Chapter 4 - Rules of the Moretti House
Dominic's first reaction was not fear.
It was control.
By midnight, every exterior gate had two guards.
The security cameras were checked twice.
Leo's school schedule was canceled for the week.
Lily and I were told we would be driven home by one of Dominic's men.
I refused.
"You're not taking Lily anywhere until you explain whether we're safer here or somewhere else."
Dominic stared at me.
"You think I would put your daughter in danger?"
"I think you don't always notice what children are afraid of."
The words were crueler than I intended.
His face changed.
I regretted them immediately.
But I didn't take them back.
Dominic looked toward Leo.
The boy stood beside the staircase, clutching his drawing.
"I deserved that," Dominic said quietly.
That surprised everyone.
Including me.
He turned to one of the guards.
"Check Isabella's building."
"Dominic—"
"Not to watch you. To make sure no one else is."
That distinction mattered.
I nodded.
Leo looked at the blood on Dominic's shirt.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Then why is there blood?"
Dominic glanced downward.
"Someone else got hurt."
Leo's face paled.
I could see Dominic searching for the right answer.
A month earlier, he might have said, Go upstairs.
Instead, he knelt.
"It wasn't because of you."
Leo looked confused.
"I didn't say it was."
"I know."
Dominic's voice softened.
"But sometimes children think things adults don't realize they're thinking."
I looked at him.
He was trying.
Clumsily.
Imperfectly.
But trying.
"Was it because of Mom?" Leo asked.
Dominic glanced at the metal box.
"Maybe."
"You promised you'd tell me about her."
"I remember."
"Tonight?"
Dominic hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Tonight."
That night became the first crack in the Moretti family's wall of silence.
Dominic took Leo into the library.
I went upstairs with Lily.
At least, that had been the plan.
Five minutes later, Lily slipped out of bed.
"Where are you going?"
"Leo."
"No."
"He's sad."
"You cannot fix everybody who is sad."
She frowned.
"Why?"
I had no answer.
I brought her back to bed.
Downstairs, Dominic told his son about Elena.
Not everything.
Leo was six.
Some truths belonged to adulthood.
But Dominic told him she loved music.
That she danced while cooking.
That she hated cold coffee.
That she had once painted their bedroom blue while Dominic was away because she knew he would refuse if she asked.
Leo laughed.
Then he cried.
Dominic did too.
I didn't see it.
I learned later.
What I did see was father and son leaving the library holding hands.
The gesture looked unfamiliar to both of them.
But neither let go.
The next morning, Dominic created new rules.
He gathered Leo, Lily, and me in the breakfast room.
"There will be changes."
Lily whispered to Leo, "You're in trouble."
Dominic heard her.
"No one is in trouble."
She looked surprised.
"So we can do bubbles?"
"No."
Her face fell.
"Not in the kitchen."
She brightened.
"Outside?"
Dominic looked at me.
I bit my lip to keep from smiling.
"Outside is acceptable."
Leo looked astonished.
Dominic continued.
"You may play after lessons."
"For how long?" Leo asked.
Dominic paused.
The old answer would have been a number.
Thirty minutes.
Forty-five.
Instead he said, "Until dinner."
Leo stared.
Lily clapped.
"Rule number two," Dominic said.
"There's more?" Lily asked.
"There is always more."
She sighed dramatically.
Dominic ignored it.
"If you want to ask me something, ask."
Leo lowered his eyes.
"Anything?"
"Anything."
"What if you get mad?"
Dominic's expression softened.
"Then I'll deal with being mad."
Leo considered that.
"What if I ask about Mom?"
"You can ask."
"What if you cry?"
The room went silent.
Dominic looked at me.
He knew I had heard him.
Then he looked back at Leo.
"Then I cry."
That answer changed something.
Not instantly.
Healing rarely announces itself that clearly.
But Leo's shoulders relaxed.
Just a little.
For the first time, the rules of the Moretti house were beginning to protect a child instead of a man's pain.
Yet the threat outside hadn't disappeared.
Two days later, Dominic's security traced the call to an abandoned phone purchased in Providence.
The burned metal box had been left inside a warehouse Dominic's men used for legitimate shipping.
No fingerprints.
No cameras.
Nothing.
Except the photograph.
And the message.
You blamed the wrong man.
Dominic became quieter.
He spent hours in his study.
But unlike before, he made himself come to dinner.
Sometimes he barely spoke.
But he came.
One evening, Leo told a joke so terrible I didn't understand it.
Dominic laughed anyway.
Leo stared.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You laughed."
"I've done that before."
"Not at my jokes."
"Your jokes are usually bad."
Leo grinned.
"So that one was good?"
"No."
Lily laughed so hard milk came out of her nose.
Even Dominic smiled.
For thirty seconds, the Moretti dining room sounded like a normal family.
Then a guard entered.
He whispered something into Dominic's ear.
Dominic's face changed immediately.
He stood.
"Excuse me."
Leo's smile disappeared.
Dominic noticed.
"I'll be back."
"Promise?"
Dominic hesitated.
I saw the fear behind his eyes.
Not fear of danger.
Fear of breaking another promise.
"I promise I'll try."
Leo accepted that.
After Dominic left, I cleared the plates.
Leo stayed at the table.
"Isabella?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think my dad is bad?"
The question stopped me.
Children always ask the hardest questions while you're holding something breakable.
I put down the plate.
"Why are you asking me?"
"Kids at school say things."
"What things?"
"That their parents don't like him."
I sat beside him.
"What do you think?"
He stared at his hands.
"I think he's scary."
"Those aren't the same thing."
"Sometimes I think he's good."
"People can be complicated."
"Was my mom scared of him?"
I didn't know.
"I never met her."
He looked disappointed.
"Lily isn't scared."
"Lily tried to feed a squirrel from her hand last week."
"She said it was hungry."
"Exactly."
He smiled.
Then looked toward Dominic's empty chair.
"I want him to be good."
Something in my chest hurt.
Leo didn't need a perfect father.
He needed one he could believe in.
That night, Dominic returned at eleven.
I was still there because the security team insisted it wasn't safe to drive me home until they cleared a vehicle.
He found me in the kitchen.
"Why are you still here?"
"Your people kidnapped my commute."
He almost smiled.
Then I saw the envelope in his hand.
"What happened?"
He placed it on the counter.
Inside was another photograph.
Dominic and Elena outside Massachusetts General Hospital.
Elena was pregnant.
Someone had circled her stomach.
On the back:
Ask who ordered the car moved.
"What car?" I asked.
Dominic went pale.
"Dominic?"
He sat down.
"Elena died in a crash."
I knew that much.
"What does the car have to do with it?"
"She wasn't supposed to be in that car."
A chill moved through me.
"Whose car was it?"
"Mine."
I stared at him.
Dominic looked toward the dark window.
"For four years, I've believed Gabriel arranged the crash to kill me."
"And Elena took your car?"
"Mine was blocked in. She had an appointment. She took it without telling anyone."
"So whoever did it—"
"Expected me."
His voice cracked.
"She died because she was driving my car."
The guilt I had seen in him finally made sense.
Dominic hadn't simply lost his wife.
He believed she had died in his place.
"Why did you think Gabriel did it?"
"Because he disappeared that night."
"And now?"
Dominic stared at the photograph.
"Now someone is telling me the car itself was moved."
"By whom?"
"I don't know."
He looked at me.
"But only five people knew Elena would be leaving the house that morning."
I felt cold.
"Are those people still around?"
"Four are."
"And the fifth?"
His eyes darkened.
"Gabriel."
The security system beeped.
A guard's voice came over the intercom.
"Mr. Moretti."
Dominic pressed the button.
"What?"
"We have movement at the north gate."
"Camera?"
"Nothing visible."
Then came another voice.
"Wait."
Silence.
"We found something."
Dominic looked at me.
"What?"
"A child's backpack."
I stopped breathing.
"What kind?"
The answer came through the speaker.
"Pink."
My knees almost gave out.
Lily's backpack was pink.
I ran upstairs.
Dominic was right behind me.
Lily was asleep in Leo's room.
Her own pink backpack lay beside her bed.
So the one at the gate wasn't hers.
Dominic's phone buzzed.
A photograph appeared.
A pink backpack sitting outside the iron fence.
Attached to it was a note.
Dominic read it.
Then he closed his eyes.
"What does it say?" I demanded.
He handed me the phone.
Two words.
Children remember.
I looked toward Lily and Leo sleeping side by side.
And for the first time, I understood the real threat.
Whoever was sending these messages wasn't trying to frighten Dominic with his past.
They were forcing him to look at what his past could still destroy.
May you like
And by morning, one person inside the Moretti house would be missing.
---
