Chapter 3 - THE NAME SHE BURIED
Dominic dismissed the entire household staff from the east wing.
Only Victor remained.
Sophia stood across from Dominic’s desk with Lily asleep against her shoulder.
The little girl’s cheek rested on her mother’s collarbone, one small fist wrapped in the fabric of Sophia’s uniform.
Dominic wanted Lily somewhere else.
He also understood immediately that Sophia would not surrender her child to anyone in that moment.
Victor closed the office doors.
“Start talking,” Dominic said.
Sophia looked exhausted.
“My name was Sophie Mercer.”
“Was?”
“I changed it legally six years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because my father would have found me otherwise.”
Dominic watched her closely.
“Theodore Mercer.”
She nodded.
Victor exhaled quietly.
Theodore Mercer had spent twenty-five years existing between legitimate shipping businesses and organized crime. He was polished enough to attend charity galas and violent enough to make men disappear.
Until recently, he and Dominic had remained on opposite sides of an uneasy peace.
“What does Evan Sloane have to do with this?” Dominic asked.
Sophia shifted Lily higher against her chest.
“He was my husband.”
“And?”
“My father chose him.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“I was twenty-two,” Sophia continued. “Evan worked for him. My father wanted an alliance between the Mercer transport companies and the Sloanes. Nobody asked whether I wanted it.”
“Why didn’t you leave?”
“I tried.”
Her eyes lowered.
“The first time, my father found me before I reached Pennsylvania.”
Dominic understood the kind of family that treated escape as betrayal.
He had been raised by one.
Sophia swallowed.
“Evan wasn’t always cruel in front of other people. That was the worst part. He could be charming. He knew exactly how hard he could grab without leaving marks anyone would question.”
Dominic thought of the bruise on her wrist.
Something dark moved through him.
“Six years ago,” Sophia continued, “I found accounting records at my father’s house. Money laundering. Illegal cargo. Politicians receiving payments. Police officers. Judges.”
Victor leaned forward.
“You took them?”
“I copied them.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
Against what?
The answer was obvious.
Her own family.
“I told my father I wanted out. He said Mercers didn’t leave. That night Evan found out I’d copied the records.”
Her voice trembled.
Dominic noticed Lily stir.
Sophia kissed the child’s hair and continued more softly.
“I ran.”
“How?”
“My grandmother helped me. She gave me cash, documents, and a number for a woman in Missouri who helped abused women disappear from dangerous families.”
Dominic looked toward Victor.
Victor nodded.
Plausible.
“What happened to the files?”
“I kept one copy.”
“Where?”
Sophia did not answer.
Dominic stood.
“This is the part where you decide whether you’re lying to me.”
Her eyes flashed.
“I have never lied to you about anything that affects this house.”
“You lied about your identity.”
“I cleaned your floors. I washed your windows. I didn’t apply to become your business partner.”
Victor almost smiled.
Dominic did not.
But something about her refusal to shrink changed the room.
“Why did Evan show up now?”
Sophia looked toward Lily.
“Because he found us four months ago.”
Dominic felt cold anger spread through him.
“Before you came here.”
“Yes.”
“You took this job because of me.”
Sophia’s silence answered.
His face hardened.
“You deliberately entered my home.”
“Yes.”
Victor shifted.
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“So you did use me.”
Sophia’s expression broke.
“For protection.”
The words struck harder than he expected.
“I knew nobody connected to my father would come openly into a Moretti house,” she said. “I saw the job listing. The agency said staff lived off-site but had access to estate security. I thought if I could work here, maybe Evan would stay away.”
“And the twenty thousand?”
“He demanded money.”
“For silence.”
“Yes.”
“You paid him.”
“I sold the last jewelry my grandmother gave me.”
Dominic stared at her.
“Why not come to me?”
A sad laugh escaped Sophia.
“You are Dominic Moretti.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It’s exactly the answer.”
She stepped closer.
“You barely spoke to me. Your employees are terrified of disappointing you. Half the newspapers in New York describe you like some sort of king who has people removed for breathing too loudly.”
“I don’t read newspapers.”
“That isn’t helping.”
Victor coughed suspiciously into his fist.
Dominic ignored him.
Sophia’s voice softened.
“I didn’t know whether telling you would save Lily or put her in more danger.”
Dominic looked at the sleeping child.
“You should have told me.”
“I know that now.”
Something in the way she said it unsettled him.
Because she meant after the blanket.
After Lily had decided Dominic was worth caring for.
A phone buzzed on the desk.
Victor checked it.
His face changed.
“What?”
“We found the source of the intercepted shipment information.”
Dominic turned.
Victor placed the phone on the desk.
A photograph showed one of Dominic’s senior security men entering a restaurant in Brooklyn.
Across the table sat Theodore Mercer.
“Anthony Greco,” Victor said.
Dominic felt nothing.
That was the frightening part.
Anthony had worked beside him for nine years.
Had attended Christmas dinners.
Had carried Dominic out of a car after a shooting.
“Greco has access to everything,” Victor continued. “Routes. schedules. Warehouse rotations.”
Sophia went pale.
Dominic looked at her.
“Your father doesn’t need you for information.”
“No.”
“Then why is Evan blackmailing you?”
Sophia’s eyes filled with dread.
“Because of the files.”
Victor leaned forward.
“You still have them.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Sophia whispered, “Somewhere nobody would search.”
Dominic’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A distorted voice said, “Tell Sophie her father wants his property back.”
Dominic’s expression became deadly.
“What property?”
“The ledger.”
Then came three words that changed everything.
“Check the nursery.”
Dominic dropped the phone and ran.
Sophia screamed Lily’s name even though the child was in her arms.
They reached the small playroom beside the kitchen.
The window stood open.
Rain blew across the carpet.
A stuffed rabbit lay beneath it.
Pinned to the rabbit’s chest with a knife was a photograph.
Sophia approached slowly.
The picture showed her and Lily leaving a grocery store that morning.
Across Lily’s face, someone had drawn a red X.
Sophia made a broken sound.
Dominic removed the knife.
Victor stared toward the window.
“They were inside the estate.”
Dominic turned.
Every trace of softness disappeared from his face.
“Lock the gates.”
Victor reached for his phone.
“Wake every man we have.”
Sophia held Lily so tightly the toddler whimpered in her sleep.
“Dominic…”
He looked at her.
She had never called him that before.
Not Mr. Moretti.
Dominic.
“I need to leave,” she whispered.
“No.”
“If I leave, my father follows me.”
“No.”
“You don’t understand.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“I understand perfectly.”
His eyes moved to Lily.
The child who had brought warmth into his freezing house.
Then back to Sophia.
“They threatened a three-year-old inside my home.”
May you like
His voice became almost calm.
“That means they just made themselves my problem.”
