Chapter 7 - THE DAUGHTER HE NEVER KNEW
Dominic stared at the footprint.
It was the same brand and size as the shoes he wore, but the sole was cleaner than his. Someone had deliberately left the impression to suggest he had entered the tunnel.
"Seal the exit," he ordered. "Nobody leaves until we've documented the entire passage."
Marco's men moved quickly.
Vanessa sat beside Lily, holding her hand.
"I swear I didn't know," Vanessa whispered. "I thought the dress was just evidence of my mother's death."
Lily looked at her.
"Then why did you order me to drag it through the mud?"
Vanessa's face crumpled.
"Because I was afraid you'd discover the message. My father spent years telling me the Morettis would destroy anyone who exposed what happened. I thought if the dress disappeared, the secret would disappear with it."
"You could have asked me to help."
"I didn't trust anyone."
Lily looked away.
Dominic heard the conversation but didn't interrupt. He had spent his life believing fear was a weakness other people carried. Now he understood how easily it could turn an ordinary person into an accomplice.
Edward approached Lily slowly.
"May I ask you something?"
She nodded.
"Do you have any photographs of your mother?"
Lily reached into her purse and pulled out a small picture. It showed a woman with dark hair standing beside a lake, holding a toddler.
Edward stared at the woman's face.
"Elena."
His voice broke.
He touched the photograph as if it were something sacred.
"She had your eyes."
Lily's hands began to tremble.
"Are you saying you're my grandfather?"
Edward nodded.
"I believe I am."
Dominic felt a complicated ache rise in his chest. Lily had worked in his house for nearly a year. She had cleaned his study, served his meals, and quietly endured Vanessa's cruelty. He had never asked about her family because he had assumed her life was none of his business.
Now she might be the last living descendant of the brother his family had erased.
But Lily wasn't ready to accept it.
"My mother told me my father abandoned us before I was born. She never mentioned the Morettis."
"She may have been protecting you," Edward said.
"From what?"
Edward glanced toward Vincent.
"From the truth."
Vincent stood near the stairs, his expression unreadable.
Dominic turned to him.
"Did you know Lily was Edward's granddaughter?"
"No."
"Did you know her mother was Elena Moretti?"
Vincent looked at the photograph.
For a moment, something like recognition crossed his face.
Then he shook his head.
"I haven't seen that woman in forty years."
Edward stepped forward.
"You're lying again."
Vincent's voice sharpened.
"I was twenty-five years old when your wife disappeared. I was fighting our father, trying to keep the business from collapsing, and attempting to stop this family from tearing itself apart."
"You were trying to take everything."
"I was trying to survive!"
The words echoed through the chamber.
Dominic raised a hand.
"Enough. We have the recording. We have the birth certificate. We have a body in a grave that shouldn't exist and an empty passage somebody used to escape."
He looked at his father.
"You're coming with us."
Vincent laughed bitterly.
"Where?"
"Somewhere you'll answer questions without your guards standing behind you."
Before Vincent could reply, the lights went out.
A gunshot exploded in the darkness.
Lily screamed.
Dominic dropped to the floor, pulling her behind the stone coffin. Marco returned fire, his weapon flashing in the blackness.
"Everyone down!" Dominic shouted.
The emergency lights flickered on.
Vincent was gone.
So was the cassette.
Dominic sprang to his feet.
"Seal every exit!"
Marco ran toward the tunnel.
"He's heading east!"
Dominic followed, leaving Edward to protect Lily and Vanessa.
The passage opened onto a wooded slope behind the cemetery. Fresh tire tracks marked the wet ground, leading to a black SUV parked near the river.
Dominic reached the road just as the vehicle accelerated away.
He fired once at the rear tire, but the SUV disappeared around a bend.
Marco caught up with him.
"Boss, we have a problem."
"What now?"
"The security system at the mansion has been accessed remotely. Someone copied the entire archive before we left."
Dominic stared toward the road.
"Who had access?"
"Only you, your father, and the senior security team."
His phone rang.
An unfamiliar number.
Dominic answered.
Vincent's voice came through, calm and almost gentle.
"You should have left the dead buried, son."
"Where are you?"
"Somewhere you won't find me until it's too late."
Dominic clenched his jaw.
"You took the recording."
"I took what belongs to this family."
"Your family is standing in a cemetery trying to understand why you lied for forty years."
Vincent sighed.
"Then let me tell you the truth. The baby Catherine saved wasn't Edward's only child."
Dominic went still.
"Explain."
"Your grandfather had another son. A son born before Edward and me. He was the firstborn, the rightful heir, and the only man who knew what happened that night."
"Who was he?"
Vincent's answer was barely audible.
"Your mother's first husband."
Dominic felt the blood drain from his face.
"My mother was married before you?"
"Yes."
"Who did she marry?"
Vincent paused.
Then he said a name that made Dominic question everything he had ever known.
"Richard Sterling."
Dominic turned toward the cemetery.
Vanessa was standing in the distance, staring at him.
Richard Sterling had been her father.
And if Vincent was telling the truth, Vanessa wasn't merely the daughter of a man connected to the Moretti family.
She was Catherine's stepdaughter.
Which meant the woman who had tried to destroy the wedding dress might have been protecting a secret about her own birth.
Then Vincent added one final sentence.
"Ask Vanessa why her birth certificate says her mother died three years before she was born."
The call disconnected.
Dominic looked at Vanessa.
She was already crying.
And when he approached her, she whispered:
May you like
"My father told me my whole life was a lie."
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