Chapter 4 - The Man Who Was Assigned to Love Her
Eliza did not cry.
She wanted to.
Instead, she became frighteningly calm.
“Assigned.”
Dominic watched her carefully.
“Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“We don’t know.”
“You always say that right before telling me something terrible.”
“I’m trying not to speculate.”
“Then I will.”
She paced the kitchen.
“Mark meets me at a charity event. He asks for my number. He spends almost two years with me. And now somebody says he was assigned to me.”
Dominic remained silent.
Eliza stopped.
“Was I surveillance?”
“Possibly.”
“For you?”
“I had never heard your name until yesterday.”
“What about my company?”
That made Dominic pause.
Harland & Wilson.
The financial consulting firm where Eliza worked as a compliance analyst.
She had spent three years reviewing corporate transactions for irregularities.
Suddenly the room seemed smaller.
Dominic asked:
“Which clients did you review?”
“Hundreds.”
“Did Mark ever ask about work?”
“Everybody asks about work.”
“Did he ask about specific clients?”
Eliza remembered.
One evening six months earlier.
Mark had poured wine and casually asked whether Harland & Wilson ever handled municipal development funds.
She had joked that he sounded like a journalist.
Her stomach turned.
“Yes.”
Dominic looked at Luca.
“Get her work history.”
“No,” Eliza snapped.
But it was already too late.
Within an hour, they discovered the connection.
Two years earlier, Eliza had flagged unusual transfers through a company called Northbridge Redevelopment.
Her report had been buried by a senior manager.
She had forgotten about it.
Dominic had not.
“Northbridge belongs to Crown,” he said.
Eliza stared.
“So Mark dated me because of a report?”
“Maybe initially.”
“Initially?”
Dominic’s gaze softened.
“You heard the recording.”
“He said he loved me.”
“People can begin with one motive and end with another.”
“You sound experienced.”
His face closed.
She knew she had touched something personal.
Before she could ask, Luca entered.
“We found Jenna.”
Dominic stood.
“Where?”
“Palermo.”
Eliza exhaled.
“She really is in Sicily.”
“Yes.”
“And the call?”
“Routed through three servers, but one camera near the hotel caught a vehicle.”
He showed them a photograph.
Dominic stared at the license plate.
“You know it?”
“It belongs to my uncle Vittorio.”
Luca looked grim.
Eliza folded her arms.
“Your uncle kidnapped my best friend?”
“If it’s his car, someone wants us to believe he did.”
“You don’t trust him?”
Dominic’s mouth tightened.
“I trust no one anymore.”
Mark’s warning echoed in Eliza’s head.
Trust nobody. Especially Dominic.
By sunrise, a jet was prepared.
Dominic refused to allow Eliza to go.
She refused to stay.
The argument lasted fourteen minutes.
She won.
Not because Dominic agreed.
Because Eliza climbed into the vehicle carrying them to the airport and refused to get out.
“You are the most unreasonable woman I’ve met,” Dominic said.
“You threatened to invade my apartment twenty-four hours ago.”
“That was security.”
“That was a felony.”
“You’re coming to Sicily.”
“Yes.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
Luca, seated opposite them, sighed.
“I already miss yesterday.”
The flight lasted seven hours.
Eliza slept for two.
When she awoke, a blanket covered her.
Dominic was across from her reading files.
“Did you do that?”
“No.”
“Luca?”
“He’s asleep.”
She looked at the blanket.
Dominic continued reading.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“So was Mark.”
The words were out before he could stop them.
Eliza’s expression changed.
Dominic set the file down.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re right.”
She looked through the window.
Clouds stretched below them.
“Do you think he loved me?”
“Yes.”
She turned.
“That answer came fast.”
“Because men who are pretending do not record apologies they think they may die before delivering.”
Eliza swallowed.
“Did you ever love someone?”
Dominic looked toward the front of the plane.
“Once.”
“What happened?”
“She realized what being with me meant.”
“And left?”
“Yes.”
“Were you angry?”
“For years.”
“And now?”
“Now I understand her.”
Eliza studied him.
“What was her name?”
He hesitated.
“Claire.”
“And is she safe?”
“She married a dentist in Connecticut.”
Eliza almost smiled.
“You checked?”
“Twice.”
“Terrifying.”
“I never contacted her.”
“Slightly less terrifying.”
He looked at her.
“I’m improving.”
By the time they landed in Palermo, the tension between them had changed.
Not disappeared.
Changed.
Jenna was held inside a coastal villa outside the city.
Dominic’s team approached cautiously.
No guards.
No vehicles.
The front door stood open.
Inside, music played softly.
Jenna sat alone at a dining table.
Untouched.
Unrestrained.
When Eliza ran toward her, Jenna burst into tears.
“They left an hour ago.”
“Who?”
“I never saw faces.”
Dominic searched the room.
On the table was a white envelope addressed to him.
Inside was another photograph of Gabriel.
And coordinates.
They drove two hours into the Sicilian countryside.
The coordinates led to a cemetery.
Dominic walked between old stone graves until he stopped before one marker.
No name.
Only dates.
1997–2016.
Eliza looked at him.
“Who?”
Dominic whispered:
“The woman Gabriel brought home.”
A sound behind them.
A child laughing.
They turned.
The dark-haired woman from the airport photograph stood beneath an olive tree.
The little boy beside her held a toy airplane.
Dominic froze.
The woman approached.
“You’re Dominic.”
He couldn’t speak.
She looked like she had rehearsed this moment for years.
“My name is Sofia.”
Dominic stared at the boy.
“And him?”
“Matteo.”
“How old?”
“Eight.”
Dominic’s face collapsed for just a fraction of a second.
Gabriel’s son.
His nephew.
The boy studied Dominic curiously.
“My mother says you’re my uncle.”
Dominic crouched slowly.
“She’s right.”
The boy smiled.
Dominic looked as if somebody had put a knife through his chest and healed him in the same moment.
Then Sofia spoke.
“Gabriel is alive.”
Dominic stood so quickly Matteo stepped backward.
“Where?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
“You don’t know?”
“He disappeared six months ago.”
“Why?”
Sofia looked at Eliza.
“Because Mark found him.”
Eliza’s breath stopped.
Sofia continued.
“And when Gabriel learned who Eliza Reynolds really was, he knew Crown would come for her.”
Eliza stared.
“What do you mean who I really am?”
Sofia’s face softened.
“Mark never told you?”
“No.”
Sofia reached into her bag and handed Eliza an old photograph.
A young woman held a newborn in a hospital bed.
Eliza recognized herself immediately from baby pictures.
But the woman holding her was not the mother who had raised her.
On the back, written in fading ink:
Elizabeth Castellano Reynolds.
Dominic looked at the photograph.
Then at Eliza.
Then back again.
“What is this?”
Sofia answered for her.
“Eliza isn’t connected to your family because of Mark.”
She looked directly into Dominic’s stunned face.
May you like
“She was born into it.”
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