Chapter 2 - THE DAUGHTER HIS FATHER BURIED
For several seconds, Dominic Moretti heard nothing but the pounding of his own heart.
Two hundred guests stood around him, pretending not to listen while hanging on every word.
Vanessa's mascara ran down her cheeks. Her crimson gown glittered beneath the chandeliers, but the woman wearing it suddenly looked very small.
Dominic held the silver locket.
"Explain what you meant."
Vanessa shook her head. "Not here."
"You made a public spectacle of a bleeding woman. You can explain yourself in public."
Emily stood beside Marcus, her wounded hand wrapped in Dominic's handkerchief. She looked as though she wanted the marble floor to swallow her.
"Mr. Moretti, please," she whispered. "I never wanted any of this."
Dominic turned toward her.
"Did you know my father?"
"No."
"Did my mother tell you who the woman in that photograph was?"
"She said the truth was inside the locket. Nothing more."
Dominic examined the photograph again. His father, Richard Moretti, looked younger than Dominic had ever known him, with his arm resting protectively around a dark-haired woman.
The baby in her arms wore the same silver bracelet Emily now wore.
Dominic had seen that bracelet before.
Not on Emily.
In a photograph his mother kept locked in her bedroom.
He turned toward Eleanor Bennett.
"You knew."
Eleanor's face went pale.
"I suspected."
"That's not an answer."
She glanced at Emily before speaking.
"Your father had a daughter before he married your mother."
Dominic's fingers tightened around the locket.
"My father had no other children."
"That's what he told the world."
A ripple of whispers spread through the ballroom.
Vanessa seized the opening.
"Do you see what she's doing? Your mother has been filling this girl's head with lies. Emily wants the Moretti name, and your mother is helping her get it."
Emily looked genuinely horrified.
"I don't want your money."
Vanessa laughed bitterly. "Of course you'd say that."
Dominic stepped between them.
"One more word, Vanessa, and you'll leave this ballroom under security escort."
Her mouth snapped shut.
He turned to Marcus.
"Clear the room. No one leaves until we have their contact information and statements. Anyone who recorded what happened tonight will send the original footage to my office."
Within minutes, the guests began filing out under the watchful eyes of his security team.
Vanessa tried to catch his arm.
He stepped away.
"Marcus, take her to the east sitting room. Don't let her leave the estate."
"Dominic!" she protested.
"That wasn't a request."
He looked at Emily.
"You're coming with me."
She stiffened.
"Am I in trouble?"
The question struck him harder than he expected.
"No."
"Then why do you need me?"
"Because somebody knows something about your life that you don't. And I intend to find out who."
He led her upstairs to his father's old study.
The room had remained untouched for seven years, ever since Richard died in what police called a traffic accident. Dark walnut shelves lined the walls. A brass desk lamp illuminated stacks of unopened correspondence.
Dominic unlocked the bottom drawer.
Inside lay a leather-bound journal and a sealed envelope bearing his father's handwriting.
His name was written across the front.
Dominic opened it.
Dominic, if you are reading this, then the secret I tried to protect has finally come to light.
His breath caught.
There is a young woman who may one day come looking for the truth. Her name is Emily Carter. If she comes to this house, do not judge her by the lies told about her mother. Protect her until you understand what happened.
The letter ended there.
No explanation. No signature beyond his father's familiar initials.
Emily covered her mouth.
"How did he know my name?"
Dominic stared at the page.
"I don't know."
He opened the journal. Most entries concerned business, political favors, and shipments that had made the Moretti family wealthy. But near the end, a series of pages had been torn out.
The final intact entry was dated three days before Richard's death.
The original birth certificate is gone. Someone has been searching my office. If anything happens to me, Elena knows where the second key is hidden.
Elena.
Dominic's mother.
A knock sounded at the door.
His mother, Isabella Moretti, entered slowly. At sixty-two, she still possessed the quiet authority that had kept the Moretti household functioning through two decades of violence and scandal.
Her gaze fell on the open journal.
Then on Emily.
For the first time in Dominic's life, he saw fear in his mother's eyes.
"You opened the letter," she whispered.
"Who is Emily?"
Isabella closed the door behind her.
"Your father's daughter."
Emily stepped backward as if struck.
"No. My mother told me my father died before I was born."
"Your mother was trying to protect you," Isabella replied.
"From what?"
Isabella looked at Dominic.
"From this family."
Dominic's voice hardened.
"Start talking."
His mother took a breath.
"Your father loved a woman named Claire Carter. They planned to marry, but your grandfather threatened to destroy her family if Richard refused an arranged alliance that would protect the Moretti business."
"What happened to Claire?"
"She disappeared. Richard searched for her for months. By the time he found her, she had given birth and changed her name."
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
"My mother never mentioned a man named Richard."
"She was afraid he'd come back for you," Isabella said. "And she had reason to be afraid."
Dominic stared at her.
"Why?"
Before Isabella could answer, Marcus burst into the study.
"Boss, we have a problem."
"What?"
"The security footage from the ballroom has been erased from the main server. The backup was deleted, too."
Dominic's face darkened.
"You told me you had the recording."
"I downloaded the relevant section before it disappeared. But someone accessed the system remotely less than five minutes ago."
"From where?"
Marcus hesitated.
"The east sitting room."
Dominic looked at his mother.
Isabella's face had gone deathly white.
Because the east sitting room was where Vanessa was being held.
May you like
And someone had just used Dominic's private security system to destroy evidence of the night his family's darkest secret finally surfaced.
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