Chapter 2 - The Name on Isabella's Board
Dominic stared at the name.
Carlo.
For twenty years, Carlo Santoro had stood beside him.
He had buried Dominic's father.
He had protected Isabella after the attack.
He had carried a twenty-three-year-old Dominic out of a warehouse after a business dispute nearly turned fatal.
And less than an hour earlier, Dominic had sent Carlo to protect Eli.
Marin saw the realization cross his face.
“My son is with him.”
Dominic was already dialing.
Carlo answered immediately.
“Boss.”
“Where are you?”
“Bellevue Avenue. Five minutes from the estate.”
“Eli?”
“Beside me.”
“Put him on.”
A few seconds passed.
Then a child's uncertain voice came through.
“Hello?”
Dominic handed the phone to Marin.
“Eli?”
“Mom?”
Her knees almost buckled.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. This guy Carlo got me early. He bought me hot chocolate.”
Marin looked at Dominic.
“Where are you?”
“In a big car.”
“Stay there. I'm waiting for you.”
“Okay.”
Dominic took the phone.
“Carlo.”
“Yes?”
“Bring him through the west gate.”
A pause.
They normally used the main entrance.
“West gate?”
“Construction at the front.”
“Understood.”
Dominic ended the call.
Marin whispered, “If Isabella thinks he's involved—”
“I know.”
“What are we doing?”
Dominic turned to one of the guards outside Isabella's room.
“Get Marco and Luis. West gate. Quietly.”
The guard left.
Marin stared at Dominic.
“You're using Eli to test Carlo?”
“No.”
“It sounds exactly like that.”
Dominic turned toward her.
“I'm making sure the person bringing your son here doesn't know we're suspicious.”
That distinction mattered little to a frightened mother.
Marin's eyes hardened.
“Eli isn't one of your pieces on a chessboard.”
Dominic was silent.
She expected anger.
Instead he nodded.
“You're right.”
The simple admission surprised her.
“I should have sent someone else,” he continued. “But when I heard the threat, Carlo was beside me. I reacted.”
Dominic looked at Isabella.
“And I trusted him.”
Isabella tapped once.
No.
Dominic crouched before her.
“You never trusted him?”
One tap.
“No.”
“Since when?”
Isabella struggled with the marker.
Marin steadied the board.
She wrote:
Before attack.
Dominic went still.
The attack that had stolen Isabella's voice had happened three years earlier.
Everyone believed it had been the work of a rival family.
Carlo had helped Dominic hunt the people responsible.
“What did he do?”
Isabella tried to write.
Her hand shook too badly.
Marin placed her hand beneath Isabella's wrist.
“Slowly.”
Isabella wrote one word.
Door.
Then:
Opened.
Dominic understood.
“Carlo opened the door for them?”
Two taps.
Yes.
Dominic stood.
For the first time, Marin saw something genuinely frightening in him.
Not shouting.
Not rage.
Betrayal.
Then headlights crossed the courtyard below.
Marin rushed to the window.
A black SUV approached the west gate.
“Eli.”
She hurried downstairs.
Dominic followed.
The vehicle stopped beneath the covered entrance.
Carlo stepped out first.
He smiled as though nothing had happened.
Then the rear door opened.
Eli climbed out wearing his blue backpack.
Marin ran to him.
“Mom!”
She wrapped both arms around him.
Eli groaned.
“Can't breathe.”
She immediately loosened her grip.
“Sorry.”
He smiled.
“It's okay.”
Dominic watched from several feet away.
He had seen Marin scared before.
He had never seen her like this.
She checked Eli's face, arms, backpack, inhaler—everything.
Only when convinced he was unharmed did she breathe normally.
Carlo approached Dominic.
“Sedan outside the school belonged to a shell company connected to Morrow.”
Dominic looked at him.
“You're sure?”
“Positive.”
Carlo held his gaze.
Twenty years of loyalty stood between them.
Or twenty years of lies.
Dominic smiled faintly.
“Good work.”
Carlo relaxed.
That told Dominic more than anger would have.
Eli looked at him.
“You're Dominic?”
Marin looked horrified.
“Eli.”
“What? That's his name.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“Yes.”
“You own this house?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dominic paused.
“I bought it.”
Eli considered this.
“That's a pretty good reason.”
Marin closed her eyes.
Dominic actually smiled this time.
Then Eli noticed Isabella waiting at the staircase.
He immediately ran toward her.
“Miss Isabella!”
The old woman's face transformed.
She smiled.
Eli hugged her carefully.
Watching them, Dominic realized something painful.
This child had visited his mother several times.
He knew how she communicated.
He waited for her answers.
He never interrupted.
A nine-year-old had learned something many adults in Dominic's world had not.
Silence deserved patience.
Vivien appeared at the top of the stairs.
Her face was perfect.
“Oh,” she said pleasantly. “We have a guest.”
Marin instinctively moved closer to Eli.
Vivien noticed.
Dominic noticed Vivien noticing.
He walked toward her.
“Eli is staying tonight.”
“Of course.”
Vivien smiled at the boy.
“How lovely.”
Eli stared at her.
Children possessed a useful inability to fake comfort.
He moved behind Isabella.
Vivien's smile tightened.
Dominic climbed the stairs.
When he reached her, Vivien touched his chest.
“You disappeared.”
“Business.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yes.”
She searched his eyes.
Dominic kissed her cheek.
“Tomorrow continues as planned.”
Relief flashed across her face.
Only for a fraction of a second.
But he saw it.
“Perfect,” she whispered.
That night the mansion filled with preparations.
Flowers arrived.
Crystal was polished.
Security lists were checked.
The dining room became a theater awaiting its actors.
Dominic ordered Marin and Eli into rooms beside Isabella's suite.
He doubled security without explaining why.
Then, shortly after midnight, Dominic entered his private office.
Carlo was waiting.
“You wanted me?”
“Yes.”
Dominic poured two drinks.
He handed one to Carlo.
“To tomorrow.”
Carlo smiled.
“To peace.”
They drank.
Dominic leaned against his desk.
“Do you remember the night my mother was attacked?”
Carlo's glass stopped halfway toward the table.
Only briefly.
“Of course.”
“You found her.”
“Yes.”
“And the east door was open.”
Carlo nodded.
“Security failure.”
Dominic watched him.
“Whose?”
“We never knew.”
A lie.
Dominic could feel it.
Yet he smiled.
“Ancient history.”
Carlo relaxed.
“Some things are better buried.”
Dominic looked into his glass.
“Yes.”
Carlo left several minutes later.
Dominic waited.
Then he opened the bottom drawer of his desk.
Inside was an old security report.
The east door.
One electronic key had accessed it that night.
The identity had been erased from the official record.
But Dominic had asked his security technician to restore the archived server.
At 1:13 a.m., the result arrived.
Dominic opened it.
ACCESS LOG RESTORED.
One employee ID.
Carlo Santoro.
Dominic stared at it.
Then another message arrived.
This one from the security room.
Boss, you need to see this.
Dominic went downstairs.
The technician pulled up footage from the hallway outside Isabella's bedroom earlier that afternoon.
Vivien entered.
Twenty minutes later, she left.
Nothing unusual.
Then the technician rewound.
“Watch the mirror.”
A decorative mirror reflected part of the corridor outside camera range.
Someone had been standing there during Vivien's confrontation with Marin.
A man.
Watching.
Dominic leaned closer.
The reflection was blurry.
But the face was unmistakable.
Carlo.
He had been inside the mansion.
Yet at that exact time, Carlo had supposedly been sitting beside Dominic in the SUV at Newport Harbor.
Dominic whispered, “That's impossible.”
The technician swallowed.
“Unless the footage timestamp was changed.”
Dominic turned.
“By whom?”
“Only three people have administrator access.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“You.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
The technician hesitated.
Then answered.
“Your mother.”
Dominic stared at the screen.
Upstairs, Isabella Virelli was supposedly asleep.
But when Dominic entered her room ten minutes later, she was awake.
Her writing board rested on her lap.
One sentence had already been written.
She turned it toward him.
Dominic read it twice.
Then a third time.
Carlo didn't betray us. I lied because Vivien was watching.
Dominic slowly raised his eyes.
Isabella pointed toward the ceiling.
The camera.
Then she wrote two more words.
Trust nobody.
May you like
And somewhere inside the mansion, the security cameras suddenly went black.
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