Chapter 4 - The Locked Room
Dominic ordered the west wing sealed before anyone could touch another object.
The room had belonged to Isabella. After her death, he had closed it and instructed the staff to leave everything exactly as it was.
For three years, he had convinced himself that preserving the room was a way to honor her.
Now he wondered whether he had been protecting the place where the truth was buried.
The door was locked with a brass key that Dominic kept in his desk.
He opened it himself.
The familiar scent of Isabella's perfume lingered faintly in the curtains. Her books remained stacked beside the bed. A half-finished painting rested on an easel, and a blue dress hung inside the wardrobe.
Dominic stood motionless.
He remembered Isabella laughing in this room, dancing barefoot while Ethan clapped his hands. He remembered promising her that their son would never grow up afraid of the world.
Then he remembered the funeral.
He had been so consumed by grief that he had accepted every explanation offered to him.
“Sir?” Marco said quietly from the doorway.
“Search carefully. Don't move anything until it's photographed.”
They examined drawers, shelves, and cabinets. At first, they found nothing unusual.
Then Lily noticed a scratch beneath the bottom drawer of Isabella's writing desk.
“Mr. Moretti, this panel looks different.”
Marco removed the drawer. Behind it was a narrow compartment containing a small key, a sealed envelope, and an old digital recorder.
Dominic opened the envelope.
Inside was a note in Isabella's handwriting.
Dominic, if you are reading this, someone has broken the promise I asked them to keep. Do not trust the accident report. Find Grace Miller. She knows what happened to me.
His hands trembled.
Beneath the note was a second sentence.
And whatever you do, do not let them take Ethan to the hospital.
Dominic stared at those words.
“Why the hospital?” Marco asked.
“I don't know.”
He picked up the recorder. Its battery was dead, but a technician managed to recover a single audio file.
Dominic listened with Daniel and Marco beside him.
Isabella's voice emerged, soft but urgent.
“If you're hearing this, I couldn't tell you the truth in person. Adrian knows. Vanessa knows more than she's admitting. They believe I have something that belongs to them.”
A pause followed.
Then Isabella spoke again.
“It's not the money. It's the record of what happened before Ethan was born.”
The recording ended abruptly.
Dominic looked at Daniel.
“What happened before Ethan was born?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don't know. But if this is connected to the trust, there may be another sealed record.”
A sudden crash echoed from the hallway.
Marco rushed out.
Dominic followed and found a guard unconscious near the staircase. At the far end of the corridor, a service door swung open in the wind.
Someone had entered the west wing.
Someone who knew exactly where to look.
“Lock down the estate!” Dominic shouted.
Within minutes, security discovered that the original accident file and Isabella's personal medical records had vanished from the office safe.
The thief had ignored jewelry, cash, and valuable paintings.
They had taken only documents.
Dominic returned to Isabella's room and examined the empty compartment.
The small key was still there.
He inserted it into a locked box beneath the desk. Inside lay a folded hospital bracelet, a photograph of Isabella holding newborn Ethan, and a second photograph showing Vanessa outside the same hospital.
On the back of the photograph, Isabella had written:
She came back for him.
Dominic felt a cold weight settle in his chest.
Before he could examine the photograph further, Ethan appeared at the doorway.
“Daddy?”
Dominic quickly knelt.
“You should be upstairs with Lily.”
“I had a bad dream.”
Dominic pulled him close.
“What happened in your dream?”
Ethan looked at the photograph.
“That's the lady from the hospital.”
Dominic went still.
“Which lady?”
Ethan pointed at Vanessa.
“The lady who was standing outside Mommy's room.”
“Did you see her there?”
Ethan nodded.
“She told Mommy that Daddy would never find out.”
Dominic could barely breathe.
“What wouldn't I find out, buddy?”
Ethan looked frightened.
“I don't know. Mommy started crying.”
Then he said something that made Dominic's blood run cold.
“She had a baby blanket in her hands.”
Dominic looked down at the photograph of Isabella holding newborn Ethan.
There was something wrong with the date printed on the back.
The hospital bracelet was dated three days before Ethan's official birth certificate.
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And suddenly, Dominic understood why someone might be willing to kill to keep the hospital records buried.
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