Chapter 5 - The Empty Bedroom
Leo was gone.
I discovered it at six twelve the next morning.
His bed was empty.
The blanket lay folded at the bottom.
The window was locked.
His shoes were missing.
For one terrible second, I couldn't breathe.
Then I screamed Dominic's name.
The house exploded into motion.
Security guards ran upstairs.
Doors opened.
Radios crackled.
Dominic came out of his bedroom barefoot, wearing black trousers and an undershirt.
"What?"
"Leo."
One look at my face was enough.
He ran.
I had never seen Dominic Moretti panic.
I had imagined panic would make him louder.
It didn't.
It made him terrifyingly quiet.
He searched Leo's bedroom himself.
Closet.
Bathroom.
Under the bed, as though a six-year-old might be hiding there.
"Lily?"
"Still sleeping."
"Don't leave her."
"What happened?"
"I don't know."
"You have cameras."
"I'm checking them."
He turned toward the hallway.
Then stopped.
On Leo's desk sat a folded piece of paper.
Dominic grabbed it.
His expression changed.
"What?"
He handed it to me.
Leo's handwriting was large and uneven.
Dad,
I heard you say someone died because of you.
I don't want Lily to die because of me.
I'm going away until the bad person stops.
I'm sorry.
Leo.
Dominic sat down.
Not because he chose to.
Because his legs seemed to stop holding him.
"Oh God."
The words sounded strange from him.
I knelt.
"He left on his own."
"That's worse."
"No."
He looked at me.
"Dominic, listen. It means whoever is threatening you didn't take him."
"He's six."
"I know."
"He's somewhere outside alone."
"I know."
Dominic stood immediately.
The cameras showed Leo leaving through the staff entrance at five thirty-four.
He wore a baseball cap, coat, and backpack.
He had waited until one of the guards opened the delivery gate for a bakery truck.
Then slipped behind stacked boxes.
Clever.
Terrifyingly clever.
"Where would he go?" Dominic demanded.
I thought.
School?
Park?
A friend's house?
Then Lily appeared in the doorway, rubbing her eyes.
"Where's Leo?"
I looked at Dominic.
"Sweetheart—"
"He went to Mommy's bench."
Every adult froze.
"What?" Dominic asked.
Lily yawned.
"Mommy's bench."
"What are you talking about?"
"Leo said there's a bench where his mommy likes flowers."
Dominic's face went white.
He grabbed his coat.
"Mount Auburn."
I followed.
"What?"
"Her grave."
Twenty minutes later, three vehicles stopped outside the cemetery.
Dominic was out before the driver.
We found Leo sitting on a stone bench beside Elena's grave.
His backpack rested between his feet.
He was crying.
Dominic stopped several yards away.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Leo saw him.
"I'm sorry."
Dominic crossed the distance.
He dropped to his knees and pulled his son against him.
Not carefully.
Not awkwardly.
Desperately.
Leo began sobbing.
"I didn't want Lily to die."
"She isn't going to."
"Mom did."
Dominic shut his eyes.
"Because of you."
The sentence was brutal.
But Leo was six.
Children don't soften truths to protect adults.
Dominic held him tighter.
"Yes."
I looked at him.
"Yes," he repeated. "Something dangerous around me hurt your mother."
Leo cried harder.
Dominic put one hand behind his son's head.
"But that was not because you existed. And nothing that happens around me will ever be your fault."
"I heard you."
"I know."
"You said she died instead of you."
Dominic's face twisted.
"I shouldn't have let you hear that."
"Is it true?"
Dominic looked at Elena's grave.
Then back at Leo.
"Yes."
Leo's lower lip shook.
"Do you wish it was you?"
That question broke something.
Dominic stared at him.
"No."
Leo looked surprised.
Dominic swallowed.
"I used to."
His voice cracked.
"For a long time."
I turned away slightly, giving them privacy while staying close.
"But then what would happen to me?" Leo whispered.
Dominic's eyes filled.
"Exactly."
The boy stared at his father.
Dominic touched his cheek.
"I was so busy wishing I could change the day your mother died that I forgot I still had someone alive who needed me."
Leo began crying again.
Dominic pulled him close.
"I'm sorry."
It was the first time I heard Dominic apologize to his son.
Not for a missed dinner.
Not for being late.
For years.
For silence.
For fear.
For making a child believe his father would rather live inside a grave than beside him.
Lily tugged my hand.
"Is Leo okay?"
"He will be."
She walked toward them.
I almost stopped her.
Then Dominic looked up.
Lily held out a crushed dandelion she had picked near the path.
"For Leo's mommy."
Dominic stared at the flower.
He accepted it.
"Thank you."
Lily put it beside Elena's headstone.
Leo reached for her hand.
And once again, that tiny gesture changed Dominic's face.
Only this time he didn't rebuild the wall.
He let us see.
Grief.
Love.
Regret.
All of it.
We stood there until the morning grew warm.
When we returned to the house, everything shifted.
Dominic ordered breakfast in the kitchen instead of the formal dining room.
Leo sat beside him.
Lily insisted on pancakes.
"The burned kind?" Leo asked.
Dominic looked at him.
"Your mother would approve."
A real laugh escaped Leo.
Dominic smiled.
Then his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
He answered.
No one spoke.
Dominic's expression darkened.
"Gabriel?"
Silence.
Then a man's voice.
"You finally told him about Elena."
Dominic stood.
"Where are you?"
"Closer than you think."
"What do you want?"
"The truth."
"Then stop hiding."
The caller laughed.
"I'm not the one who hid, Dominic."
"You disappeared."
"Because someone wanted you to think I killed her."
Dominic's face went rigid.
"Who?"
"Ask your brother."
The line went dead.
I stared at Dominic.
"Your brother?"
He didn't move.
I had worked in that house nearly a year.
I had never heard him mention a brother.
"Dominic."
His eyes moved toward the hallway.
"My older brother died twelve years ago."
"Then who was he talking about?"
Dominic didn't answer.
But Leo did.
"Uncle Matteo?"
Dominic turned sharply.
"You know that name?"
Leo looked confused.
"Grandpa talks about him."
Dominic went still.
"What does he say?"
"That he's far away."
I watched Dominic's face.
The room seemed to shrink around us.
Because according to Dominic, his brother Matteo had been dead for twelve years.
According to Leo, someone in the family had recently spoken about him as though he were alive.
May you like
And before the day was over, Dominic would discover that the first lie about Elena's death had begun long before her car ever left the driveway.
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