Chapter 3 - The Brother at His Table
Anthony Valente had spent his entire life three steps behind Dominic.
Three years younger.
Slightly shorter.
Less feared.
Less respected.
Their father had never hidden which son he believed should inherit the family organization.
Dominic.
Anthony had smiled at the decision.
He had toasted his brother.
He had served beneath him for eleven years.
And Dominic had never seriously questioned his loyalty.
Until Clara whispered his name from a hospital bed.
Dominic returned to Northwestern before dawn.
Clara was awake, but barely.
He entered the room alone.
Her eyes moved toward him.
“Dominic.”
He approached the bed.
“I’m here.”
Clara studied him.
For years, there had been a controlled distance in her gaze.
Now she looked exhausted.
“You found the locker?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know.”
“I know pieces.”
Dominic sat beside her.
“I need the rest.”
Clara closed her eyes briefly.
“Anthony has been stealing from you.”
Dominic said nothing.
“For almost two years.”
“How?”
“Shell companies. Construction contracts. Port invoices.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I manage our estates, Dominic.”
Her weak voice carried the faintest edge.
“You stopped seeing me. That didn’t mean I stopped seeing everything around you.”
The words struck him.
Clara continued.
“I noticed payments that didn’t make sense. Then I found transfers connected to companies Serena was using.”
“Serena works with Anthony?”
“I think Anthony recruited her.”
Dominic looked away.
Every dinner.
Every weekend.
Every night Serena had demanded his attention.
Had it all been manipulation?
Clara watched him.
“I met Lorenzo because Anthony was trying to make you believe Moretti was stealing from your shipping operation.”
“Why would Lorenzo help you?”
“Because Anthony was doing the same thing to him.”
Dominic understood.
Create losses.
Blame rival families.
Push both organizations toward war.
Then profit from the destruction.
“What did Anthony want?”
“You gone.”
The answer was simple.
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Clara looked directly at him.
“I tried.”
Dominic had no defense.
The envelope.
The request for five minutes.
Tomorrow.
Always tomorrow.
“I’m sorry.”
Clara looked surprised.
Dominic Valente rarely apologized.
“I should have listened.”
“Yes.”
No comfort.
No easy forgiveness.
Just truth.
Dominic accepted it.
“Did Anthony cause the crash?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why were you on the South Side?”
“I was going to meet Lorenzo’s accountant. He had the final records.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“And Serena?”
Clara hesitated.
“She knew I was investigating.”
“How?”
“I confronted her two weeks ago.”
Dominic stared.
“You confronted Serena?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“That you loved her.”
Clara’s voice remained quiet.
“And maybe she was right.”
Dominic flinched.
“She wasn’t.”
Clara looked toward the window.
“You spent a year choosing her.”
There was nothing he could say to erase that.
“I was wrong.”
“You were.”
Again, she gave him no easy escape.
Dominic reached toward her hand but stopped.
“May I?”
Clara looked at his fingers.
After several seconds, she allowed him to take her hand.
“I found the ultrasound.”
Her eyes filled.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“I know.”
“I came to your study.”
“I remember.”
“You said tomorrow.”
Dominic lowered his head.
“I know.”
A tear slipped down Clara’s cheek.
“I was going to tell you that night anyway. Then Serena called. You left.”
Dominic remembered.
Serena had claimed someone was following her.
He had rushed across the city.
Nothing had happened.
Now he wondered whether the entire emergency had been staged.
“I’m ending everything with her.”
Clara gave a tired laugh.
“You think Serena is our biggest problem?”
“No.”
“Anthony knows I survived.”
“How?”
Clara looked toward the door.
“Because somebody in this hospital told him.”
Dominic immediately stood.
The implication was terrifying.
His men controlled the floor.
Only a limited number of people knew Clara’s condition.
Someone close to Dominic was feeding Anthony information.
Mateo entered moments later.
Dominic told him.
Mateo’s expression darkened.
“I’ll lock down communications.”
“No,” Clara said.
Both men looked at her.
“If Anthony thinks we know, he’ll disappear.”
Dominic understood.
“You want him comfortable.”
“Yes.”
Clara looked at her husband.
“Let him believe I’m unconscious.”
Mateo almost smiled.
“She thinks like you.”
Dominic looked at Clara.
“No.”
He squeezed her hand gently.
“She thinks better than me.”
For the next six hours, false information spread deliberately.
Clara remained unconscious.
Her prognosis was poor.
Dominic was emotionally unstable.
The plan worked.
At 2:16 p.m., one of Dominic’s security captains sent an encrypted message to an unknown number.
Mateo intercepted it.
She hasn’t talked. Boss is falling apart.
The sender was Victor Hale.
Dominic’s chief of security.
A man who had worked for the Valente family for fourteen years.
Dominic stared at the evidence.
“Bring him downstairs.”
Victor was taken to a private administrative room.
Dominic entered alone.
Victor’s face changed immediately.
“Boss?”
Dominic placed the phone on the table.
Victor looked at the intercepted message.
Silence.
“How long?”
Victor swallowed.
“Dominic—”
“How long?”
“Eight months.”
“Anthony paid you?”
Victor nodded.
Dominic’s voice remained frighteningly calm.
“Did he order the crash?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I swear.”
Victor leaned forward.
“I gave him Clara’s movements. That’s all.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“You tracked my wife?”
Victor realized what he had admitted.
“Anthony said she was leaking information to Moretti.”
“And you believed him?”
“I believed your brother.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Where is Anthony?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic turned to leave.
Victor suddenly spoke.
“There’s something else.”
Dominic stopped.
“Serena.”
He turned back.
“What about her?”
“She wasn’t supposed to be at the hospital.”
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
“Anthony told her to keep you occupied at a hotel downtown.”
Victor looked terrified.
“She panicked when she heard about the crash. She faked the medical emergency because she wanted somewhere secure.”
Dominic slowly understood.
Serena had not brought him to the hospital by coincidence.
She had been frightened.
“Where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Victor.”
“There’s an apartment in River North.”
“Address.”
Victor gave it.
Twenty minutes later, Dominic and Mateo entered the apartment.
Empty.
A half-packed suitcase lay on the bed.
Clothes covered the floor.
Serena had left quickly.
Mateo opened a laptop.
“Password protected.”
“Take it.”
Dominic noticed a photograph beside the bed.
Serena and Anthony.
Not recently.
The photograph was dated almost two years earlier.
Before Serena had supposedly met Dominic.
He turned it over.
Written on the back:
Soon he’ll trust me more than anyone. — S
Dominic felt physically sick.
The affair had never been accidental.
He had been selected.
Manipulated.
But he had still made every choice himself.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dominic answered.
A woman was crying.
“Dom?”
Serena.
“Where are you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“Anthony lied to me.”
Dominic said nothing.
“He said Clara would only be frightened. He said nobody would get hurt.”
“Where are you?”
Serena sobbed.
“He knows she’s pregnant.”
Dominic’s blood turned cold.
“How?”
“I told him.”
His grip tightened.
“You knew?”
“I saw her leaving the clinic.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Anthony says the baby changes everything.”
“What does that mean?”
“He said if you have an heir, there’s no future for him.”
Dominic’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“Serena. Tell me where Anthony is.”
She hesitated.
Then whispered:
“The lake house.”
Dominic froze.
His Wisconsin lake house.
The place where his child had likely been conceived.
“Why?”
“He said he left something there for you.”
The call disconnected.
Mateo stared at him.
“What?”
Dominic looked toward the door.
“Anthony wants me at the lake house.”
Then his phone received a photograph.
It showed Maria, Clara’s assistant, tied to a chair inside the lake-house living room.
Beside her stood Anthony.
And beneath the photograph was a message.
May you like
Bring Clara’s evidence, or Maria dies with it.
---
