Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Paid for the Room
Dominic didn't remember picking up his phone.
One moment, he was staring at the photograph of Isabella in a hospital bed. The next, he was barking orders at the head of his security team while Vanessa stood frozen beside the staircase.
“Lock down every exit. Nobody leaves this property without my permission.”
Vanessa's face tightened.
“You can't be serious.”
Dominic turned toward her.
“My wife has been alive for three years, and someone has been moving her from hospital to hospital. You have ten seconds to tell me everything you know.”
“I told you, I don't know where she is!”
“Then tell me why your name is on that receipt.”
“Because I found the watch!”
“Where?”
“In the old storage room!”
“Which storage room, Vanessa?”
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
That hesitation told Dominic more than any confession could have.
He handed the watch and papers to Lily.
“Put everything back in the box. Don't touch the photograph any more than necessary.”
Lily obeyed, her hands trembling.
Vanessa watched the maid with open hatred.
“You've been working here for two years,” she said. “You've had access to every room in this house. Perhaps you should explain why a package connected to my fiancé's dead wife arrived while you were on duty.”
Lily looked up, stunned.
“I didn't know what was inside it.”
“Convenient.”
“Enough,” Dominic snapped.
He stepped between the women.
“Lily didn't send this package. And until I know otherwise, nobody in this house is to accuse her of anything.”
The loyalty in his voice surprised Lily. Dominic had always been courteous to his staff, but never had he defended one of them against Vanessa so forcefully.
A security officer hurried into the foyer.
“Mr. Moretti, the delivery driver is gone. We have the vehicle registration, but the license plate appears to be registered to a rental company.”
“Find the company. Get the driver's identity. Now.”
“Yes, sir.”
Dominic looked at the discharge slip again.
The woman who paid for her room has three days to return the watch.
The woman.
Not the person.
Whoever had written the message knew exactly who was responsible.
“Lily,” he said, “did the driver say anything unusual?”
She thought for a moment.
“He asked me to sign for it. Then he asked whether Mrs. Moretti still lived here.”
Dominic went still.
“What did you tell him?”
“I said she had passed away.”
“And what did he say?”
Lily swallowed.
“He looked relieved.”
Vanessa made a strangled sound.
Dominic turned.
“Why would a delivery driver be relieved to learn the person receiving the package was dead?”
“He could have been nervous,” Vanessa said quickly.
“Perhaps. But you seem to have an explanation for everything except the things that matter.”
He walked toward his study.
“Lily, come with me.”
Vanessa stepped in front of him.
“Where are you going?”
“To make a few calls.”
“Dominic, we have a charity dinner. The governor's wife will be there. The Sterling Foundation is sponsoring half the event.”
He stared at her.
“My wife might be alive, Vanessa.”
“And if she is?” Vanessa shot back before catching herself.
Silence swallowed the foyer.
Dominic slowly turned his head.
“What did you just say?”
Vanessa's eyes widened.
“I meant—if someone is pretending to be Isabella, you can't let them destroy your life. You need to think rationally.”
“Leave.”
“Dominic—”
“Go to your room. Do not leave this mansion.”
For the first time since their engagement, Vanessa looked at him as if she were afraid of what he might do.
She climbed the staircase without another word.
Inside his study, Dominic locked the door and placed the photograph beneath a desk lamp.
Isabella looked exhausted in the picture. Her left wrist was bandaged. A plastic identification bracelet circled her other arm, but the photograph's angle obscured the hospital name.
He enlarged the image on his phone.
Behind Isabella stood a nurse in a pale uniform.
On the nurse's badge was a surname.
REYES.
Dominic called his private investigator, Marcus Hale.
“I need you to find a nurse named Reyes who worked in a hospital around June 2025. The patient was Isabella Moretti. She was presumed dead in December 2022.”
There was a long silence.
“Dominic, are you certain?”
“I have a photograph.”
“Then don't send it through email. I'll come to you.”
“No. Start with the hospital records. Quietly.”
After the call, Lily knocked softly.
“Sir? I think you should see something.”
She held out a small piece of paper.
“Where did you get that?”
“It was caught in the velvet lining. I noticed it when I repacked the box.”
The paper was a narrow strip torn from a receipt. On it was a handwritten number: 217.
Beneath the number were two letters.
E.R.
Dominic stared at them.
“Did Vanessa see this?”
“I don't think so.”
He looked toward the locked study door.
“Good. Don't tell anyone about it.”
A moment later, his phone vibrated.
Marcus had sent a message.
Found something strange. Isabella's original accident report was amended twice. The final amendment was authorized by a deputy medical examiner who died six months later.
Another message arrived.
And the hospital photograph may not be from 2025.
Dominic's heart pounded.
What do you mean?
Marcus replied almost immediately.
The room in the background belongs to a private medical facility that didn't open until 2024.
Dominic looked at the photograph again.
Isabella hadn't been in a hospital in 2025.
Someone had placed her there much more recently—or had deliberately altered the date.
Then his phone rang.
An unfamiliar number.
He answered without speaking.
A woman's voice emerged, weak and breathless.
“Dominic?”
Every muscle in his body locked.
He knew that voice.
He had spent four years hearing it in dreams.
“Isabella?”
A faint sob came through the line.
“Don't trust Vanessa.”
Dominic gripped the desk.
“Where are you? Tell me where you are, sweetheart. I'll come get you.”
“You can't.”
“Why?”
“Because she knows I'm calling.”
A door slammed on the other end.
The woman gasped.
Then came a man's voice, low and unfamiliar.
“You were told not to use the phone.”
The call ended.
Dominic stared at the screen.
May you like
Then a final message appeared from the same unknown number.
IF YOU WANT YOUR WIFE BACK, COME TO ROOM 217 ALONE.
