Chapter 6 - THE PRICE OF HIS DAUGHTER
Dominic spent the next twelve hours destroying a deal worth 2.3 billion dollars.
People called him insane.
Adrian called him late Christmas morning.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
Dominic signed another termination notice.
“Then why do it?”
“Because certainty is a luxury.”
He looked toward the empty chair where Lily had eaten cereal that morning.
“I have a daughter who is three.”
Adrian went quiet.
“That’s your answer?”
“Yes.”
Moretti Logistics withdrew from the merger.
The foundation trust was separated from family corporate control.
Three shared Hale-Moretti subsidiaries were frozen.
Dominic’s attorneys notified regulators of previously undisclosed conflicts.
Richard Hale’s leverage began bleeding out before noon.
At 1:14 p.m., Vanessa called again.
“You’re destroying both families.”
Dominic stared at the map Marco had spread across the library table.
“No.”
“Stock dropped nine percent.”
“Good.”
“You’re enjoying this?”
“No.”
“Then stop.”
“Give me Lily.”
Silence.
“Dominic, my father is furious.”
“So am I.”
“You don’t understand what he’ll do.”
“What will he do?”
Vanessa’s breathing changed.
For the first time, Dominic heard fear.
“He didn’t tell me they were taking her.”
Dominic straightened.
Marco looked up.
“What?”
“I was supposed to scare you.”
“Where is Lily?”
“I don’t know.”
“You called me from the people holding her.”
“No. Richard gave me a phone.”
Dominic’s blood chilled.
“You’re telling me your father has her?”
“I think so.”
“Think?”
“I found out after.”
“Vanessa.”
“I swear.”
She was crying now.
Not elegantly.
Not quietly.
“I thought he would take her somewhere for a few hours. I thought you would sign.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“You helped kidnap a child.”
“I didn’t think—”
“No.”
His voice sharpened.
“You didn’t.”
He forced himself calm.
“Where does your father go when he wants privacy?”
“I don’t know.”
“Lie again and this call ends.”
“Dominic—”
“Where?”
A pause.
“Connecticut.”
Marco started writing.
“Where?”
“There’s an old Hale training property outside Greenwich.”
“Address.”
She gave it.
Marco was already moving.
Vanessa whispered, “If he knows I told you—”
“You should call the police.”
She laughed weakly.
“My father owns half the people who answer those calls.”
“Not all of them.”
Dominic hung up.
Within fifteen minutes, trusted law-enforcement contacts were notified through attorneys.
Dominic did not trust Richard Hale’s network.
So he made the operation too visible to bury.
State police.
Federal kidnapping unit.
Local authorities.
His own security remained outside the legal perimeter.
Marco hated it.
“We could get there first.”
“And then what?”
“Bring her home.”
“Or start a gunfight with Lily inside.”
Marco said nothing.
Dominic looked at him.
“I am done solving family problems in ways that create more graves.”
That sentence might have been the biggest change in him.
They reached the property before sunset.
Dominic remained in the command vehicle because every officer insisted.
He lasted eleven minutes.
Then someone shouted.
A door opened on the far side of the lodge.
A small figure appeared.
Red coat.
No hat.
Lily.
Dominic was out of the vehicle before anyone stopped him.
“Lily!”
She turned.
For one second, she stared.
Then ran.
“Dominic!”
Not Daddy.
Not yet.
His name.
He didn’t care.
He dropped to his knees in the snow.
She hit him hard enough to nearly knock him backward.
He wrapped both arms around her.
Her body shook.
“I didn’t like it.”
“I know.”
“They said Aunt Elena was mad.”
“She’s not.”
“They said you didn’t want me.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Never.”
She pulled back.
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
He touched her face.
“Really.”
An officer approached.
“We need to move.”
Dominic lifted Lily.
She clung to him.
Inside the property, Richard Hale had barricaded himself with two security men.
Negotiations lasted forty minutes.
Then he surrendered.
Not because he suddenly developed morality.
Because Dominic had dismantled the deal.
There was nothing left to hold Lily for.
Vanessa turned herself in that night.
Richard was arrested.
Kidnapping.
Conspiracy.
Fraud-related charges tied to the merger investigation.
The scandal became impossible to contain.
Dominic did not care.
He rode with Lily to the hospital.
Elena met them there.
Lily saw her.
“Auntie!”
Elena nearly collapsed when she held her.
“I’m sorry.”
Lily frowned.
“Why?”
“I left you alone.”
“No.”
Lily touched her face.
“The bad lady took me.”
Elena cried harder.
Dominic looked away.
An hour later, doctors confirmed Lily was unharmed.
Cold.
Frightened.
A small bruise on one wrist.
Nothing else.
Dominic sat beside her hospital bed.
Lily ate orange gelatin.
She examined him between spoonfuls.
“Are you rich?”
Dominic blinked.
Elena laughed softly.
“Yes,” he said.
“Very?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Can you buy a pony?”
Elena groaned.
Dominic almost smiled.
“Probably.”
“No pony,” Elena said.
Lily frowned.
“Why?”
“Because we live in an apartment.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
“Not anymore.”
Her expression hardened.
“Dominic.”
“I’m not ordering.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking.”
“For what?”
He looked at Lily.
“To let me protect her.”
Elena crossed her arms.
“She needs more than guards.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
He looked tired.
Older than thirty-eight.
“I learned that today.”
Elena studied him.
“What exactly are you offering?”
“A choice.”
She waited.
“You can leave the estate.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“Where?”
“Anywhere you want.”
“You’d let us?”
His face tightened.
“I’m trying to stop saying that word.”
Elena’s expression softened slightly.
“I will provide security if you accept it. A home if you want one. Nothing if you don’t.”
“And Lily?”
Dominic looked at her.
“I want to know her.”
Elena hesitated.
“I’m her guardian.”
“I know.”
“I promised Sophia.”
“I know.”
“She wanted Lily away from your world.”
Dominic nodded.
“That is why I’m leaving it.”
Elena stared.
“What?”
“I’m selling or restructuring everything that cannot survive daylight.”
“You can’t do that overnight.”
“No.”
“But you mean it.”
“Yes.”
Lily looked between them.
“Are you fighting?”
“No,” Dominic and Elena said simultaneously.
Lily returned to her gelatin.
“Good.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
“I want a paternity test.”
She nodded.
“You should.”
“And if she’s mine—”
“She is.”
Dominic’s chest tightened.
Elena continued.
“But yes. Do it.”
He looked at Lily.
“What would Sophia want now?”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“That’s the question, isn’t it?”
Dominic nodded.
Elena took a long breath.
“She would want Lily safe.”
“I can do that.”
“She would want her loved.”
Dominic looked at the child.
“I can learn.”
Elena’s voice softened.
“She would want you to become the man she believed you could be before she became afraid.”
Dominic lowered his eyes.
“That might be harder.”
“Good.”
He looked at her.
“Good?”
“Easy promises are cheap.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“Fair.”
Lily held out the gelatin cup.
“Want some?”
He looked at the orange wobble.
“No.”
“Why?”
“I don’t trust it.”
She giggled.
It was the first time she had laughed since being found.
Dominic felt something in his chest loosen.
Three days later, the DNA result arrived.
99.9997 percent probability.
Dominic read it once.
Then again.
Lily sat on the floor coloring.
“What does it say?”
He looked at her.
“It says I’m your father.”
She stopped coloring.
“Oh.”
Dominic waited.
That was not the reaction he imagined.
Lily tilted her head.
“Do I call you Daddy now?”
His throat tightened.
“Only if you want to.”
She considered this for several seconds.
Then returned to her picture.
“Okay.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“Okay what?”
“I’ll think about it.”
Elena covered a smile.
Dominic nodded solemnly.
“Take your time.”
He had already lost three years.
May you like
For the first time in his life, Dominic Moretti understood that love was not something he could force to move faster.
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