Chapter 9 - THE LAST WEDDING CAKEThey moved Lily to a secure location before dawn.
Detective Bennett arranged a protected house outside the city, staffed by officers who had no connection to the Moretti organization. Dominic insisted that Rachel remain with the child, and Gabriel reluctantly agreed.
Eleanor stayed with them.
Dominic went to the clinic alone.
Marcus Bell lay in a private room with a bandage wrapped around his head. He had been found unconscious in a roadside vehicle, suffering from a gunshot wound and severe smoke inhalation.
When Dominic entered, Marcus attempted to sit up.
“Where's Gabriel?”
“Safe.”
“Lily?”
“Safe.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Thank God.”
Dominic pulled a chair beside the bed.
“You don't get to ask about them until you answer my questions.”
Marcus nodded weakly.
“Fair enough.”
“Who ordered the cakes?”
Marcus stared at the ceiling.
“I don't know.”
“Who poisoned my father?”
“I don't know.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“You've spent years lying to me. Don't make me waste another minute.”
Marcus turned his head.
“Your father was murdered by someone who had access to his private medications. The poison was introduced gradually. He didn't collapse because of a single drink.”
“Who had access?”
“Your father's personal physician. His secretary. Your mother. Gabriel. Me.”
“Who else?”
Marcus swallowed.
“The woman who managed his private household accounts.”
Dominic frowned.
“My father's household accounts were handled by Evelyn Hayes.”
Marcus nodded.
“She was paid to maintain the books, but she discovered payments that didn't make sense. When she confronted your father, he threatened her daughter.”
“Rachel?”
“Not your Rachel. The other Rachel. Lily's mother.”
Dominic felt his stomach tighten.
“Why would he threaten a woman who worked in a hospital?”
“Because she had copied medical records proving your father had been poisoning people to keep them dependent on him. She was going to give the evidence to Gabriel.”
“And then she died.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Dominic rose.
“You told me you arranged a warning, not a murder.”
“I did.”
“Then who changed the order?”
Marcus looked toward the door.
“Your father's attorney.”
“Name.”
“Richard Vale.”
Dominic recognized the name. Vale had managed the Moretti family's legal affairs for nearly twenty years. He had drafted Dominic's inheritance documents, overseen the family foundations, and represented the estate after Anthony's death.
He had also advised Dominic to stop searching for Gabriel.
“Where is he now?”
“Still in Chicago. He has access to every account Anthony left behind.”
Dominic's phone vibrated.
A message from Rachel.
Someone is outside the house. The officers say they have orders to relocate us, but the paperwork has no case number.
Dominic's blood ran cold.
He called her immediately.
“Rachel, don't let anyone inside.”
A crash sounded through the phone.
Then Rachel shouted.
“Lily, get down!”
The line went dead.
Dominic ran from the room.
By the time he reached the parking lot, Gabriel was already waiting beside a car.
“What happened?”
“They're at the safe house.”
Gabriel threw him the keys.
“Get in.”
They drove through the city in silence, each man imagining what might happen if they arrived too late.
When they reached the house, the front door hung open.
Two officers lay unconscious on the porch.
Inside, furniture had been overturned, and shattered glass covered the floor.
Rachel was nowhere to be seen.
Neither was Lily.
Eleanor stood beside the kitchen table, holding a small envelope.
Dominic rushed toward her.
“Where are they?”
“They took them.”
“Who?”
She held out the envelope.
“Richard Vale.”
Dominic ripped it open.
Inside was a photograph of Rachel and Lily sitting in the back of a black SUV.
On the reverse, a message had been written in red ink.
Bring the white rose to the old chapel at midnight. Come alone. If you bring the police, the girl dies.
Gabriel grabbed the photograph.
“I'm going.”
Dominic blocked him.
“No. He wants you to come.”
“Then I'll give him what he wants.”
“And let him kill you?”
Gabriel's face hardened.
“He has my daughter.”
“He has Rachel too.”
The words stopped them both.
For a moment, Dominic saw the fear Gabriel had carried for four years. His brother had survived by making himself unreachable, sacrificing every relationship that might have exposed Lily's location.
Now the past had caught up with him.
Eleanor placed the envelope on the table.
“The white rose isn't a flower.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What is it?”
“A key.”
She removed a small white rose pendant from beneath her blouse. Its petals were made of ivory, and a tiny metal stem protruded from the base.
“Anthony gave this to me when we married. He said it was a family heirloom, but it was actually the key to a safety deposit box.”
“What was inside?”
“Original records. Bank transfers. Medical reports. The names of everyone your father paid to conceal his crimes.”
Gabriel stared at the pendant.
“Why didn't you use it before?”
“Because the box could only be opened by someone who possessed both keys. Your father kept the second one.”
“Where is it?”
Eleanor looked at Dominic.
“He gave it to you when you were seventeen. You wore it on a chain until the day you lost it.”
Dominic remembered the small silver key he had worn as a teenager. His father had told him it belonged to the family vault. It had disappeared during a summer trip, and Anthony had laughed when Dominic reported it missing.
“Richard has it,” Dominic said.
Eleanor nodded.
“He wants the white rose because he can't open the box without it.”
Dominic looked at the photograph of Rachel and Lily.
“Then we'll give him the key.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No. We'll give him the box.”
They made a plan.
At midnight, Dominic would enter the old chapel carrying the pendant. Gabriel would approach from the rear entrance, while Detective Bennett's team positioned themselves outside.
But as Dominic prepared to leave, Eleanor caught his arm.
“There's something else you need to know.”
He turned.
“Mother, not now.”
“Richard Vale didn't act alone. He has been protecting someone for years.”
“Who?”
Eleanor's eyes filled with tears.
“The person who killed your father.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You said you didn't know.”
“I was afraid to say it.”
“Who was it?”
Eleanor took a shaking breath.
Then she whispered, “I killed Anthony.”
The room fell silent.
Gabriel stared at her.
Dominic couldn't speak.
Eleanor continued before either son could react.
“I poisoned him after I discovered he intended to have Gabriel killed. I thought I could stop him without anyone knowing. I thought if he died, the family would finally be free.”
“Then why blame someone else?” Dominic asked.
“Because Richard discovered what I had done. He used it to control me. He made me disappear, convinced everyone I was dead, and threatened to expose me unless I helped him hide the financial records.”
Dominic looked at the white rose pendant.
His mother had survived by keeping the secret.
His brother had survived by hiding.
Vanessa had survived by lying.
And Rachel and Lily were now paying the price.
Dominic placed the pendant in his pocket.
“We'll deal with the truth after we bring them home.”
At midnight, he entered the chapel alone.
Richard Vale waited beneath the altar, holding Rachel by the arm.
Lily stood behind him, crying silently.
Richard smiled.
“Mr. Moretti. You brought the rose.”
Dominic lifted the pendant.
“Let them go.”
Richard shook his head.
“First, the key.”
Dominic placed it on the altar.
Richard released Rachel.
She ran toward Dominic, but he caught her hand and moved her behind him.
Lily rushed to Rachel.
For one precious moment, they were together again.
Then Richard pulled a gun from beneath his coat.
“Now,” he said, “tell me where Gabriel is.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You have the key. You have the rose. What else do you want?”
Richard's smile vanished.
“The truth.”
He raised the gun toward Lily.
“Tell me which one of you killed Rachel Hayes.”
Dominic went cold.
Richard leaned closer.
“Because the woman who died in that highway collision wasn't the only person who knew what your father was doing.”
He looked at Eleanor's pendant in Dominic's hand.
“Lily's mother survived the crash.”
A door creaked behind the altar.
A woman stepped into the candlelight.
Rachel Hayes.
The dead woman.
May you like
Lily's mother.
And she was holding a gun.
