Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN IN THE LAKE HOUSE|
Dominic refused to accept that Elena was dead until he saw the evidence himself.
The property near Lake Champlain stood at the end of a narrow road surrounded by pine trees. Police tape fluttered in the wind. A small team of investigators had secured the grounds, and a forensic van was parked beside the house.
Dominic arrived with Lily, Marcus, and Samuel.
The lead investigator met them outside.
“We found remains in a shallow grave behind the boathouse. We haven't completed the identification.”
“Was there a locket?”
“Yes.”
“May I see it?”
The investigator shook his head.
“Not until the forensic team finishes.”
Dominic accepted the answer, but his eyes moved toward the house.
A second-floor window was open.
The curtains shifted in the wind.
“Who discovered the body?”
“A contractor inspecting the property. He reported a disturbed section of ground.”
“Who hired him?”
The investigator checked his notes.
“An estate management company.”
Samuel stepped forward.
“Which company?”
The investigator gave him the name.
Samuel went pale.
“That's one of the companies listed in the missing foundation records.”
Dominic turned toward him.
“You're certain?”
“Yes.”
The investigator watched them carefully.
“I need to ask you something. Why was this property purchased under your name?”
“I didn't purchase it.”
“The paperwork says otherwise.”
“Then someone forged my signature.”
“Do you have proof?”
Dominic looked toward the house.
“Not yet.”
The investigator's expression hardened.
“Until we establish what happened here, I strongly advise you not to enter the property.”
Dominic nodded.
He would not give anyone a reason to turn the investigation against him.
Instead, he asked Samuel to obtain the original purchase documents and requested a copy of the contractor's report.
While they waited, Lily walked toward the boathouse.
Marcus followed at a distance.
She stopped beside a weathered wooden post where someone had carved a small flower into the surface.
Lily touched it.
“My mother used to draw this.”
Dominic approached.
“How do you know?”
“Thomas had a photograph of her drawing it on a hospital window. He said it was the only thing she could remember from her childhood.”
The carving looked old.
But the wood around it had been scratched recently.
Marcus examined the marks.
“Someone has been here within the last few days.”
Dominic looked toward the road.
A black sedan sat beyond the police vehicles.
Its windows were tinted.
When Marcus approached, the car pulled away.
He returned moments later.
“No plates visible. Could be the same vehicle that followed your mother.”
Dominic looked at the boathouse.
Inside, beneath a stack of rotting fishing equipment, he found a loose floorboard. Beneath it lay a waterproof container.
He did not open it immediately.
He called the investigator and explained exactly where it had been found.
After the container was photographed and examined, they opened it together.
Inside was a small digital recorder, several photographs, and a letter.
The letter was addressed to Dominic.
If you have found this, then the person who wanted me erased has failed.
Dominic's hands shook.
The handwriting was Elena's.
I survived the first attempt. I did not survive the second. But the truth is still alive, and the people responsible have spent years trying to find it.
He stopped reading.
Lily stood beside him, holding her breath.
The letter continued.
Do not trust the recording that bears your voice. It was created to make you believe you were responsible for Daniel's disappearance. The original conversation is on the recorder. It contains the name of the person who ordered everything.
Dominic looked at the device.
The investigator secured it and arranged for a forensic technician to extract the audio.
While they waited, Samuel received the purchase records.
The property had been bought through a shell company six months after Elena's disappearance. The funds came from the family foundation, but the transfer had been authorized by a second signatory.
Margaret Ellis.
Dominic stared at the document.
“Margaret?”
Samuel nodded.
“She was the house manager who told us she saw Elena alive.”
“Bring her in.”
Marcus called the mansion.
No one answered.
He tried again.
Finally, a security officer picked up.
“Sir, Margaret has left the property.”
“When?”
“About twenty minutes ago. She said she had received an urgent call from the hospital.”
Dominic's stomach tightened.
“Which hospital?”
The officer checked the visitor log.
“She didn't say.”
Dominic looked at Marcus.
“Find her.”
But before Marcus could leave, the forensic technician approached with the extracted audio.
The recording began with Elena's voice.
“If anything happens to me, Lily must be protected.”
A man answered.
“You should have thought about that before you found the ledger.”
Elena replied, “I know what you did. I know about the payments, the forged contracts, and the people who disappeared.”
The man's voice became clearer.
“You don't understand the scale of this operation.”
“Then explain it to me.”
A pause.
Then the man said, “Vincent believes he controls the family. Richard believes he controls the money. Dominic believes he controls the business. But none of them understands who actually gives the orders.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“Who are you?”
The recording continued.
Elena asked the same question.
The man answered with a name.
The technician stopped the audio.
“I'm sorry. The next section is corrupted.”
“Repair it,” Dominic ordered.
“We're trying.”
Lily stood frozen.
“Did you hear the voice?”
Dominic nodded.
He had.
And he knew it.
It belonged to someone he had trusted since childhood.
Someone who had attended his wedding, held Noah as a baby, and stood beside him at Elena's funeral.
Someone who had insisted the family needed to move forward.
Before Dominic could say the name, his phone rang.
It was Noah's therapist.
“Mr. Moretti, I need you to come home immediately.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Noah received a message from someone claiming to know where his mother is.”
Dominic felt his blood turn cold.
“What did the message say?”
The therapist hesitated.
“He showed me a photograph.”
“Of what?”
“A woman standing outside a school. The woman resembles Elena.”
Dominic looked at Lily.
“Where is the photograph?”
“With Noah.”
“Keep him with the security team. Don't let anyone take him anywhere.”
He ended the call and turned toward the road.
Then his phone buzzed again.
A message from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of Noah standing outside his school that morning.
Beneath it were nine words.
YOUR SON IS SAFE ONLY WHILE YOU FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTIONS.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Another message appeared.
COME TO THE OLD CHAPEL AT MIDNIGHT. BRING THE LEDGER. COME ALONE.
Lily grabbed his arm.
“It's a trap.”
“I know.”
“Then don't go.”
Dominic looked at the photograph of his son.
“I won't let them use him again.”
He turned to Marcus.
“Get every person we trust to the mansion. Nobody gets near Noah without authorization.”
Then he looked at Lily.
“Whatever happens tonight, you stay with him.”
She shook her head.
“I'm not letting you face this alone.”
Dominic almost argued.
Then he remembered her words in the kitchen.
Why does protection always look like abandonment?
He nodded.
“Then we go together. But we do this our way.”
At 11:47 p.m., they arrived at the old chapel.
The building stood on land once owned by the Moretti family. Its stained-glass windows were broken, and the front doors hung crookedly from their hinges.
Dominic entered with the ledger and the recorder.
Lily remained beside Marcus near the entrance.
A single candle burned near the altar.
A man stepped out from behind a pillar.
Dominic recognized him.
His uncle, Michael Moretti, the brother Vincent had disowned twenty years earlier.
Michael smiled.
“You've finally learned to ask questions.”
Dominic raised the ledger.
“You ordered Elena's disappearance.”
Michael's smile faded.
“I gave an order to protect this family.”
“You forged my signature. You used my money. You threatened my son.”
Michael looked toward Lily.
“And you've brought the girl.”
Dominic stepped between them.
“Don't look at her.”
Michael sighed.
“Your father made the same mistake. He thought the family could survive without the truth.”
He reached into his coat.
Dominic raised his hands.
“Don't.”
Michael withdrew a small photograph instead.
It showed Elena standing beside a little girl outside a hospital.
The child was about two years old.
On the back was a handwritten note.
THE FIRST DAUGHTER WAS NEVER THE ONLY ONE.
Dominic stared at the photograph.
Lily took one step forward.
“Who is the other child?”
Michael looked at her.
May you like
Then smiled.
“The girl who was buried in your mother's place.”
