Chapter 3 - The Ring Before the Proposal
Norah lunged toward the bedroom door.
Dominic caught her around the waist.
“Let me go!”
“That’s what they want.”
“That’s Liam!”
“I know.”
Her brother shouted again from downstairs.
“Norah!”
Fear tore through his voice.
Dominic pulled Norah away from the hallway.
His men took positions near the stairs.
A voice called from below.
“Send her down, Costa.”
Dominic’s expression became stone.
“Vincent.”
A man laughed.
“So you do remember me.”
Norah whispered, “Rizzo?”
Dominic nodded.
Vincent Rizzo sounded almost friendly.
“That key belongs to me.”
Norah stared at Dominic.
Dominic answered loudly.
“It belonged to Patrick Hayes.”
“Patrick is dead.”
The words hit Norah like ice.
Rizzo continued.
“His children don’t need to repeat his mistakes.”
Dominic’s jaw flexed.
“You touch the boy again, this conversation ends.”
“Careful. You’re starting to sound emotional.”
Dominic looked toward the window.
Norah followed his gaze.
Second floor.
Detached garage below.
Too far to jump safely.
One of Dominic’s men whispered, “Rear team is thirty seconds out.”
Dominic nodded.
Then he looked at Norah.
“When I say move, go through that bathroom.”
“What about Liam?”
“I’ll get him.”
“No.”
“Norah.”
“You’re not leaving me upstairs while—”
An explosion of sound cut her off.
Glass shattered downstairs.
Men yelled.
Someone fired.
Dominic shoved Norah behind the wall.
“Now!”
His security team moved.
The house filled with chaos.
Norah ran through the bathroom.
A guard guided her toward the rear stairs.
They reached the kitchen.
Then Norah saw Liam.
He was tied to a chair near the dining room.
A man stood behind him.
Norah stopped.
The guard raised his weapon.
The man grabbed Liam by the hair.
“Drop it.”
Norah’s guard hesitated.
“Drop it!”
Norah whispered, “Do it.”
The guard lowered the gun.
The attacker smiled.
Then a shot cracked.
The man behind Liam dropped.
Norah spun.
Dominic stood in the doorway.
His weapon remained raised.
He moved toward Liam without looking at the fallen man.
“Are you hit?”
Liam shook his head wildly.
Dominic cut the ropes.
Norah rushed forward.
She wrapped her brother in both arms.
Liam shook violently.
“I’m sorry.”
“You idiot.”
“I’m sorry.”
She kissed his hair.
Then Dominic said, “We have to go.”
Outside, engines roared.
They escaped through the back.
Rizzo vanished before Dominic’s reinforcements arrived.
By dawn, Liam was inside the hotel suite.
He had bruises along his ribs but no serious injuries.
Norah sat beside him.
Dominic stood across the room.
Liam glared.
“You’re him.”
Dominic nodded.
“You’re Costa.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Dad.”
“Yes.”
Liam looked at Norah.
“And you trust this guy?”
“No,” Norah said.
Dominic’s eyebrow moved.
“But he saved your life.”
Liam’s expression softened reluctantly.
Norah touched her brother’s shoulder.
“Tell me what happened.”
Liam swallowed.
“They approached me months ago.”
“The investment?”
He nodded.
“I thought it was crypto. They gave me cash. I moved it. Then suddenly they said it was stolen money and I owed them ten times what I handled.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because you already work constantly.”
“Liam.”
“I thought I could fix it.”
Norah closed her eyes.
Young men and that sentence.
A dangerous combination.
“What did they show you about Dad?”
Liam looked toward Dominic.
“A recording.”
“The one we heard?”
“No.”
Dominic went still.
Liam continued.
“Different one.”
“What did it say?”
“Dad was angry.”
Liam swallowed.
“He said, ‘If the Costas hadn’t pulled me into this, my family wouldn’t be in danger.’”
Norah looked at Dominic.
Dominic nodded once.
“That could be real.”
“You believe it?”
“My family put Patrick in danger. That part is true.”
Norah appreciated that he didn’t dodge responsibility.
Liam reached into his pocket.
“They gave me something else.”
He produced a folded paper.
Dominic stepped closer.
It was a photocopy of an old bank document.
A vault transfer.
Patrick Hayes.
Private deposit account.
The final line contained an address.
Dominic frowned.
“That building still exists.”
“Who owns it?” Norah asked.
He looked at her.
“I do.”
Norah laughed without humor.
“Of course you do.”
The address belonged to a former savings bank converted years earlier into luxury offices.
Dominic’s company had purchased the property seven years ago.
The original vault remained in the basement.
By noon, they were there.
The vault door looked like something from another century.
Dominic’s security chief entered the code.
Rows of old deposit boxes lined the room.
Most were empty.
One matched the number engraved on Norah’s key.
Her hand shook as she inserted it.
Click.
The box opened.
Inside were three objects.
A leather ledger.
An envelope addressed to Norah.
And a small velvet jewelry box.
Norah stared.
“What is that?”
Dominic didn’t answer.
She opened the letter first.
Her father’s handwriting filled the page.
My sweet Nora-bug,
If you are reading this, then I failed to come home.
Norah covered her mouth.
She continued.
I want you to understand something before anyone tells you stories about me.
I was afraid.
I made mistakes.
But I never regretted protecting you.
The information in this box belongs to dangerous men. I kept it because someday it may be the only thing that stops them.
If Anthony Costa or his son ever finds you, listen before you judge them.
They are not innocent.
Neither am I.
But Anthony tried to save me.
The man you must fear is Vincent Rizzo.
Norah lowered the letter.
Dominic stood perfectly still.
She looked at him.
“My father trusted yours.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t your family contact us?”
“My father did.”
“What?”
“Your mother refused protection.”
Norah remembered her mother’s fear of strangers.
Her insistence that the family move.
Her refusal to talk about Patrick.
“She knew.”
“She knew enough.”
Norah looked back inside the box.
The leather ledger was thick.
Dominic didn’t touch it.
“That could destroy Rizzo,” he said.
“Could it destroy you?”
“Yes.”
Norah stared.
He didn’t blink.
“What’s in it?”
“Transactions. Payoffs. Names. My father’s organization appears in some of those pages.”
“And yours?”
“Possibly.”
“You still want me to open it?”
“That decision is yours.”
Norah studied him.
For the first time, she realized something important.
Dominic could have taken the key.
Could have taken the ledger.
Could have lied.
He had done none of those things.
She opened the velvet box.
Inside lay a diamond ring.
Old-fashioned.
Elegant.
Not enormous.
Norah frowned.
“This was my mother’s?”
Dominic’s face changed.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
He stared at the ring.
“Because I’ve seen it before.”
“When?”
“My father owned it.”
Silence.
Norah looked from the ring to Dominic.
“Why would your father put his ring in my father’s vault?”
Dominic reached carefully for the box.
He didn’t touch the diamond.
He turned it over.
An inscription was engraved beneath the hinge.
For C.H.
Norah’s breath caught.
Claire Hayes.
Her mother.
“No.”
Dominic looked equally shocked.
Norah shook her head.
“No. Absolutely not.”
A hundred childhood questions suddenly reassembled themselves.
Her mother refusing to discuss the Costas.
Her mother crying every year on Anthony Costa’s birthday, though Norah had never known that was the date.
The strange man who had once attended Patrick’s funeral and stood far from everyone.
Anthony Costa.
“My mother and your father?”
Dominic said nothing.
Liam whispered, “Oh man.”
Norah sank onto the nearby bench.
“Was my father actually my father?”
Dominic’s eyes snapped toward her.
“I don’t know.”
The possibility made her nauseous.
Liam stood.
“Okay, no. No way.”
Dominic picked up the letter again.
“There’s more.”
Norah took it.
The final paragraph had been folded inward.
She opened it.
One sentence had been written beneath the rest.
If Norah ever meets Dominic, tell Anthony he kept his promise better than I did.
Norah looked up.
“What promise?”
Dominic turned away.
“Dominic.”
He remained silent.
“Tell me.”
He faced her again.
“My father made me promise something before he died.”
“What?”
“That if anything ever happened to him, I would find you.”
Norah’s skin prickled.
“And?”
“Protect you.”
“That’s why you came to the Onyx Room.”
“Yes.”
“Not because you suspected the ledger?”
“That too.”
“Which mattered more?”
Dominic didn’t hesitate.
“You.”
The answer unsettled her.
She hated how much she believed it.
They left the vault with the ledger.
Dominic placed it in a secure case.
That evening, Norah returned to the Onyx Room despite his objections.
She needed normalcy.
Something familiar.
She polished glasses.
Served drinks.
Pretended her dead father hadn’t hidden evidence against organized crime.
Pretended her mother might not have had a secret relationship with Dominic’s father.
Pretended Dominic wasn’t sitting in his usual booth watching her.
At closing, she carried his Macallan over.
“You’re staring.”
“Yes.”
“At least you’re honest.”
“Yes.”
She sat opposite him.
“That’s becoming annoying.”
His lips curved.
Norah looked toward the dark bar.
“I don’t know what my life is anymore.”
Dominic’s voice softened.
“You’re still Norah.”
“Bartender with broken boots.”
“You bought new ones.”
She glanced down.
“I did.”
“Good.”
She laughed.
The sound surprised both of them.
For the first time in days, tension loosened.
Dominic watched her.
Norah shook her head.
“You know what?”
“What?”
“If life is going to keep becoming more ridiculous, I should just marry rich.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Norah pointed lazily toward him.
“Then marry me.”
She meant it as a joke.
A tired, absurd joke.
Dominic didn’t smile.
Instead, he reached inside his jacket.
Norah stopped breathing.
He placed a small black velvet box on the table.
Opened it.
A diamond caught the amber light.
Norah stared.
Dominic said only one word.
“Done.”
Her laugh came out nervous.
“Dominic.”
He waited.
“I was joking.”
“I wasn’t.”
The room seemed suddenly too quiet.
Norah looked at the ring.
Then at him.
Her pulse hammered.
“You already had the ring.”
Dominic’s expression remained calm.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He closed the box.
“Because I bought it three months ago.”
Norah stared.
Three months ago.
Long before Liam was taken.
Long before the ledger.
Long before she had joked about marriage.
“Why would you buy me a ring three months ago?”
Dominic looked into her eyes.
And for the first time, the most feared man in the room looked almost vulnerable.
“Because I had already decided I was going to ask you.”
Norah’s breath caught.
Then Dominic said something that changed the meaning of everything between them.
May you like
“But marriage isn’t the only reason I need you to say yes.”
End of Chapter 3.
