Chapter 6 - THE TRUTH INSIDE THE OLD TERMINAL
The old North Shore terminal sat near the river, abandoned between two active freight yards.
Snow covered the loading docks.
Half the windows were broken.
Dominic’s car stood outside.
Empty.
Marco arrived seconds after us.
He looked at Lily.
“You brought her?”
“I tried not to.”
“Wonderful.”
I ignored both of them.
“Where’s Dominic?”
Inside.
We found his footprints.
One set leading toward the warehouse.
Another set crossing them.
At least three men.
Marco called police.
That surprised me.
“Dominic allowed that?”
“Dominic isn’t here to argue.”
Fair.
We entered through a side door.
The building smelled like rust and cold oil.
Voices echoed somewhere ahead.
Enzo.
“You always were too sentimental.”
Dominic answered.
“And you always mistook that for weakness.”
We moved closer.
Through a cracked office window, I could see them.
Dominic stood near an old loading platform.
Enzo faced him.
Peter Rinaldi stood beside the door.
Another man held a gun low against his leg.
My stomach tightened.
Enzo spoke.
“Your father made the same mistake you’re making.”
“Trusting you?”
“Believing a business like ours could become clean.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“He found out.”
“Eventually.”
“You killed him.”
Enzo smiled without warmth.
“I gave him a choice.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“He could retire quietly or destroy everything generations of Morettis had built.”
“What did he choose?”
“You know your father.”
My hand flew to my mouth.
Dominic’s father had not died naturally.
Enzo continued.
“The doctor was cooperative.”
Dominic took one step forward.
Peter raised his weapon.
Enzo sighed.
“Do not become stupid now.”
“What about Elias?”
“He became inconvenient.”
My knees weakened.
Marco caught my arm.
Inside the room, Dominic’s voice changed.
“You ordered Rinaldi to kill him.”
“I ordered him to recover the ledger.”
Peter looked uncomfortable.
Enzo glanced toward him.
“Elias ran.”
Peter finally spoke.
“He was supposed to stop.”
I almost entered the room.
Lily restrained me.
Dominic asked, “And Emma?”
Enzo smiled.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The real reason you came alone.”
Dominic said nothing.
Enzo continued.
“You’ve spent twelve years protecting her.”
“Because I made a promise.”
“Is that what you call it now?”
My breathing stopped.
Enzo laughed softly.
“You want to know when I understood? Her first week working for you.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“You stopped sleeping in the office because she told you it was unhealthy.”
Even Peter looked amused.
“You moved meetings because her mother had surgery.”
“Shut up.”
“You memorized her coffee.”
“Enzo.”
“You could have protected Elias’s daughter from a distance. Instead, you put her outside your office where you could see her every day.”
My heart pounded.
Lily looked at me.
I refused to look back.
Enzo leaned closer.
“You love her.”
Silence.
Dominic did not deny it.
Something inside me shifted.
Not joy.
Not yet.
Too much had happened.
But something.
Enzo’s expression became cruel.
“That is why she was useful.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“What did you do?”
“The freezing was not the plan.”
I stopped breathing.
“Peter was supposed to frighten her.”
Peter looked toward Enzo.
“You told me to get the file.”
“And make her understand she should resign.”
“You disabled her badge.”
Enzo shrugged.
“I assumed security would find her quickly.”
Dominic moved so fast Peter barely reacted.
He hit him once.
Peter crashed into a desk.
The armed man raised his weapon.
Marco entered.
“Drop it!”
Chaos exploded.
Lily pulled me behind a concrete wall.
Police sirens sounded outside.
Enzo backed toward another exit.
I ran after him.
“Emma!” Lily shouted.
Enzo reached the loading platform.
I followed.
He turned.
For the first time, I was alone with the man who had destroyed both our families.
“You really are Elias’s daughter.”
“Thank you.”
“He was a nuisance too.”
I held up my phone.
“Say that again.”
His eyes narrowed.
I had been recording since we entered.
“You think that saves you?”
“No.”
I stepped backward as Marco appeared behind him.
“But the fifteen police officers outside probably help.”
Enzo laughed.
Then his expression changed.
He looked past me.
Dominic approached.
Blood marked one side of his mouth.
Nothing else.
Enzo looked almost disappointed.
“I raised you.”
Dominic stopped several feet away.
“You murdered my father.”
“I made you.”
“No.”
His voice was calm now.
“My father made me.”
Enzo’s face twisted.
“And Elias?”
“He taught me what loyalty looked like.”
Then Dominic looked at me.
“And Emma taught me what truth costs when powerful men decide it’s inconvenient.”
Police entered the loading platform.
Enzo seemed to age twenty years in seconds.
He raised his hands.
As officers took him away, he looked at me.
“You think this ends because I’m arrested?”
“No.”
I surprised myself with how steady my voice sounded.
“It ends because nobody is afraid to say your name anymore.”
They led him away.
Peter Rinaldi was arrested too.
Dominic stood across from me.
For several seconds neither of us moved.
Then I walked toward him.
“You came alone.”
“Yes.”
“That was idiotic.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me for two years.”
“Yes.”
“You interfered with my life.”
“Yes.”
“You hired my roommate.”
“Yes.”
“You paid my tuition.”
“Yes.”
I shoved his chest.
Hard.
He let me.
“And you love me?”
Dominic Moretti finally stopped answering quickly.
Marco looked at the ceiling.
Lily suddenly became deeply interested in a broken window.
I folded my arms.
“Well?”
Dominic stared at me.
“Yes.”
The word came so quietly it hurt more than if he had shouted.
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s convenient.”
“I know exactly when I realized.”
I waited.
“The day you told a state senator he could reschedule because my lunch mattered more than his fundraiser.”
I blinked.
“That was eight months ago.”
“Nine.”
Of course he remembered.
I looked away.
“This is a disaster.”
“Yes.”
“You’re my boss.”
“Technically suspended.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
Dominic did too.
Then Marco’s phone rang.
His amusement disappeared.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at us.
“Police searched Enzo’s house.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“And?”
“They found Elias Clarke’s missing files.”
I stopped.
Marco continued.
“And a recording.”
“Of what?”
His face went pale.
May you like
“The night Elias died.”
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