Chapter 5 - THE MAN INSIDE THE GATES
Luca Ferretti had eaten Christmas dinner at Dominic’s house.
He had carried Sophia’s coffin.
He had stood beside Dominic at Leo’s baptism.
Now he sat handcuffed in the security office with blood on his sleeve where one of Noah’s guards had tackled him through a glass door.
Dominic entered alone.
Luca smiled.
“You finally learned to stay behind the door.”
Dominic said nothing.
“You used to be more predictable.”
“That was before my son started talking.”
Luca’s smile disappeared.
Dominic placed Evelyn’s phone on the table.
“Where is she?”
“No idea.”
“You had her phone.”
“She dropped it.”
“Inside my house?”
Luca leaned back.
“You’re asking the wrong questions.”
Dominic sat opposite him.
“Then educate me.”
Luca laughed.
“For years everyone thought losing Sophia made you harder.”
“It didn’t?”
“It made you blind.”
Dominic felt the insult because it was true.
Luca continued.
“You stopped asking questions that weren’t about money or territory. Collins handled Leo. Evelyn handled the house. I handled security.”
He smiled.
“We handled you.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Who is we?”
Luca said nothing.
Dominic did not threaten him.
That surprised Luca.
Instead Dominic stood.
“Police are on their way.”
Luca’s expression shifted.
“You’re giving me to police?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Moretti justice?”
Dominic looked at him.
“It buried too many truths.”
Then he walked out.
It was the first time in his adult life that Dominic chose lawful evidence over private revenge.
It was not mercy.
It was strategy.
Dead men could not testify.
Luca could.
Evelyn’s phone contained more than anyone expected.
Messages.
Payments.
Photographs of prescription bottles.
Copies of Leo’s hearing tests before his supposed decline.
Those tests showed normal hearing.
Dr. Collins had altered later reports.
There were also messages between Evelyn and Luca.
And another man.
Carlo Bellini.
A rival Dominic had spent years considering irritating but manageable.
Bellini had been patient.
That was more dangerous.
Sophia had accidentally discovered the beginning.
Four years earlier, Bellini wanted access to several Moretti shipping properties.
He needed Dominic distracted.
Vulnerable.
Distrustful.
Leo was never supposed to be permanently harmed, according to the messages.
The first medication was intended to make him sleepy and unresponsive during evaluations.
Collins would diagnose a condition.
Dominic would drown in specialists, guilt, and family crisis.
Luca would gain greater control over security and internal operations.
Evelyn would manage the household.
Bellini would slowly buy access through intermediaries.
But Sophia noticed.
She stopped giving Leo the medication for two days.
Leo became more responsive.
She confronted Evelyn.
Then called Dominic.
The call he missed.
Dominic sat in his study reading the timeline until the words blurred.
Hannah stood near the door.
“You don’t have to stay.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you?”
She looked toward the hallway where Leo and Maisie were building blocks under guard.
“Because I don’t think you should read this alone.”
Dominic looked down.
“Sophia called me.”
“I know.”
“I declined it.”
Hannah’s expression softened.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have answered.”
“You were working.”
“I always had a reason.”
“Dominic.”
It was the first time she used his name.
He looked up.
“You can regret missing the call without pretending you caused what happened afterward.”
His face tightened.
“She died before I got there.”
“Because someone hurt her.”
“I wasn’t there.”
“No.”
Hannah walked closer.
“And you weren’t the one who put anything in her drink.”
He looked away.
Grief had turned Dominic into a man who preferred guilt to helplessness.
Guilt gave him something to punish.
Himself.
Helplessness gave him nothing.
Hannah seemed to understand.
“Leo doesn’t need you destroying yourself over the last four years.”
“What does he need?”
“You.”
Simple.
Cruel in its simplicity.
“He needs you now.”
Dominic looked through the doorway.
Leo was correcting Maisie’s block tower.
“Blue,” Leo said.
Maisie shook her head.
“Red.”
“Blue.”
“Red is stronger.”
“That is scientifically incorrect,” Hannah muttered.
Dominic almost smiled.
Then Noah entered.
“Collins wants to cooperate.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Now?”
“He knows we have Luca.”
Dr. Collins gave a full statement the next morning.
He cried.
Dominic hated that.
Collins confessed he had gambling debts.
Bellini paid them.
Then controlled him.
The initial plan was to drug Leo temporarily.
When Sophia discovered it, she threatened to report Collins and have him stripped of his license.
Evelyn called Collins in panic.
“What happened that night?” Detective Ortiz asked.
Collins stared at the table.
“Evelyn put the medication in Sophia’s tea.”
Dominic’s hands curled.
“Why?”
“To make her disoriented. Slow her down.”
“And the cardiac drug?”
Collins looked sick.
“I brought it.”
Dominic stood.
Hannah caught his arm.
Not tightly.
Just enough.
Dominic looked at her hand.
Then sat.
Ortiz continued.
“You intentionally killed Sophia?”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
“She was already in distress when I arrived.”
“What did you administer?”
Collins whispered the answer.
An injectable medication inappropriate for Sophia’s condition.
“Why?”
“Evelyn said if Sophia survived, everyone would go to prison.”
Dominic’s vision narrowed.
“So you made sure she didn’t.”
Collins started crying.
“I panicked.”
Dominic stared at him.
“My wife died because you panicked?”
No answer.
Detective Ortiz stepped between them verbally before Dominic could say more.
“Where is Evelyn?”
Collins shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Bellini?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Collins remembered something.
“A storage unit.”
Dominic looked up.
“What?”
“Evelyn kept records Bellini didn’t know about. Insurance.”
“Where?”
Collins gave an address in Queens.
Police reached it before noon.
The unit contained cash.
Documents.
Recordings.
And one sealed envelope addressed to Dominic.
Inside was a handwritten letter from Evelyn.
Dominic,
If you are reading this, I failed to get away.
I hated you before Leo was born.
Not because of Sophia.
Because of Anthony.
Dominic stopped.
Anthony Marsh.
Evelyn’s only son.
Dead thirteen years earlier.
Killed during an armed robbery at a Moretti-owned warehouse.
Dominic had been twenty-nine.
He had blamed another crew.
Evelyn blamed him.
The letter continued.
I told myself helping Bellini hurt you was justice. Then Sophia died, and justice became something uglier. I wanted to stop. Richard would not let me. Luca would not let me. I stayed because leaving meant they would replace me with someone who might give Leo more than the blue pills.
Hannah stared.
“She thought she was protecting him?”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“She drugged him for four years.”
The letter continued.
There is no excuse. Only truth.
Bellini is preparing to remove everyone who can connect him to Sophia.
That includes Hannah.
And the little girl.
Dominic’s blood went cold.
At the bottom was one final line.
If you want to find Bellini before he finds them, ask Noah about Pier 17.
Dominic slowly lifted his eyes.
Noah stood across the room.
Everyone turned toward him.
Noah stared at the letter.
Then at Dominic.
“I have never heard of Pier 17.”
Dominic believed him.
Almost.
Then Noah’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at Dominic.
“The police unit transporting Collins was hit.”
Dominic stood.
“Collins?”
“Alive.”
“Who attacked them?”
Noah swallowed.
“They caught one man.”
“Who?”
May you like
“Evelyn.”
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