Chapter 7 - THE MAN DOMINIC CALLED FAMILY
Vittorio Romano smiled.
That frightened Claire more than denial would have.
Through the hidden audio feed, she heard a chair move.
“Careful, Dominic.”
“Why?”
“Because accusations cannot be unsaid.”
Dominic’s voice remained level.
“Neither can murder.”
Vanessa pushed away from the table.
“This is insane.”
Vittorio glanced toward her.
“Sit down.”
The command was quiet.
Vanessa sat.
Claire stared at the monitor.
There was no affection in Vittorio’s face when he looked at Vanessa.
No partnership.
Only ownership.
Daniel whispered beside Claire.
“He’s controlling her.”
Claire shook her head.
“She’s still involved.”
“Yes.”
“But she isn’t in charge.”
Downstairs, Dominic unfolded the estate amendment.
“You wrote this?”
Vittorio poured himself wine.
“I advised.”
“You advised Calder to alter my medication?”
No answer.
“You advised Vanessa to replace Lily’s bracelet?”
Vittorio’s eyes cooled.
“You think too emotionally.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“That sounds like a yes.”
Vittorio sighed.
“You inherited an empire and turned it into a nursery.”
Vanessa looked uncomfortable.
Dominic did not move.
“My daughter is eight.”
“And you have spent eight years making decisions based on whether she sleeps well at night.”
Vittorio’s voice hardened.
“Your father would be ashamed.”
“My father is dead.”
“And I kept you alive after he died.”
For the first time, emotion entered Dominic’s voice.
“I was nineteen.”
“I taught you everything.”
“You taught me that loyalty mattered.”
Vittorio laughed.
“No. I taught you that power matters. You heard what you wanted.”
Claire felt cold.
Vittorio continued.
“Rebecca softened you. Lily finished the job.”
Dominic’s hands curled.
Claire prayed he remembered the plan.
Daniel murmured, “Don’t react.”
Dominic did not.
“What was supposed to happen after Lily died?”
Vanessa’s head snapped toward Vittorio.
“This wasn’t supposed to—”
Vittorio turned on her.
“Be quiet.”
Vanessa stared.
Dominic noticed.
“So she didn’t know everything.”
Vanessa stood.
“I knew Lily might have a reaction. Henry said it would be controlled.”
Claire felt nausea rise.
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“Controlled?”
Vanessa began crying.
“He said she would get sick. Maybe spend a night in the hospital. You would panic. The wedding would happen sooner.”
Vittorio closed his eyes in disgust.
“You stupid woman.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“You said no one was supposed to die!”
Vittorio’s face hardened.
Daniel whispered, “That’s enough.”
But Claire shook her head.
“Wait.”
They needed more.
Dominic asked quietly, “Then why remove the epinephrine?”
Vanessa looked toward Vittorio.
That was answer enough.
Vittorio stood.
The old man finally realized the room had become dangerous.
Not physically.
Legally.
He had said too much.
“Where is Nico?” he asked.
Dominic smiled without warmth.
“Why?”
Vittorio reached into his jacket.
Daniel spoke sharply into his radio.
“Move.”
Security agents flooded the dining room.
Vittorio’s hand stopped.
Dominic remained seated.
Daniel entered through the side door with two former federal investigators.
Vanessa’s face collapsed.
“What is this?”
Dominic looked at her.
“The part where you learn I wasn’t grieving badly enough to trust you.”
Vittorio stared at Daniel.
“You recorded me.”
“Yes,” Daniel said.
Vittorio looked back at Dominic.
“You brought police into family business?”
“No.”
Dominic folded Rebecca’s letter and placed it on the table.
“I brought witnesses.”
The mansion erupted into controlled chaos.
Vanessa was separated from Vittorio.
Calder was detained leaving a private airfield forty miles away after Daniel notified investigators.
But Nico was gone.
His room had been emptied.
His company vehicle was found abandoned near Newark.
And Lily disappeared twenty-three minutes later.
Claire was the first to realize it.
She entered Lily’s bedroom at 10:12.
The bed was empty.
The bathroom was empty.
The balcony doors were locked.
Her stuffed rabbit lay on the carpet.
“Lily?”
No answer.
Claire’s heart stopped.
Then she saw the pink ribbon.
The same one Lily had tied around Claire’s wrist.
Another piece of matching ribbon lay on the floor near the wardrobe.
Claire opened the door.
Behind the dresses was a narrow service panel.
Old homes had old passages.
Mrs. Hargrove had once mentioned that the mansion’s original servants used hidden corridors between bedrooms.
Claire ran.
“Dominic!”
He was downstairs when he heard her scream.
Within seconds, every guard in the house was moving.
“Where?” he demanded.
“Service passage.”
Dominic’s face became something Claire had never seen.
Not anger.
Terror.
They entered the passage together.
Dust covered the floor.
Footprints cut through it.
One adult.
One child.
Lily had walked willingly.
Claire touched the wall.
“She knew him.”
Dominic’s expression broke.
“Nico.”
The passage ended near the old conservatory.
Outside, tire marks crossed the wet grass.
Daniel arrived.
“North gate camera shows a maintenance van leaving seven minutes ago.”
Dominic turned.
“Track it.”
“Plates are fake.”
Claire looked around.
Something was wrong.
Nico had planned a clean escape.
Why leave through a gate with cameras?
“He wants us to follow the van.”
Daniel looked at her.
Claire pointed toward the tire tracks.
“Look.”
The tracks stopped near the gravel.
No acceleration marks.
No turn.
“The van was waiting.”
She looked toward the woods.
“Nico took Lily somewhere else.”
Dominic stared at the tree line.
The Romano property covered nearly eighty acres.
Guesthouses.
Stables.
A maintenance complex.
An abandoned caretaker cottage.
The old lakeside boathouse.
Claire’s eyes widened.
“The pony.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What?”
“Lily heard about the pony at the birthday party.”
“So?”
“Where is it?”
“The north stable.”
Claire shook her head.
“No. You said you bought her the wrong pony.”
Dominic understood.
“Nico would know she wanted to see it.”
Daniel was already calling teams.
They ran toward the stable.
Empty.
The pony stood quietly inside its stall.
A folded note had been pinned to the door.
Dominic tore it down.
COME ALONE TO THE BOATHOUSE.
OR SHE DOESN’T COME HOME.
Claire read it.
Dominic immediately turned toward the lake.
Daniel blocked him.
“You are not going alone.”
“He has my daughter.”
“That’s why.”
Claire stared at the note.
“Nico didn’t write this for you.”
Dominic stopped.
“What?”
She pointed at the paper.
“He wrote ‘she doesn’t come home.’”
“So?”
“Nico grew up with you. He talks like you. He would write ‘Lily.’”
Daniel frowned.
Claire continued.
“This note is from someone who thinks of her as an object.”
Dominic looked toward the mansion.
Vanessa was guarded.
Vittorio was guarded.
Calder was in custody.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
A pause.
“How?”
He lowered the phone.
“Vittorio escaped.”
Dominic went pale.
“One of the interior guards was on Nico’s payroll.”
Claire looked toward the lake.
The boathouse.
Nico had not kidnapped Lily for himself.
May you like
He had taken her for Vittorio.
And now the one man willing to kill a child to control an empire was waiting at the water.
