Chapter 2 - The Voice in the Recording
Dominic didn't wait until morning.
Within twenty minutes, he had canceled the dinner, ordered his guards to seal the mansion, and summoned his most trusted adviser, Marco Bellini.
Marco had served the Moretti family for nearly twenty years. He had been Dominic's father's consigliere before becoming Dominic's adviser, and his voice had been the one Dominic trusted when business turned bloody.
When Marco entered the study, he found Dominic standing beside a safe with Isabella's wedding dress draped over a chair.
Vanessa sat on the opposite sofa, guarded by two men.
“What's happened?” Marco asked.
Dominic placed the brass key on the desk.
“Do you know anything about Safe Deposit Box 417?”
Marco's expression changed for a fraction of a second.
It was almost imperceptible.
But Dominic noticed.
“No,” Marco replied. “Why would I?”
“Because my wife left me a letter accusing Vanessa of stealing from the family trust. She also left a recording of the night she confronted her.”
Marco looked toward Vanessa.
That brief glance told Dominic more than a confession could have.
“Open the box,” Dominic ordered.
An hour later, Dominic and Marco stood inside a private bank vault while the manager unlocked a small steel compartment.
Inside lay a leather folder, a flash drive, several photographs, and a second envelope addressed to Dominic.
The original trust documents were there.
So were the deeds to three properties that had supposedly been transferred to Sterling Holdings LLC.
Every document bearing Dominic's signature was a forgery.
The flash drive contained one audio file.
Dominic pressed play.
At first, there was only static.
Then Isabella's voice filled the small room.
“You've stolen nearly forty million dollars from the trust.”
A man's voice answered.
“You should have left the accounts alone.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
He knew that voice.
He had heard it thousands of times. He had heard it at his father's funeral, at business meetings, and during long nights when the family's enemies seemed determined to tear their empire apart.
It belonged to Marco Bellini.
The recording continued.
Isabella said, “Dominic will find out.”
“He won't find out anything if you cooperate.”
“And if I don't?”
A chair scraped across the floor.
Marco's voice became colder.
“Then you won't be here to tell him.”
The recording ended.
For several seconds, neither man moved.
Then Marco exhaled.
“It's been edited.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Is it your voice?”
“Yes, but you don't know the context.”
“Then give me one.”
Marco straightened his jacket.
“Isabella was threatening to expose confidential operations. She was emotionally unstable. I was trying to protect you.”
“By threatening my wife?”
“I never touched her.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Did you steal the money?”
Marco hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
Dominic pressed a button beneath his desk. Two guards entered the bank's private room.
“Take him to the east guesthouse. No phone, no visitors, no communication with anyone outside this estate.”
Marco's face hardened.
“You're making a mistake.”
“Maybe. But if you're innocent, you'll have nothing to fear.”
Marco was escorted out.
Dominic returned to the documents.
Beneath the trust records lay a photograph of Isabella standing outside a small country clinic. She was wearing a pale blue coat and holding a newspaper dated six days after her supposed death.
On the back, Isabella had written:
If he finds me, tell him I never stopped fighting.
Dominic stared at the photograph until his vision blurred.
She had been alive after the date he believed she died.
He turned to the bank manager.
“Who placed this box here?”
“Mrs. Moretti did, sir. She opened it under her maiden name and instructed us not to release its contents unless you presented the matching key.”
“Did she come alone?”
The manager consulted a record.
“No. A woman accompanied her. She identified herself as Emma Reed.”
Dominic turned.
Emma stood in the doorway, pale and frightened.
“You knew she was alive,” he said.
Emma shook her head quickly.
“No, sir. I knew she was afraid. I knew she was hiding something. But I didn't know where she went.”
“Why didn't you tell me about the box?”
“Mrs. Moretti said you were surrounded by people who would do anything to keep the truth hidden. She said the wrong person might discover the key before you did.”
Dominic looked again at Isabella's photograph.
“Then we need to find her.”
Emma nodded.
“There is one more thing she told me.”
“What?”
“She said that if you ever heard Mr. Bellini's voice on that recording, you must look for the woman in the photograph.”
Dominic examined the picture.
A second woman stood in the clinic's doorway, her face partly hidden by the shadow of a hat.
He enlarged the image on his phone.
Then his heart seemed to stop.
The woman was Vanessa Sterling.
May you like
But the date on the photograph was six days after Isabella's supposed death.
And Vanessa had told Dominic she had spent that entire week in New York.
