Chapter 5 - THE DEAD MAN AT THE GATE
Nobody opened the gate.
Dominic ordered his guards to surround the stranger while Marco watched him through the security cameras. The man didn't run. He didn't threaten anyone. He simply stood in the rain, holding a small leather case.
Vincent gripped the back of a chair.
"That's not Edward."
Dominic looked at him.
"You just called him impossible."
"Because I buried my brother."
"You buried a body you couldn't identify."
Vincent's face twisted.
"Don't make the mistake of believing a familiar face is proof of anything."
Dominic walked toward the foyer.
"Open the gate."
Marco blocked his path.
"Boss, we don't know who he is."
"Then we'll ask."
The gate opened slowly.
The stranger stepped inside, moving with the careful stiffness of a man who had spent years carrying an old injury. His hair was gray at the temples. A scar crossed his left cheek, disappearing beneath his collar.
When he reached the entrance, he looked at Dominic.
"You have Catherine's eyes."
Dominic didn't lower his weapon.
"Who are you?"
The man glanced past him at Vincent.
"Ask your father."
Vincent stood at the top of the stairs, trembling with rage.
"You're a liar."
The stranger smiled without humor.
"And you're still afraid of the truth."
Dominic raised his hand, stopping the guards from moving closer.
"Name."
"Edward Moretti."
Vincent made a strangled sound.
"No."
Edward opened the leather case.
Inside lay a faded wedding invitation, a photograph of Catherine holding a newborn, and a bloodstained pocket watch engraved with the initials E.M.
Dominic recognized the watch from a photograph in his mother's bedroom.
"Where have you been?"
"Forty years trying to remember who I was before your family took everything from me."
Edward explained that he had survived the fire, but the injuries left him unconscious. A man working for their grandfather had carried him out and delivered him to a doctor in another state. When Edward awoke, he had been told that his wife and child were dead and that returning to the Moretti family would put others in danger.
He had lived under another name until a letter arrived from Catherine shortly before her death.
The letter contained only one sentence.
The child survived. Find her before Vincent does.
"Why didn't you come sooner?" Dominic asked.
"Because I didn't know if the letter was real. And because someone has spent decades making sure I stayed away."
Edward's gaze moved toward the study.
"Where is the dress?"
Dominic's expression hardened.
"Why?"
"Because Catherine didn't trust paper records. She sewed the truth into the dress, where no man in this family would think to look."
Vincent descended the stairs.
"You're too late."
Edward turned toward him.
"Is that what you told Elena before you left her bleeding on the floor?"
The accusation struck the room like a gunshot.
Dominic looked from one brother to the other.
"What happened to Edward's wife?"
Vincent's voice rose.
"She betrayed us!"
"She was pregnant," Edward shouted. "She begged you to let her leave."
"She knew things that could destroy the family!"
"And you decided her child deserved to die for it?"
Vincent reached for his cane, but Dominic stepped between them.
"Enough."
He turned to Edward.
"Tell me what happened to the baby."
Edward's anger collapsed into grief.
"I never held her. Elena gave birth before the fire. Catherine got the child out, but by the time I could walk again, everyone told me the baby had died."
"Margaret Ellis says Catherine took her to a family outside Chicago."
Edward nodded slowly.
"Then my daughter may still be alive."
Dominic's phone vibrated.
A message from Marco's surveillance team.
They had traced the car found at the cemetery. It belonged to Vanessa. The blood in the trunk was human, but the sample was too small for immediate identification.
There was also a security photograph from the cemetery entrance.
Vanessa had arrived with Lily.
Both had disappeared inside the grounds.
Dominic felt his stomach tighten.
He called every guard assigned to the mansion.
No one had seen Lily return.
"Where is she?" he demanded.
Edward stepped closer.
"Who is Lily?"
"An employee. She's seven months pregnant."
Edward's expression changed at the mention of the pregnancy.
"What's the baby's father's name?"
Dominic hesitated.
"I don't know. Lily has never discussed him."
Edward closed his eyes.
"Then we may have a much bigger problem."
He explained that Catherine's letter had mentioned a second child, a baby whose identity had been concealed to protect the firstborn. He had always assumed it referred to another member of the family.
But if Lily's pregnancy was connected to the old secret, someone might be targeting her for reasons beyond the wedding dress.
Dominic's phone rang.
Vanessa's name appeared on the screen.
He answered immediately.
"Where is Lily?"
Vanessa was crying.
"Dominic, listen to me. I didn't hurt her."
"Where are you?"
"At the cemetery."
"Put Lily on the phone."
A muffled sound came through the speaker.
Then Lily's frightened voice.
"Dominic, don't let them open the grave."
The call ended.
Dominic stared at the phone.
Edward went pale.
Vincent sank into a chair.
Because all three men understood what Lily's words meant.
Someone had discovered a second grave beneath the Moretti family mausoleum.
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And whatever lay inside it was important enough to make a pregnant woman beg for help.
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