Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER LEFT|
Dominic reached Noah's room in seconds.
The emergency lights had activated, bathing the hallway in dim red. Lily was already beside the boy, holding him against her shoulder.
“I'm here,” Dominic said, kneeling in front of them. “You're safe.”
Noah clung to Lily.
“Someone was in the hallway.”
Dominic looked toward Marcus, who had arrived with two guards.
“Secure the house. Nobody enters or leaves.”
The power returned less than a minute later.
The security system showed no exterior breach.
But one camera had been disabled manually.
The camera overlooking the west staircase.
The staircase that led to the old servants' wing.
Dominic knew the wing had been sealed after Elena's death. His father had ordered the rooms cleared, claiming the structure needed repairs. Since then, no one had been allowed inside without authorization.
He turned to Marcus.
“Who has keys to that wing?”
“Maintenance. Your personal security team. And the house manager.”
“Bring the house manager to me.”
The house manager, Margaret Ellis, had served the Moretti family for twenty-two years. She was in her late fifties, soft-spoken, and known for remembering every detail of the mansion's operations.
She entered the library wearing a cardigan over her nightclothes.
“Mr. Moretti, what's happened?”
Dominic placed the brass key on the desk.
“Have you ever seen this?”
Margaret looked at it.
Her expression changed.
“Where did you find that?”
“In my son's room.”
She sat down slowly.
“I thought those locks had been removed.”
“Who ordered them installed?”
Margaret stared at the key.
“Your father.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“When?”
“Shortly after Mrs. Moretti died.”
“Why?”
“He said the house needed tighter security. He said Noah was vulnerable and that there were people who might try to take him.”
“Did he order the lock on Noah's bedroom?”
Margaret's eyes filled with tears.
“I don't know, sir. I swear I don't.”
“Did you ever hear Noah crying?”
She covered her mouth.
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because your father told me the boy was being treated for a condition that caused night terrors. He said disturbing the arrangements would put him at risk.”
Dominic stood and walked to the window.
Another adult had known.
Another adult had heard his son crying.
And another adult had chosen silence.
“Take me to the west wing.”
Margaret shook her head.
“You shouldn't go in there.”
“Why?”
“Because the last time someone entered, they never came back out.”
The room fell silent.
Dominic turned.
“Who?”
Margaret looked toward the door, as though she feared someone might be listening.
“Mrs. Moretti's personal nurse. Clara. She disappeared three years ago.”
Dominic remembered Elena's medical records.
Clara had been listed as a witness in the official report, but no one had ever explained what happened to her.
“Why was she in the west wing?”
“Your father said she had stolen medication and fled.”
“Did you believe him?”
Margaret shook her head.
“No. But I had a daughter to protect, and your father had made it clear what happened to people who challenged him.”
Dominic looked at her for a long moment.
Then he said, “Noah is my son. Nobody gets to use fear to control him again.”
Margaret lowered her head.
“I know, sir.”
They entered the west wing with Marcus and two security officers. Dust covered the furniture. The curtains had been drawn, and the air smelled of damp wood and old paper.
At the end of the corridor stood a door with a new lock.
Not an old one.
A new one.
Marcus examined the frame.
“Someone has been here recently.”
Dominic pulled the key from his pocket.
It fit.
Inside was a small office containing a desk, a filing cabinet, and a wall covered with photographs.
Elena.
Adrian.
Vanessa.
Richard Sterling.
And Dominic himself.
The photographs had been taken over several years.
Some showed him entering his office. Others showed him leaving the estate. One showed him standing beside Noah at a school event.
On the desk sat a laptop connected to a small external drive.
Marcus checked the device.
“It's running on battery backup. Someone left it active.”
Dominic opened the laptop.
A video file appeared on the screen.
Its title was a single word.
ELENA.
He clicked it.
The recording showed a room he recognized as the old clinic. Elena sat in a chair with a blanket over her shoulders. Her face was pale, but she was conscious.
Across from her sat Richard Sterling.
“You don't understand,” Richard said. “Your husband will never let you leave.”
Elena looked directly at him.
“Then I'll leave without his permission.”
Richard leaned forward.
“You have no idea what you've uncovered.”
“I know your company has been laundering money through the foundation. I know Vincent has been paying witnesses to disappear. And I know you helped him.”
Richard's expression hardened.
“You're making a mistake.”
“No,” Elena replied. “I made one when I trusted your sister.”
The video ended abruptly.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Vanessa had helped Richard.
But Elena had been alive at the clinic.
And someone had moved her from there before the police arrived.
He opened another file.
It contained a recording of Vincent Moretti speaking to an unknown man.
“If Elena goes public, the agreement collapses. Adrian has already failed me once. I will not allow Dominic to inherit a war he doesn't understand.”
The unknown man replied, “And the boy?”
Vincent was silent for a moment.
“Keep the child close. He is the only leverage Dominic has left.”
Dominic felt sick.
His father had seen Noah not as a child, but as leverage.
Marcus searched the desk and found a sealed envelope addressed to Dominic.
Inside was a note in Vincent's handwriting.
If you are reading this, then I have failed to keep the family intact. The person responsible for Elena's disappearance was not Richard, and it was not Vanessa. The order came from someone I believed I could control.
At the bottom, Vincent had written a name.
But the ink had been smeared across the page, leaving only the first and last letters visible.
M——N.
Dominic looked at Marcus.
“Find the original.”
Marcus searched the cabinet.
Behind a false panel, he discovered a second envelope containing a photograph and a medical bracelet.
The photograph showed Elena standing beside a woman outside the mansion.
Dominic recognized the woman immediately.
Clara.
Elena's missing nurse.
The medical bracelet bore a patient's name.
MARGARET ELLIS.
Dominic turned toward the house manager.
“Why is your name on a hospital bracelet?”
Margaret looked as though the blood had drained from her body.
“I told you I didn't know what happened to Clara.”
“That wasn't my question.”
She began to cry.
“I was there when Mrs. Moretti was brought back to the house.”
Dominic stepped toward her.
“Back from where?”
Margaret looked at the photograph.
Then whispered, “The clinic.”
“You said she died before she reached the hospital.”
“I lied.”
The words seemed to echo through the empty wing.
Margaret sank into a chair.
“Mrs. Moretti was alive. Your father kept her in the old guest suite for two days. She begged to see you. He said she needed to recover before anyone knew she had survived.”
Dominic's voice trembled.
“Then what happened?”
Margaret covered her face.
“On the third night, the room was empty. The window was open. Clara was gone. Your father told us Mrs. Moretti had escaped.”
“Did she?”
Margaret shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Dominic stared at the photograph again.
Behind Elena and Clara, partly obscured by the doorway, stood a third person.
A young woman with dark hair.
Someone Dominic had known his entire life.
May you like
Someone he had never suspected.
His mother.
