Chapter 3
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## The Woman in the Old Photograph
Dominic reached the hospital in twelve minutes.
He found Antonio awake in a private room, surrounded by monitors and the quiet efficiency of a medical team. Dr. Bennett stood beside the bed, reviewing the preliminary examination.
“His condition is stable,” Bennett explained. “We haven't established that the bottle contained anything harmful. The laboratory needs to examine it. His speech and movement require further neurological assessment.”
Dominic nodded, but his gaze remained on his father.
“Dad, you asked for me?”
Antonio's eyes followed him.
“Vic…”
“I know. Mom.”
At the name, Antonio began to tremble.
Dominic took his hand.
“Tell me what happened.”
His father struggled to move his lips. No complete sentence emerged. Frustration tightened his face, and his breathing became uneven.
“Easy,” Bennett warned. “Don't push him.”
Dominic waited.
Then Clara, who had accompanied the ambulance, stepped beside the bed.
“Mr. Antonio, remember what we practiced? One question at a time.”
Antonio's breathing gradually slowed.
Clara held up two fingers.
“Are you trying to tell Dominic about his mother?”
Antonio blinked once.
“Yes.
“Did something happen before she died?”
His eyelids fluttered. Then he blinked again.
Dominic felt the room tilt around him.
His mother, Victoria Moretti, had died in a car accident six years earlier. Dominic had been told she lost control on a rain-soaked road after leaving the family estate.
He had never questioned it.
Until now.
“Dad, are you saying Mom's death wasn't an accident?”
Antonio struggled to raise his hand.
Before he could respond, the door opened.
Vanessa walked in carrying a bouquet of white roses.
Two security officers followed her.
“I came to see how he was doing,” she announced.
Dominic stood between her and the bed.
“You're not staying.”
Her expression hardened.
“You can't keep me away from my own future family.”
“You lost that privilege when you lied to me.”
“I never lied about your mother.”
Antonio suddenly began fighting to lift his hand.
Clara noticed the movement.
“Mr. Antonio, look at me.”
The old man's finger pointed toward the bouquet.
Everyone turned.
Vanessa clutched the flowers.
“What? They're flowers!”
Clara carefully examined the arrangement. A small card was tucked between the stems.
There was no message on it.
Only a date.
October 14.
Dominic went still.
It was the date his mother had died.
“Where did you get those?” he demanded.
Vanessa hesitated.
“A florist delivered them.”
“Who ordered them?”
“I don't know.”
Dominic took the card and handed it to security.
“Find out.”
Vanessa's composure began to crack.
“Dominic, you're frightening me.”
“Good. Now you know how my father feels when you enter his room.”
She stared at him with wounded disbelief.
Then she turned to Clara.
“You've done this. You were nobody before you entered this house, and now you're destroying everything I've worked for.”
Clara's voice was quiet.
“I never wanted anything from your family.”
“Liar.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Leave.”
This time, Vanessa obeyed.
After the door closed, Antonio's eyes filled with tears. He pointed toward Dominic's jacket pocket, then made a slow motion with his fingers, as though opening something.
Clara understood first.
“Does he want you to look for something?”
Dominic searched his pockets, then remembered the photograph. He unfolded it again.
Something had been attached to the back.
A tiny strip of paper, hidden beneath the photograph's edge.
On it were four handwritten words:
ASK WHO CLOSED THE CASE.
Dominic stared at the message.
He remembered the detective who investigated his mother's accident.
Franklin Shaw.
The man had retired shortly afterward, then disappeared from public life.
Dominic called his security chief.
“Find Shaw. I want him here tonight.”
His phone buzzed almost immediately.
An unfamiliar number.
The message contained no greeting.
Only a photograph of Dominic leaving the hospital.
Beneath it were seven words:
Stop digging, or Clara dies next.
Dominic looked up.
Clara was standing beside his father's bed.
And through the glass wall behind her, a man in a dark coat was watching them.
When Dominic rushed into the corridor, the stranger was gone.
But he had left something on the floor.
A woman's wedding ring.
May you like
Dominic recognized the engraving.
It belonged to his mother.
