Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN THE BURNED PHOTOGRAPH
Dominic did not tell Antonio about Dr. Reed's death immediately.
He wanted to know how much his father remembered before the shock of another revelation made him retreat into silence.
Instead, he asked a question that had haunted him since childhood.
“Dad, what happened the night Mom died?”
Antonio stared at him.
For a moment, the old man's expression became strangely distant.
“Your mother was driving home from the hospital.”
“That's what the police report says.”
“She called me before she left. She said she had something important to tell me.”
“What?”
Antonio shook his head.
“She never got the chance.”
Dominic crouched beside the wheelchair.
“Did she know Victor had poisoned you?”
Antonio's eyes flickered.
“Yes.”
The answer came so quietly Dominic almost missed it.
“Then why didn't she go to the police?”
“Victor threatened you.”
“I was twelve.”
“You were his nephew. He knew I would do anything to keep you safe.”
Dominic stood abruptly.
“So you both let him control the family because you thought it was protecting me?”
Antonio looked down.
“Yes.”
Dominic turned away, struggling to contain his anger.
His father had been a victim, but he had also been a man with power, money, and choices. He had allowed fear to become the law of their household.
And now Dominic had to decide whether he would repeat that mistake.
“Tell me about Catherine's last day.”
Antonio took a shaky breath.
“She visited Rose at the old estate. They argued about something. Rose wanted her to leave Chicago immediately.”
“Why?”
“I never found out.”
“Did Mom have the blue ledger?”
Antonio closed his eyes.
“She did.”
Dominic froze.
“Where is it?”
“I don't know.”
“Dad.”
“I swear to you.”
Antonio's voice broke.
“Your mother said she had found proof that Victor had been altering my medical records. She said the evidence went beyond the poisoning. She was afraid he had done something to her, too.”
Dominic stared at him.
“What did she mean?”
“She had been sick for months. The doctors called it stress. She suffered headaches, dizziness, and sudden weakness. Catherine believed someone was giving her something.”
Dominic felt cold.
“Did she tell the police?”
“No. She thought the police had been paid.”
“And the night of the crash?”
Antonio's hands began trembling.
“She told me she was going to meet someone who could prove what Victor had done. She promised she would return before midnight.”
“Who was she meeting?”
“Rose.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Rose had been the last person to see Catherine alive.
And Victor had spent twenty years convincing everyone Rose was a thief.
“Did Rose tell you what happened?”
“She said Catherine never arrived.”
“Did you believe her?”
Antonio looked at his son.
“I wanted to.”
It was not an answer.
Dominic left the library and walked into the garden.
Rachel found him standing beneath a bare oak tree, staring at the dark windows of the mansion.
“Mr. Moretti?”
He turned.
“Dominic,” he corrected. “You don't have to call me that.”
She hesitated.
“Dominic, I found something in Rose's belongings.”
She held out a small photograph, its edges burned and brittle.
It showed Catherine standing beside a young woman in a hospital corridor. The woman's face was partially obscured by a dark stain, but her hand rested protectively over her abdomen.
On the back, Rose had written:
The second witness. She survived.
Dominic examined the photograph.
“Who is she?”
“I don't know. Rose kept it inside the lining of her sewing box.”
“When did you find it?”
“This morning. I was looking for the blue ledger.”
“You searched her belongings?”
“Only the boxes the nursing home gave me. I didn't know what was important until you showed me the letters.”
Dominic turned the photograph toward the light.
A hospital name was visible on the wall behind the women.
St. Catherine's.
The same hospital where Antonio had been treated.
He called Eleanor Price and asked her to investigate every woman employed in the hospital twenty years earlier who had been connected to Catherine Moretti.
Eleanor promised to begin immediately.
Rachel watched him.
“Do you think Rose knew your mother was going to die?”
“I think Rose knew something terrible was coming.”
“Then why didn't she tell anyone?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Maybe she tried.”
Rachel lowered her eyes.
“Before she died, she told me she had spent twenty years trying to save someone who didn't want to be saved.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn't say.”
Dominic studied her.
“Rachel, did Rose ever mention my family before she gave you the key?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Rachel hesitated.
“She said the Morettis had taken everything from her. But she never hated your father.”
Dominic frowned.
“Why not?”
“Because she believed he was the only person in the family who had ever truly loved her.”
The words settled between them.
Dominic thought of Antonio's tears when he saw the key.
Whatever Rose and his father had shared, it had survived twenty years of separation, accusations, and fear.
And it had left behind enough evidence to threaten the entire family.
***
That evening, Dominic received a call from Eleanor.
“I found the second witness,” she said.
“Who?”
“Her name is Margaret Ellis. She worked as a nurse at St. Catherine's. She left the hospital in 2006 and changed her name after moving to Wisconsin.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
Eleanor hesitated.
“Dominic, she's been missing for eleven days.”
His blood ran cold.
“Missing?”
“Her house was searched. Her car was found abandoned near a train station. The local police believe she left voluntarily, but her neighbors reported hearing an argument the night she disappeared.”
“Who was she arguing with?”
“No one knows.”
Dominic paced the garden.
“Find her.”
“I'm trying.”
“Try harder.”
Eleanor's voice sharpened.
“Threatening me won't make a missing woman appear.”
Dominic stopped.
She was right.
He took a breath.
“I'm sorry. Please find her.”
“I will.”
After the call, Dominic returned to the library.
Antonio was asleep in his wheelchair. Vanessa sat beside the fireplace, holding a glass she had not touched.
She looked up when he entered.
“Have you found her?”
“Who?”
“The woman in the photograph.”
Dominic stopped.
“How did you know about the photograph?”
Vanessa's face drained of color.
“I saw it in Victor's study.”
“You said you saw the blue ledger.”
“I saw both.”
Dominic approached her.
“What else did you see?”
Vanessa looked toward Antonio.
Then she whispered, “Victor has a second set of medical records. He keeps them in a safe beneath his office floor.”
“What's in them?”
“I don't know. But I saw Catherine's name on the folder.”
Dominic felt his pulse quicken.
“Why didn't you tell me before?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of Victor?”
Vanessa nodded.
“He told me that if I ever revealed what happened to Catherine, he would show you a document proving that your mother had been planning to leave your father.”
Dominic stared at her.
“Leave him for whom?”
Vanessa's eyes filled.
“I don't know.”
She reached into her purse and removed a folded paper.
“Victor gave me this last month. He said I should keep it safe until after our wedding.”
Dominic unfolded it.
It was a copy of Catherine's death certificate.
The official cause of death was listed as blunt-force trauma sustained in a motor vehicle collision.
But beneath the typed report, someone had written a note in red ink.
Patient was alive when removed from the vehicle.
Dominic stared at the sentence.
His mother had not died at the scene.
Someone had taken her away.
And someone had made sure she never returned.
Then Vanessa whispered the words that shattered the last of his certainty.
May you like
“Dominic, I think your mother may have survived the crash.”
---
