Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN THE RAIN
Leo remembered the rain.
That much became clear the next morning.
Dominic did not interrogate him.
Elena insisted on that.
“He’s six.”
“He may know who killed his mother.”
“And he’s six.”
Dominic stared at her.
Most people backed down when he did that.
Elena had cleaned hotel bathrooms while eight months pregnant.
She had buried a child.
She had slept in a shelter with three dollars in her purse.
Dominic Moretti’s stare was not enough.
“If you make him feel questioned, he’ll shut down.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Let him tell us.”
“How?”
Elena looked toward the playroom.
“Mia.”
Dominic’s expression became doubtful.
“She’s three.”
“Yes.”
“That is your entire strategy?”
“Your son talks to her.”
“He doesn’t talk.”
“He communicates.”
Dominic had no response to that.
So they waited.
Mia and Leo sat on the playroom floor surrounded by crayons.
Dr. Kaplan had asked them not to test Leo constantly.
No whispering behind him.
No clapping.
No turning every response into a miracle.
His ears needed time.
His mind probably did too.
Mia drew a purple house.
Leo drew a black car.
Elena noticed first.
“Is that your daddy’s car?”
Leo shook his head.
He drew rain above it.
Then a woman beside the car.
Yellow hair.
Lillian.
Dominic stood behind the observation glass.
His entire body tightened.
Mia pointed.
“Who’s that?”
Leo hesitated.
Then signed a name.
Elena translated quietly.
DOCTOR.
Mia drew another person.
“Your mommy?”
Leo stared at the picture.
Then nodded.
His crayon stopped moving.
His breathing changed.
Elena opened the playroom door.
Dominic caught her arm lightly.
“Wait.”
“He’s upset.”
“Give him a second.”
Mia seemed to sense it too.
She put down the crayon.
“Did your mommy go bye-bye?”
Leo nodded.
Mia thought.
“My brother went bye-bye.”
Elena’s chest tightened.
Mia had never spoken about Luca so directly in front of strangers.
Leo looked at her.
Mia touched her own chest.
“He was tiny.”
Leo signed.
WHERE?
“Heaven.”
Leo stared at her.
Then he signed something.
Mia did not understand.
Elena did.
MOMMY DIDN’T WANT TO GO.
Dominic closed his eyes.
Mia pointed at the yellow-haired woman.
“Did she make her go?”
Leo’s face changed.
Fear.
He looked toward the door.
Elena entered immediately.
“It’s okay.”
Leo stared at her.
She crouched.
“You’re safe.”
His hands shook.
He signed.
DOCTOR ANGRY.
“What happened?”
Leo pointed to the drawing.
Then made a motion with one hand.
Bottle.
Dominic entered.
Leo froze.
Dominic stopped.
He did not ask.
He sat on the floor.
That alone seemed to surprise his son.
Then Dominic signed.
TAKE YOUR TIME.
Leo looked at him.
His hands moved.
DOCTOR GAVE MOMMY BOTTLE.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
WHAT BOTTLE?
Leo touched his mouth.
MEDICINE.
Elena felt the room go cold.
Dominic signed.
MOMMY DRANK IT?
Leo shook his head violently.
Then pointed toward the black car.
CAR.
He drew a small rectangle near the driver’s seat.
Mia leaned close.
“What’s that?”
Leo whispered.
A real sound.
Barely audible.
“Cup.”
Everyone froze.
It was the first spoken word Elena had heard from him.
Dominic looked like someone had struck him.
Leo touched his throat, startled by his own voice.
Then repeated more softly.
“Cup.”
Dominic’s eyes filled.
But he did not interrupt.
Leo drew yellow beside the cup.
Then signed.
DOCTOR PUT MEDICINE IN MOMMY’S CUP.
Dominic stopped breathing.
Sofia had left the estate carrying coffee.
Police recovered a travel cup from the wreck.
The official report said she lost control on wet pavement.
Toxicology had shown a low level of sedative in her bloodstream.
At the time, investigators assumed it was from prescribed anti-anxiety medication.
Lillian had confirmed the prescription.
Dominic suddenly remembered.
Sofia had stopped taking that medication months earlier.
He had forgotten.
Or perhaps grief had made him accept whatever explanation allowed the world to keep moving.
“Marco.”
The security chief was already reaching for his phone.
“Get Sofia’s autopsy and the evidence inventory.”
An hour later, Dominic sat in his study surrounded by files from the accident.
The travel mug had been discarded after the case closed.
The blood samples had not.
Dr. Kaplan recommended an independent toxicologist.
Dominic used no family contacts.
No Moretti physicians.
No one who owed him anything.
By evening, the toxicologist called.
The sedative in Sofia’s blood was not the medication listed in her file.
It was a different drug.
Fast-acting.
Capable of causing dizziness, slowed reaction, and disorientation.
At the concentration found in her blood, driving would have been dangerous.
Dominic said nothing for a full minute.
Then:
“Could it have contributed to the crash?”
“Yes.”
“Could someone have put it in coffee without her knowing?”
“Yes.”
Dominic ended the call.
He walked into the hallway.
Elena stood there.
He looked at her.
“I let them tell me it was an accident.”
“You were grieving.”
“I should have questioned it.”
“You were raising a four-year-old whose mother had just died.”
“I should have protected him.”
“You did.”
“No.”
His voice cracked.
“Someone hurt his mother. Then someone started putting chemicals in his ears under my roof.”
Elena stepped closer.
“You trusted a doctor.”
“I trusted the wrong woman.”
“That is not the same as choosing what she did.”
Dominic looked at her.
He had spent years surrounded by people who either feared him or needed something.
Elena offered neither comfort nor flattery.
Only truth.
“What happened to your son?” he asked.
The question surprised her.
“My son?”
“Mia mentioned him.”
Elena looked down.
For a long moment, she said nothing.
Then:
“Luca.”
Dominic waited.
“He was Mia’s twin.”
Her voice changed.
“They were born early.”
Dominic’s expression softened.
“Mia survived.”
Elena nodded.
“Luca didn’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He lived forty-three minutes.”
She looked toward the window.
“I spent years wondering what I missed. Whether I should have noticed something sooner. Asked a different question. Demanded a different doctor.”
Dominic understood now why she watched children so carefully.
Their breathing.
Their faces.
Their smallest reactions.
“Did anyone do anything wrong?”
“No.”
“Then why blame yourself?”
Elena smiled sadly.
“Interesting question coming from you.”
He almost laughed.
Almost.
Then Marco entered carrying a laptop.
“We found Lillian.”
Dominic stood.
“Where?”
“Not physically.”
Marco turned the screen.
“We traced one of her accounts.”
Transactions appeared.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars moved through shell corporations.
Then a name.
VINCENT CARBONE.
Dominic’s face hardened.
Carbone was not a doctor.
He was not family.
He was one of Dominic’s oldest rivals.
A man who had spent years trying to weaken the Moretti organization without starting an open war.
“What does Carbone have to do with Lillian?”
Marco opened another file.
“Maybe more than we thought.”
Photographs.
Lillian entering a hotel.
Carbone entering twenty minutes later.
Another photo from eighteen months earlier.
Then another.
They had been meeting for years.
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“She was working for him.”
“Looks that way.”
“But why Sofia?”
Marco hesitated.
“We accessed one of Lillian’s old encrypted backups.”
He played a recording.
Lillian’s voice.
“If Sofia tells Dominic about the accounts, we lose everything.”
Then Carbone:
“Then make sure she doesn’t tell him.”
Dominic’s hands curled into fists.
Another recording.
Lillian again.
“The boy saw me at the garage.”
Carbone laughed.
“He’s four.”
“He talks.”
“Then make sure nobody believes what he says.”
The recording ended.
Elena felt sick.
Dominic became terrifyingly still.
Leo’s hearing loss had never been random.
It had never been bad luck.
He had seen Lillian drug his mother’s coffee.
And after Sofia died, Lillian had begun treating him.
She did not need to kill him.
She only needed to make sure the traumatized four-year-old who accused her of hurting Mommy eventually stopped hearing clearly enough to communicate easily.
Then she convinced everyone his condition was permanent.
Dominic looked toward Leo’s room.
“What accounts was Sofia going to tell me about?”
Marco took a breath.
“Carbone had been laundering money through one of your shipping companies.”
“Which one?”
“Atlantic Meridian.”
Dominic went cold.
Sofia had served on its charitable board.
She must have found something.
“How much?”
“Twenty-eight million.”
“And Lillian?”
“Received almost three million over four years.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
“Find her before Carbone does.”
Marco frowned.
“You think he’ll kill her?”
“She knows too much.”
Dominic walked toward the door.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
No one spoke.
Then a woman’s voice.
Lillian.
“Dominic.”
His expression changed.
“Where are you?”
“I need protection.”
He almost laughed.
“You poisoned my wife.”
“It wasn’t supposed to kill her.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Dominic did not react.
“You hurt my son.”
“I kept him alive.”
“What?”
“Carbone wanted him dead.”
Silence.
Lillian’s voice trembled.
“I convinced Vincent that making Leo unreliable was safer than killing a Moretti child.”
Dominic’s face became stone.
“You want credit for that?”
“I want to live.”
“Then tell me where you are.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Carbone knows you found the records.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
Lillian began crying.
“He knows Elena’s daughter made Leo start communicating again.”
Elena froze.
Dominic’s entire posture changed.
“What did you say?”
“He knows about Mia.”
Elena grabbed the back of a chair.
Lillian continued.
“And Dominic…”
May you like
A pause.
“He thinks if he takes the little girl, Leo will stop talking.”
