling my name."
Norah felt a coldness that had nothing to do with the room.
"What happened?"
"I was angry. We argued. I drove too fast."
He looked at her.
"And when the car went over the embankment, I couldn't get her door open."
For the first time, his cruelty made a terrible kind of sense.
Not because it was justified.
Because it had somewhere to come from.
"Dominic, an accident isn't the same as a decision to hurt someone."
"You weren't there."
"No. I wasn't."
She finished securing the dressing.
"But you were there. And you've been punishing yourself ever since."
He looked as if he wanted to throw her out.
Instead, he asked, "Do you believe people can change?"
"I believe they can make different choices."
"That's not what I asked."
Norah met his eyes.
"Then you'll have to show me."
For a moment, the room was silent.
Then Dominic reached toward the bedside table.
"There's something I need you to see."
He opened a locked drawer and removed a small envelope.
Inside was a child's drawing of a house, a crooked tree, and three stick figures holding hands.
On the back was a name.
MATEO.
"My nephew," Dominic said. "He's been missing for eleven months."
Norah stared at the drawing.
"Missing?"
"The official report says his father took him overseas."
"Do you believe that?"
"No."
His eyes lifted to hers.
"I believe someone in this house knows where he is."
Before Norah could respond, a sharp crash came from downstairs.
Then a man's voice shouted.
"Mr. Rossi! We've got a problem!"
Leo appeared in the doorway, holding a security tablet.
His face was pale.
"Dominic, the police are at the gates."
He turned the screen toward them.
A photograph filled the display.
It showed Norah Hayes leaving a hospital three years earlier, wearing a nurse's uniform.
Beneath it was a message.
THE WOMAN YOU HIRED KNOWS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO ELENA ROSSI.
Dominic slowly turned toward Norah.
And for the first time, she saw something worse than anger in his eyes.
May you like
Betrayal.
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