Chapter 3 - SIX MINUTES MISSINGDominic reached the staff wing before the second alarm finished sounding.
Sophia was three steps behind him.
Two guards had already drawn their weapons, but Dominic ordered them lower.
“Lily is nearby.”
The hallway lights flashed red.
One door stood open.
Sophia stopped.
“My room.”
Dominic moved first.
The bedroom was empty.
No intruder.
No Lily either.
Sophia made a sound Dominic would remember for years.
Not a scream.
Worse.
A mother’s breath leaving her body.
“Lily?”
She ran inside.
“LILY!”
Dominic grabbed the radio.
“Lock the property. Nobody moves.”
A security woman came running from Ethan’s suite.
“Mr. Moretti!”
“Where is Lily?”
“With Ethan.”
Sophia spun.
“What?”
“Ethan heard the alarm. He took her into his bathroom and locked the door.”
For one second nobody moved.
Then Sophia ran.
Ethan opened the bathroom only after Dominic gave the security phrase through the door.
The eight-year-old stood holding a fireplace poker far too heavy for him.
Lily was behind him clutching a stuffed elephant.
Dominic stared.
“Where did you get that?”
Ethan looked at the poker.
“Dad, we have bigger problems.”
Sophia dropped to her knees and pulled Lily against her.
Dominic looked at his son.
“You did exactly right.”
Ethan’s chin trembled.
“Was someone coming for her?”
Dominic refused to lie.
“I think so.”
Ethan gripped the poker harder.
“Then she sleeps here.”
Sophia almost cried again.
Dominic touched his son’s shoulder.
“She’ll be protected.”
“I said here.”
Dominic might have argued with governors, prosecutors, rival bosses and billionaires.
He did not argue with Ethan that night.
Lily stayed.
Security found the breach point eleven minutes later.
A side door near the laundry room had been opened using a valid staff badge.
The badge belonged to Maria Santos, a sixty-two-year-old laundry supervisor who had worked at the estate for thirteen years.
Maria was asleep at home in White Plains.
Her badge was still inside her purse.
Cloned.
Again.
The intruder knew Moretti systems.
Again.
The intruder vanished before cameras could identify him.
Again.
Dominic stood in the security room at 3:40 a.m. staring at the same six missing minutes from the cake attack.
“Someone is anticipating every move.”
Victor nodded.
“Which means?”
“Internal intelligence.”
Dominic looked at him.
Victor did not flinch.
They had known each other eighteen years.
Dominic trusted him.
But tonight trust had become a luxury.
“Give me your weapon.”
Victor stared.
“What?”
“Your weapon.”
Slowly, Victor removed his pistol and placed it on the desk.
“Phone.”
Victor handed it over.
“Badge.”
He surrendered that too.
Sophia watched from the doorway.
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“You think it’s me?”
“I think anyone offended by being questioned tonight is useless to me.”
Victor considered that.
Then nodded.
“Fair.”
Dominic turned to Sophia.
“You too.”
She blinked.
“My weapon?”
“Phone.”
She handed it over.
“You really suspect me?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because if I exempt the woman I want to believe, I’m no better than the man who missed this in the first place.”
Sophia studied him.
Something in her expression softened.
Barely.
Dominic’s technology director arrived.
For two hours they rebuilt the network logs.
At 5:51 a.m., they found the first real break.
The camera interruption had not been activated from Dominic’s house.
It had been scheduled weeks earlier.
Someone had planted a hidden command inside a routine software update.
The command would trigger only once.
On Ethan’s birthday.
At 7:03 p.m.
Sophia frowned.
“So this was planned weeks ago.”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked toward Victor.
“Who installed the update?”
Victor checked.
“Caleb Ross.”
The estate technology director slowly raised his head.
“That’s impossible.”
Dominic looked at him.
Caleb had been standing three feet away.
“I installed the update,” he admitted. “But I downloaded it from our security vendor’s internal portal.”
“Which vendor?”
“Argus Residential Systems.”
Victor swore softly.
Dominic knew why.
Argus handled security for several Moretti properties.
Gabriel had recommended them.
“Who owns Argus?” Sophia asked.
Victor answered.
“Officially? A holding company.”
“And unofficially?”
Dominic looked at the screen.
“We’re about to find out.”
They traced corporate registrations.
Delaware.
Nevada.
Wyoming.
Another Delaware entity.
Finally a name surfaced.
Parker Strategic Investments.
Sophia stared.
“That means nothing to me.”
It meant something to Dominic.
“Parker was my mother’s maiden name.”
Victor looked up.
“Gabriel?”
“Maybe.”
Dominic called his financial investigators.
Then Sophia’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
She answered on speaker.
“Hello?”
Breathing.
Nothing else.
Sophia’s face tightened.
“Gabriel?”
The caller disconnected.
Ten seconds later, a text arrived.
A photograph.
Daniel Carter.
Alive.
Taken four years earlier.
He was sitting in a restaurant across from Gabriel Moretti.
Timestamped two days before Daniel died.
Sophia stared at it.
“You said Daniel contacted you privately.”
Dominic nodded.
“Did you know he met Gabriel?”
“No.”
A message appeared beneath the image.
Ask Dominic why your husband was afraid of his family.
Sophia slowly looked at him.
“I don’t know,” Dominic said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Because every answer you give me seems to develop another answer six hours later.”
Dominic accepted that.
“Then we find this one together.”
The investigator called back at 6:18.
Parker Strategic did not belong to Gabriel.
Not directly.
Its controlling trustee was a man named Anthony Mercer.
Dominic knew Anthony.
Everyone in his organization did.
Anthony Mercer had been Dominic’s father’s attorney for twenty-seven years.
He was seventy-two.
Retired.
And according to Dominic, currently living in Florida.
Sophia asked, “Could Gabriel use him as a front?”
“Possibly.”
Victor interrupted.
“Dominic.”
“What?”
“I know Anthony’s family.”
“So?”
“He has one son.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Name?”
“Matthew.”
Sophia’s face changed before Dominic’s did.
“What?”
She whispered, “Daniel had a friend named Matthew.”
Dominic stared.
“How do you know?”
“He came to our wedding.”
“What surname?”
“I don’t remember.”
She searched her phone backups.
Old photographs appeared.
Wedding.
Daniel smiling.
Sophia younger.
Guests around them.
Then she stopped.
A man stood beside Daniel wearing a gray suit.
His face was clear.
Sophia pointed.
“Matthew.”
Victor went pale.
Dominic looked at him.
“You recognize him.”
Victor nodded slowly.
“The man in the gas-station footage.”
Sophia’s knees almost gave out.
Dominic caught her elbow.
She pulled away.
“Matthew knew Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“He came to our apartment.”
Her voice began shaking.
“He held Lily when she was two days old.”
Dominic felt rage settle into something cold and precise.
“What was his relationship with Daniel?”
“They went to college together.”
“Profession?”
“Finance. I think.”
“Did he work for Moretti?”
“No.”
Sophia frowned.
“At least Daniel said he didn’t.”
Victor was already searching.
Matthew Mercer.
Thirty-three at the time of Daniel’s death.
Financial analyst.
Then consultant.
Then vanished from public employment records four years ago.
One photograph surfaced from an Argus corporate retreat.
Recent.
Matthew stood in the back row.
Different haircut.
Clean-shaven.
But unmistakable.
At his left wrist was a small gold watch.
Sophia covered her mouth.
Dominic stared at the image.
Matthew Mercer had Daniel’s watch.
Matthew Mercer had been inside Dominic’s security vendor.
Matthew Mercer had tampered with Ethan’s cake.
And Gabriel knew him.
The question was no longer whether the families were connected.
It was how deeply.
Sophia whispered, “Why would Daniel’s best friend kill him?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Maybe he didn’t.”
“What?”
“Maybe Daniel trusted the wrong person.”
Sophia shook her head.
“That’s the same thing.”
Before Dominic could respond, Caleb called from another screen.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“What?”
“I found an archived audio file attached to Daniel Carter’s employee account.”
Dominic turned.
“Play it.”
“It’s corrupted.”
“Fix it.”
“I can recover fragments.”
Static filled the room.
Then Daniel’s voice emerged.
Sophia stopped breathing.
Four years vanished from her face.
Daniel sounded nervous.
“…if Dominic doesn’t believe me…”
Static.
“…Gabriel knows…”
More static.
“…Matthew says we can prove…”
Sophia gripped the desk.
Then the final fragment played.
“…the watch. If he sees the watch, he’ll know I’m dead.”
Silence.
Sophia whispered, “Oh God.”
Dominic stared at the speakers.
Daniel had predicted it.
The watch had never been random.
It had been a message.
And suddenly Dominic understood something that made his stomach turn.
Matthew Mercer had not stolen Daniel’s watch because he liked it.
He had worn it deliberately.
At the gas station.
At Dominic’s security vendor.
Possibly even inside the pastry refrigerator.
He wanted someone to recognize it.
Sophia said slowly, “He wants us looking.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dominic’s phone rang.
Gabriel.
Dominic answered instantly.
“Where are you?”
His brother sounded breathless.
“You need to listen before they find me.”
“Who?”
“The same people who killed Daniel.”
Sophia moved closer.
Dominic put the call on speaker.
“Matthew?”
Gabriel went silent.
Then whispered, “Matthew isn’t the one in charge.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Who is?”
“Someone Dad trusted.”
Dominic looked toward Victor.
“Anthony Mercer?”
Gabriel gave a broken laugh.
“No.”
“Then who?”
There was a sound behind Gabriel.
A door.
Footsteps.
Gabriel whispered, “Dominic, I didn’t poison Ethan.”
“Then come home.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because the person behind this is inside your house.”
Everyone in the security room stopped moving.
Dominic scanned the faces around him.
Victor.
Caleb.
Sophia.
Two guards.
Gabriel continued.
“And if you tell anyone what I’m about to say, they’ll kill me before sunrise.”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“Say the name.”
A loud crash came through the call.
Gabriel shouted.
The line disconnected.
Dominic called back.
Nothing.
Then every screen in the security office went black.
May you like
One sentence appeared in white letters.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LET THE BOY EAT THE CAKE.
Related Stories
