Chapter 7 - THE DEAD MAN'S RETURN
Dominic did not move.
The darkness inside the boathouse seemed to press against his skin. He could hear water knocking against the wooden supports beneath the floor and the uneven rhythm of Vanessa's breathing beside him.
Then the lights came on.
A man stood in the doorway.
He was older than Dominic remembered from the photographs, with silver hair, a lined face, and a thin scar running from his temple to his jaw. He wore a dark overcoat and carried no visible weapon.
But the two men behind him did.
Dominic stared at the face he had seen in a coffin seven years earlier.
“Father?”
Michael Moretti smiled faintly.
“You've grown into a dangerous man.”
Dominic's hand tightened around the leather case.
“You're dead.”
“Apparently.”
“I watched them bury you.”
“You watched them bury a man who looked enough like me to fool a grieving family.”
The words struck Dominic with the force of a physical blow.
He remembered the funeral: the closed casket, the hurried arrangements, his mother's refusal to let anyone open the lid. He had assumed grief explained everything.
Now he wondered how much of his life had been constructed around a lie.
“Why?” Dominic asked.
Michael stepped into the boathouse.
“Because there were people who wanted me dead, and disappearing was the only way to survive.”
“You let us believe you were dead.”
“I protected you.”
“You let me bury you.”
For the first time, Michael's expression shifted.
“I had no choice.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“There's always a choice. You simply chose yourself.”
Vanessa backed away from Michael.
“Richard said you would never come here.”
Michael turned toward her.
“Richard says many things.”
“Where is he?”
“Safe.”
“Where is Isabella?”
Michael looked at Dominic.
“That's what you should be asking.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Where is my daughter?”
Michael's smile faded.
“Your daughter is alive. That's all you need to know.”
“It's not enough.”
“You have no idea what kind of people are searching for her. The child is more than an heir. She is the key to a network of accounts, properties, and identities that could destroy several powerful families.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You used a baby to protect your money.”
“I used the only leverage I had.”
“She was Elena's daughter.”
“And my granddaughter.”
“You never met her.”
Michael's eyes hardened.
“I arranged for her to survive.”
Dominic could barely control his anger.
“You arranged for her to grow up believing she had no family.”
“I arranged for her to live.”
Vanessa suddenly spoke.
“You told me Elena's baby died.”
Michael turned.
“I told you what you needed to believe.”
“You said the girl was adopted by a family in Wisconsin because she was too dangerous to bring here.”
“She was.”
“You made me help hide the truth.”
Michael's expression turned cold.
“You were eager to help when you believed it would secure your place beside Dominic.”
Vanessa recoiled as if he had struck her.
Dominic looked at her.
“Is that why you agreed to marry me? Because of my daughter?”
Vanessa's eyes filled.
“At first, I thought the marriage would give my father control over the foundation. But I didn't know the full story. When I found out Isabella was alive, I wanted to find her before he did.”
“You sent a note threatening to kill her.”
“I didn't write that note.”
Dominic studied her face.
She looked genuinely horrified.
Michael sighed.
“This is why I prefer dealing with men. Women complicate everything with their feelings.”
Dominic moved so quickly that one of the armed men raised his weapon.
“Don't,” Michael warned.
Dominic stopped inches from his father.
“If you ever speak about Elena like that again, you won't leave this building.”
Michael looked at him with something almost like pride.
“There's the son I raised.”
“You didn't raise me. You taught me to be afraid of becoming you.”
For a moment, neither man spoke.
Then Michael removed a folded document from his coat.
“This is the original foundation ledger. The one Elena stole before she died.”
Dominic stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“From Richard.”
“Why give it to me?”
“Because the Chairman has decided your family is no longer useful.”
Dominic felt a chill.
“You're the Chairman.”
Michael smiled.
“I'm the man who created the organization. The title has changed hands over the years.”
“And Richard?”
“A servant who mistook access for power.”
“What does that make you?”
Michael's smile disappeared.
“The man who decides who survives.”
A noise came from the dock.
One of Michael's men turned toward the door.
A gunshot shattered the silence.
The guard fell.
Dominic grabbed Vanessa and pulled her behind a stack of crates as more shots tore through the windows.
Outside, headlights swept across the water.
Someone shouted.
Michael disappeared through a side exit, taking the ledger with him.
Dominic reached for his weapon, but Vanessa caught his arm.
“Wait!”
“Let go.”
“They're not shooting at you.”
A second burst of gunfire erupted.
Dominic looked through the broken window.
Two black SUVs blocked the dock. Armed men were advancing toward the boathouse, their weapons aimed at Michael's escape route.
One man stepped into the light.
Richard Sterling.
He raised his gun and fired toward the departing vehicle.
Dominic understood.
Vanessa's father wasn't rescuing anyone.
He was trying to kill the Chairman.
“Why?” Dominic demanded.
Vanessa stared at the scene.
“Because he wants to take over.”
Dominic pulled her toward the rear exit.
They ran through a narrow passage and emerged beside the lake, where one of Dominic's hidden security vehicles waited.
He shoved Vanessa into the passenger seat and climbed behind the wheel.
As they sped away, his phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
Your father is alive. Your brother is compromised. Your fiancée is lying. And your daughter is in the hands of the only person who can prove what happened to Elena.
A second message followed.
It contained a photograph of a woman holding a little girl.
The woman was Hannah's mother, Margaret.
The child was Isabella.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written:
ASK HANNAH WHAT HER MOTHER DID THE NIGHT ELENA DIED.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Vanessa turned toward him.
“What is it?”
He didn't answer.
May you like
For the first time since the mirror had fallen, he wondered whether Hannah had told him the whole truth.
And whether the young woman he had begun to trust was protecting him—or leading him exactly where someone wanted him to go.
