Chapter 9 - The Brother in the Dark
Dominic read the message twice.
Then he called Marcus and ordered every guard at the safe house to protect Lily and Margaret. Elena refused to leave her daughter's side, but when Dominic explained that Frank had targeted the child to force his hand, she finally agreed to let Marcus move them to a secure location.
“You're not going alone,” Elena told Dominic.
“Frank asked me to.”
“Frank has been lying for twenty years. Why would you obey him now?”
“Because he has my brother.”
“And because he has my daughter.”
Dominic stopped.
Elena's voice shook, but she didn't look away.
“Lily has already lost a father she never knew. I won't let another man decide whether she gets to grow up.”
He wanted to promise her that nothing would happen.
He had learned that promises meant little when made by powerful men.
Instead, he handed her a small encrypted phone.
“Marcus will remain with you. If anything feels wrong, use this. No one else will have the number.”
Elena accepted it.
“Bring Nicholas home.”
Dominic nodded.
At sunset, he drove toward the coast with Marcus following at a distance. They stopped outside the abandoned estate shown in the photograph.
The house stood on a rocky bluff, its windows dark against the gray ocean.
Dominic entered alone.
Frank waited in the main hall, holding a gun.
“Where's Nicholas?”
“Upstairs.”
“Let me see him.”
“First, the ledger.”
Dominic placed a thick folder on the table.
It contained copies of the financial records from the blue room, along with a statement Margaret had signed detailing her imprisonment and what she remembered about Antonio's death.
Frank flipped through the pages.
“This isn't the original.”
“No.”
Frank raised the gun.
“Then you came here to die.”
“Not before I find my brother.”
A slow clap echoed from the staircase.
An older man emerged from the shadows, leaning on a black cane.
Richard Moretti.
Dominic felt his breath catch.
His uncle looked older than the photograph, but his eyes were cold and alert.
“Hello, nephew.”
“You're supposed to be dead.”
Richard smiled.
“Death is an excellent disguise when everyone wants to believe the story.”
“Why did you separate us?”
“Because Antonio was weak.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Those were babies.”
“They were heirs. Two sons, two competing futures. Your father believed he could keep the family stable by raising one son to inherit the organization and hiding the other where nobody could use him against us.”
“And Nicholas?”
Richard shrugged.
“He grew up, discovered the truth, and became a problem.”
A door opened upstairs.
Nicholas appeared at the landing, his hands bound. He looked almost exactly like Dominic, except for the scar above his eyebrow and the weariness in his eyes.
For several seconds, the twins stared at each other.
Nicholas spoke first.
“So you're the brother who got the mansion.”
Dominic swallowed.
“And you're the brother who got erased.”
Nicholas gave a bitter laugh.
“Your father visited me twice. He told me my mother had died and that I had to forget my name. When I was old enough to ask questions, Richard sent me away.”
“Did you know about Elena?”
Nicholas's expression softened.
“I knew she was pregnant. Frank told me he would kill her if I contacted her.”
“Why didn't you come back?”
“Because I believed him.”
Frank raised his gun toward Nicholas.
“Enough talking. Where is the ledger?”
Nicholas looked at Dominic.
“Tell him.”
Dominic shook his head slightly.
Nicholas understood.
“The original ledger was never in the blue room,” he said. “Antonio hid it somewhere Frank would never think to look.”
Richard's smile faded.
“Where?”
Nicholas glanced at Dominic.
“In the one place he never searched.”
Dominic remembered the photograph, the hospital records, and his father's private study.
Then he understood.
“The family mausoleum.”
Richard's face changed.
Frank spun toward him.
“You told me the ledger had been destroyed!”
Richard struck Frank's arm with his cane. The gun fired into the ceiling.
Nicholas lunged down the stairs, tackling Frank as Dominic rushed toward Richard.
The hall erupted into chaos.
Dominic disarmed his uncle, but Richard struck him across the face with the cane and escaped through a side door.
Frank was pinned to the floor.
Nicholas stood over him, breathing hard.
“You told me my mother was dead.”
Frank spat blood onto the floor.
“She was supposed to stay dead.”
Dominic grabbed him by the collar.
“Who ordered Antonio's murder?”
Frank stared at Richard's empty doorway.
Then he smiled.
“Richard gave the order. But he wasn't the one who pulled the trigger.”
Dominic tightened his grip.
“Who did?”
Frank looked directly at him.
“You did.”
The words struck like a bullet.
Dominic froze.
“That night, you were eight years old. You walked into the library carrying your father's gun. Richard had already wounded Antonio. Your father tried to take the weapon from you, and it fired.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
“Richard covered it up. He told you your father died in his sleep. He told everyone else Frank had killed him.”
Nicholas stared at Dominic.
“Is that true?”
Dominic could barely speak.
He remembered a loud noise.
A red stain on his father's shirt.
His mother screaming.
Then nothing.
Frank began laughing.
“Your father didn't die because you wanted him dead, Dominic. He died because Richard used you as the final piece of his plan.”
Dominic looked at his twin.
For the first time in his life, he had no power to command the truth into a shape he could bear.
Then Nicholas reached into his pocket and removed a small recording device.
“Frank forgot one thing,” he said.
He pressed play.
Richard's voice filled the room.
“If the boy remembers what happened, kill him before he remembers who handed him the gun.”
A second voice answered.
It was Vanessa's.
“And if he remembers who ordered the shot?”
Richard replied.
“Then none of us leaves this family alive.”
Nicholas stopped the recording.
Dominic looked toward the door.
Richard was gone.
And his phone was ringing.
Marcus's voice came through, strained and breathless.
“Boss, we have a problem.”
“What?”
May you like
“Margaret and Elena are safe. But Lily is missing.”
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