Chapter 5 - The Night Dominic Broke His Own Rules
The timer looked worthless.
Cheap metal.
Faded numbers.
A dent near the five-minute mark.
Lena had kept it because her mother used it every Sunday.
She found it in a box at her Astoria apartment.
Dominic stood beside her.
Gianni waited downstairs with Raphael.
Lena turned the timer over.
Nothing.
Dominic examined the back.
One screw was newer than the others.
He removed it.
Inside was a tiny storage device.
Lena stared.
Her mother had hidden evidence inside a kitchen timer.
Of course she had.
Sofia trusted kitchens.
Just like Lena.
They accessed the recording on Dominic’s laptop.
Sofia appeared on screen.
Lena broke immediately.
Fourteen years disappeared.
“Mom.”
Dominic quietly moved away.
Sofia explained everything.
Vittorio Moretti had discovered Marco Fieri Sr.’s betrayal shortly before Sofia died.
He planned to expose him.
Marco Sr. acted first.
Sofia possessed evidence proving Marco Sr. had ordered multiple killings.
Then came the final revelation.
Sofia’s death had not been an accident.
Marco Sr. had arranged it.
Lena closed the laptop.
She could not breathe.
Dominic knelt beside her.
She collapsed against him.
For once, she did not care who he was.
He held her.
Nothing more.
No seduction.
No opportunistic kiss.
Just arms around a woman whose childhood had been rewritten in six minutes of video.
Hours later, Lena whispered, “Marco knows.”
“Yes.”
“He knows what his father did.”
“I think so.”
“And he wants the recording.”
“Yes.”
“What happens now?”
Dominic looked at her.
“We end this.”
But Marco disappeared that night.
So did Gianni.
Raphael found blood beside the garage.
And a phone.
It rang.
Dominic answered.
Marco’s voice came through.
“Bring me Sofia’s recording.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Where?”
Marco laughed.
“Not you.”
Dominic looked at Lena.
Marco continued.
May you like
“I want the chef.”
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