Chapter 9 - THE PRICE OF LOYALTY
Dominic returned to the mansion before dawn.
Catherine was asleep in the guest bedroom. Rachel sat beside Antonio in the library, reading aloud from one of Rose's old letters.
When Dominic entered, both looked up.
“Where's Marcus?” Rachel asked.
“Victor has him.”
Antonio's face tightened.
“What does he want?”
“The original ledger.”
Dominic placed the stolen documents on the desk.
“He also left something else.”
He showed his father the photograph of Marcus tied to a chair.
Antonio stared at it.
Then he looked away.
Dominic noticed.
“Dad?”
Antonio's hands began trembling.
“Who is Marcus's father?”
“Dr. Samuel Reed.”
Antonio closed his eyes.
“Then Victor has found the one person who can expose everything.”
“Explain.”
Antonio took a long breath.
“Samuel was the physician who treated me after the poisoning. He discovered that Victor had altered my medical records, but he also found evidence that I had been involved in the financial arrangements that funded Victor's private clinics.”
Dominic frowned.
“What financial arrangements?”
“Before I became paralyzed, I approved several payments to a medical research company. Victor told me the money was being used for neurological research. I later discovered that the company was being used to conceal illegal experiments and bribe hospital officials.”
“Did you know what was happening?”
“Not at first.”
“And afterward?”
Antonio lowered his eyes.
“I suspected the truth. I should have stopped it.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Did you pay Samuel Reed to keep quiet?”
Antonio hesitated.
“Yes.”
The admission hit harder than Dominic expected.
“How much?”
“I don't remember.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid Victor would expose my involvement and destroy the family.”
Dominic turned away.
For years, he had believed his father was simply a victim of his brother's cruelty. The truth was more complicated. Antonio had been poisoned, betrayed, and robbed, but he had also made decisions that allowed the corruption to spread.
“Did you pay Marcus?”
“No.”
“Did you ask Samuel to place his son inside my organization?”
Antonio shook his head.
“I never knew Marcus had joined you until years later.”
Dominic studied his father.
“Then why did Victor make those payments?”
Antonio's face went pale.
“Because he wanted Marcus to believe his father had betrayed him.”
Rachel looked up.
“To turn him against the family?”
Antonio nodded.
“Victor has always understood that loyalty is easier to destroy when people believe it was never real.”
Dominic thought of Marcus standing between him and Victor's gun.
He thought of the eleven years they had worked together.
He could not believe that all of it had been an elaborate lie.
But he also knew he could not risk Marcus's life on faith alone.
“We need the original ledger,” Dominic said.
Antonio reached into the drawer beside his wheelchair and removed a small envelope.
“I kept a copy of the key.”
Dominic stared.
“To what?”
“The bank deposit box. Samuel gave it to me before he disappeared. He said if anything happened to him, I was to give it to you.”
Dominic took the key.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I thought the documents would destroy you.”
Dominic's voice hardened.
“You keep confusing the truth with the thing that destroys us.”
Antonio bowed his head.
“I know.”
***
The bank's private vault was located beneath an old financial institution in downtown Chicago.
Dominic arrived with Vanessa and two trusted officers. Eleanor had obtained a legal order to preserve the contents of the safety deposit box, but they had to move quickly. Victor had already begun transferring assets out of the accounts listed in the stolen documents.
The box contained three notebooks, a cassette tape, and a sealed envelope.
The first notebook documented the foundation transfers.
The second contained medical records and correspondence between Victor and several private clinics.
The third was a diary written by Samuel Reed.
Dominic opened it.
November 14.
Antonio Moretti has been poisoned. Victor insists it was a spontaneous neurological event. I have been ordered to change the diagnosis.
I refused.
He threatened my son.
Dominic turned the page.
November 16.
Antonio's condition is worsening. The toxin may have caused permanent damage, but there is evidence of a second exposure after his hospitalization.
Dominic stopped.
A second exposure.
Someone had continued poisoning Antonio after he entered the hospital.
The next entry was dated three weeks later.
Victor has discovered that Catherine is investigating the financial transfers. He has asked me to prepare a psychiatric evaluation that would allow her to be confined without her consent.
I cannot do it.
The following page had been torn out.
Dominic searched the remaining entries.
The last was dated the night Catherine disappeared.
I helped her escape. Rose arranged a safe house. Antonio believes she is dead.
I have failed them all.
Dominic closed the diary.
The cassette contained a recording of Victor speaking to Samuel.
“You will sign the report, Reed. You will say Catherine was unstable. You will say Antonio's condition was natural. And you will forget everything you saw.”
Samuel's voice answered, “You can't keep doing this.”
Victor laughed.
“Watch me.”
Then came a sound Dominic recognized from childhood: the deep, distinctive voice of his father.
Antonio.
“You promised Catherine would be safe.”
Victor replied, “She will be safe if she stays where I put her.”
Dominic stared at the recorder.
His father had been there.
He had known Catherine was alive.
But the recording continued.
Antonio said, “I will not allow you to hurt my son.”
Victor answered, “Then stop pretending you're a good man.”
The tape ended.
Vanessa looked shaken.
“Your father knew everything.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Not everything. But enough.”
He opened the final envelope.
Inside was a letter from Samuel.
To Dominic Moretti,
If you are reading this, then I have failed to protect my son from the consequences of my choices.
Marcus believes I betrayed the Moretti family for money. That is not the whole truth. I accepted payments from Antonio to keep certain medical records hidden, but I used that money to help Catherine escape and to protect the evidence that could expose Victor.
I became a coward. I told myself I could repair the damage later.
I never did.
If Marcus is alive, tell him that I loved him. Tell him I tried to be brave, and that I was not brave enough.
Dominic folded the letter.
He understood now why Victor had paid Marcus. The payments were designed to create the appearance that Marcus had been bought, giving Victor leverage over the man who could expose him.
But the truth was still incomplete.
Why had Victor waited eleven years to use that leverage?
And what did he want from Marcus now?
Dominic's phone rang.
Victor.
“Do you have the ledger?”
“Yes.”
“Bring it to the old estate. Alone.”
“No.”
Victor laughed.
“Then I will send you a piece of your security chief.”
A scream sounded through the phone.
Marcus.
Dominic's blood ran cold.
“Don't touch him.”
“Bring the ledger.”
The call ended.
Vanessa grabbed Dominic's arm.
“It's a trap.”
“I know.”
“Then don't go.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Marcus would come for me.”
“And that makes you willing to die for him?”
“It makes me unwilling to abandon him.”
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
“Then let me help.”
***
The old estate was quiet when Dominic arrived.
He carried a decoy ledger in one hand and a recording device in the other.
Inside the library, Marcus sat tied to a chair. His face was bruised, but he was conscious.
Victor stood behind him.
“You came,” Victor said.
“Let him go.”
“Give me the ledger.”
Dominic placed the decoy on the desk.
Victor opened it and immediately recognized the deception.
His face darkened.
“You think you're clever.”
“No. I think you're desperate.”
Victor raised his gun.
“You have no idea what I've sacrificed to keep this family alive.”
“You sacrificed everyone who trusted you.”
Victor stepped closer.
“And your father was willing to do the same.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Maybe. But he isn't the one holding a gun to an innocent man's head.”
Victor looked toward Marcus.
“Your security chief isn't innocent.”
Marcus raised his head.
“Neither are you.”
Victor struck him across the face.
Dominic lunged forward, but two armed men emerged from the shadows.
Victor smiled.
“Now we'll see how much loyalty is worth.”
He turned toward Marcus.
“Tell Dominic what your father really did.”
Marcus spat blood onto the floor.
“My father helped Catherine escape.”
“And then?”
Marcus hesitated.
Victor leaned closer.
“Tell him who paid for the escape.”
Marcus looked at Dominic.
“Antonio.”
Dominic froze.
Victor laughed.
“Your father paid Samuel to move Catherine. He paid him to keep her hidden. He paid him to falsify the records that made her disappearance permanent.”
Dominic stared at Marcus.
“Is that true?”
Marcus's face tightened.
“Yes.”
Victor spread his arms.
“Your father was never the innocent victim you imagined. He helped create every lie that destroyed this family.”
Dominic looked at the man he had spent his life trying to protect.
Then he looked at Victor.
“You're right about one thing.”
Victor smiled.
“What's that?”
“My father made terrible choices.”
Dominic pressed the recording device in his pocket.
“But he isn't the only one.”
He raised his voice.
“Victor, tell me what happened to Rose.”
Victor's smile disappeared.
“What?”
“Tell me why you forced her to disappear.”
Victor looked toward the men in the shadows.
For the first time, he seemed uncertain.
Dominic continued.
“Tell me why you accused her of poisoning Antonio. Tell me why you changed the medical records. Tell me why you spent twenty years trying to destroy every person who knew the truth.”
Victor's jaw tightened.
“Because Rose was going to expose me.”
“And Catherine?”
“She was a fool.”
“And Samuel?”
“He was weak.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“And Marcus?”
Victor's face twisted.
“He was supposed to be my insurance policy.”
The words echoed through the room.
Dominic glanced at the recording device.
Victor realized too late what he had said.
A siren sounded outside.
Then another.
Vanessa had called the authorities.
Victor's men began moving toward the doors.
Dominic tackled the nearest guard while Marcus struggled free of his restraints. A gunshot struck the ceiling, scattering plaster across the room.
Within seconds, armed officers stormed the estate.
Victor was dragged to the floor, shouting that the Morettis would regret what they had done.
Dominic reached Marcus and cut the remaining restraints.
“Can you stand?”
Marcus nodded.
“I'm fine.”
Dominic looked at him.
“You don't have to protect me anymore.”
Marcus managed a tired smile.
“Maybe not.”
He paused.
“But I still want to.”
For the first time that night, Dominic believed him.
Then Marcus reached into his pocket and handed Dominic a small folded note.
“My father gave me this before he died.”
Dominic opened it.
The message contained only one sentence.
ANTONIO DID NOT ORDER THE CRASH, BUT HE KNOWS WHO DID.
Dominic looked toward the ambulance waiting outside.
His father had told him the truth about his own failures.
But one final secret remained.
May you like
And this time, Dominic would not stop until he knew every name.
---
