Chapter 8 - The Woman Upstairs
Dominic moved so fast I barely had time to react.
"Lily."
I ran.
Matteo followed.
Dominic reached the second floor first.
Lily's bedroom door was open.
Rosa sat beside the bed.
Silver-streaked hair.
Cream sweater.
Warm smile.
A children's book open across her lap.
Lily was asleep.
Rosa looked up.
"Dominic?"
He stopped in the doorway.
For one terrible second, nobody spoke.
Rosa looked from Dominic to Matteo.
Her face changed.
"Matteo."
"Hello, Aunt Rosa."
She closed the book.
"I see secrets are fashionable tonight."
Dominic entered.
"Step away from Lily."
Rosa's eyes narrowed.
"Excuse me?"
"Now."
I moved toward the bed.
Rosa stood.
"Isabella, don't be ridiculous."
I picked Lily up.
She stirred against my shoulder.
"Mommy?"
"I'm here."
Dominic never took his eyes off Rosa.
"You knew."
Rosa's expression remained calm.
"Knew what?"
"Elena."
The name landed.
Rosa blinked.
Barely.
But enough.
Dominic saw.
Matteo saw.
I saw.
"Let's talk downstairs," Rosa said.
"We'll talk here."
"Not in front of children."
"Suddenly you're concerned about children?"
Her face hardened.
That was the first time I saw the woman behind the softness.
"Be very careful, Dominic."
"No."
His voice remained quiet.
"I have spent my entire life being careful around people who called control love."
Rosa looked at Matteo.
"You should have stayed dead."
Dominic's entire body tightened.
There it was.
Not a confession.
But close.
I took Lily into the hallway.
Leo appeared from his room.
"What's happening?"
"Come with me."
"Is Dad okay?"
"Come."
I brought both children downstairs.
One of the guards escorted us to the reinforced security room.
Leo kept asking questions.
I had few answers.
Twenty minutes later, Dominic entered.
Alone.
"Where's Rosa?" Leo asked.
"Gone."
"Home?"
Dominic hesitated.
"Yes."
It wasn't exactly a lie.
Security had escorted her to another Moretti property.
Not because Dominic trusted her.
Because he needed answers.
"What did she do?" Leo asked.
Dominic sat.
"She made choices that hurt people."
"Did she hurt Mom?"
Dominic looked at his son.
"I don't know yet."
Leo frowned.
"You always say that now."
Dominic almost smiled.
"I know."
"When will you know?"
"Soon."
The encrypted files changed everything.
Elena had documented months of suspicious transactions.
Salvatore and Rosa had been moving money through legitimate Moretti businesses.
But money wasn't the true betrayal.
They were orchestrating conflicts between rival groups.
Creating instability.
Then persuading Vittorio and Dominic that the family needed stronger control.
More fear.
More retaliation.
More dependence on people like Salvatore.
Rosa's role was quieter.
She passed schedules.
Names.
Personal information.
Including Elena's.
The audio never directly said Rosa ordered Elena's death.
But it proved she knew Elena was investigating them.
"Why would your aunt do this?" I asked Dominic.
We were in the kitchen again.
That room had somehow become the place where he spoke honestly.
"Power."
"She already had money."
"Money and power aren't the same thing."
"You sound like you know."
He looked at me.
"I do."
There was no pride in the answer.
"What happens now?"
"I get proof."
"And then?"
Dominic looked toward Leo.
He was sitting on the floor helping Lily build a tower.
"I make sure this ends."
"Meaning?"
He understood the question.
The old Dominic might have answered with silence.
Instead he said, "Legally, if I can."
"If?"
"If Salvatore tries to hurt anyone—"
"Dominic."
His jaw tightened.
"I know."
"No, you don't."
I stepped closer.
"You keep saying you want Leo to stop being afraid of you."
"I do."
"Then he cannot watch you become exactly the man everyone says you are."
His eyes darkened.
"You think I should let someone threaten my child?"
"No."
"You think the police can protect us from everything?"
"No."
"Then what are you asking?"
"That you choose what kind of father you want Leo to remember."
He stared at me.
It was a risk.
Everything about speaking honestly to Dominic was a risk.
But after a moment, his anger faded.
"You make everything sound simple."
"It isn't."
"No."
He looked at Lily.
"But you say it simply."
The next day, Dominic met with federal investigators through an attorney Matteo trusted.
That surprised me.
It surprised Matteo even more.
"You sure?" his brother asked.
"No."
"Good."
Dominic frowned.
"Good?"
"Means you're finally thinking."
Evidence began moving quietly.
Financial records.
Audio files.
Names.
Dates.
Dominic provided information about businesses he controlled.
Some of it could hurt him too.
He knew that.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked.
He looked toward Leo.
"Because he asked if I'm bad."
My chest tightened.
"He asked me that too."
Dominic went still.
"What did you say?"
"That people are complicated."
He laughed softly.
"Very diplomatic."
"He wants you to be good."
Dominic looked away.
"I don't know if I can be."
"Maybe that's not something you are."
He looked at me.
"Maybe it's something you keep choosing."
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he nodded.
Two nights later, Gabriel Russo finally appeared.
Not at the gate.
Not in the house.
At Elena's grave.
Dominic received a photograph on his phone.
Gabriel standing beside the headstone.
Below it:
Come alone.
Dominic didn't.
He took Matteo.
And against his wishes, I followed in another car with security.
When Dominic discovered me, he was furious.
"What are you doing?"
"Making bad choices."
"This is dangerous."
"Then stop doing dangerous things."
Matteo laughed.
Dominic glared at him.
We found Gabriel waiting beneath an oak tree.
He looked older than the photograph.
Thin.
Tired.
But alive.
Dominic approached.
For four years, he had believed this man killed his wife.
I could see the old rage returning.
Gabriel raised his hands.
"I didn't kill Elena."
Dominic's voice shook.
"Prove it."
Gabriel took out a phone.
"I can."
He played a recording.
Rosa's voice.
Then Salvatore's.
Talking about Elena.
Talking about the car.
Talking about how "the wife had become a liability."
Dominic's face changed.
Gabriel stopped the recording.
"There's more."
"Give it to me."
"I will."
"When?"
"When you promise me something."
Dominic stepped forward.
"You don't negotiate with me."
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
"That's exactly why Elena is dead."
Dominic froze.
Gabriel's eyes filled.
"She asked me to make you leave this life if anything happened to her."
Dominic stared.
"What?"
"That was her final request."
He held out the phone.
"She knew you."
Dominic took it.
Gabriel continued.
"She knew revenge would be easier for you than grief."
Dominic looked at the recording.
Then at Leo's mother's grave.
"And she was right."
Before anyone could speak, a shot cracked through the cemetery.
Stone exploded beside Gabriel.
Security moved instantly.
I dropped behind a monument.
Dominic grabbed Gabriel.
Another shot hit the tree.
Someone shouted.
Then silence.
The shooter fled before security reached the road.
No one was hurt.
But when Dominic looked at the damaged headstone beside Elena's grave, his face became terrifyingly calm.
Salvatore knew Gabriel had returned.
And now he knew Dominic had the truth.
The war Dominic had been trying to avoid had finally arrived at his family's doorstep.
But this time, Dominic would not fight it the way his enemies expected.
He was going to use the one weapon nobody thought a Moretti would choose.
May you like
The truth.
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