Chapter 6 - The Doctor Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Kora read the words three times.
DOMINIC DOMINICO.
KORA’S FATHER.
“No.”
Nobody answered.
She turned to Mateo.
“No.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Dad.”
Samuel had remained near the doorway.
His face told her before he spoke.
“Kora—”
“No.”
She walked toward him.
“You are my father.”
“Yes.”
“That note says—”
“I know what it says.”
“Then explain it.”
Samuel sat heavily.
“Elena was already pregnant when I married her.”
Kora felt the room tilt.
“Did you know?”
“From the beginning.”
“And you raised me anyway.”
Samuel looked almost offended.
“I raised you because you were my daughter.”
“But biologically…”
“Dominic.”
The name tasted poisonous.
Mateo stepped closer.
Kora lifted a hand.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
She needed space.
She needed air.
Instead she got memories.
Dominic Dominico smiling at the engagement dinner.
Calling her “sweet girl.”
Insisting she join the family.
Watching her eat cake while Leo’s cousins joked about her weight.
He had known.
All of it.
“Did Leo know?”
Samuel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Mateo looked disgusted.
“If Dominic knew, the marriage to Leo—”
“Would never have been intended to become real,” Elena said from behind them.
They turned.
Elena had followed.
Her face was gray with exhaustion.
Kora stared at her.
“Tell me.”
Elena closed the door.
“Dominic and I were involved briefly when I was twenty-three.”
“Briefly?”
“Three months.”
“Did you love him?”
“I thought I did.”
Elena swallowed.
“Then I discovered what he was becoming.”
Samuel remained silent.
“He was already using his father’s shipping routes for illegal operations. At first I thought it was contraband. Money. Stolen goods.”
Her voice hardened.
“Then I learned people were disappearing.”
Kora crossed her arms tightly.
“When did you learn you were pregnant?”
“After I left.”
“Did he know?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He wanted you.”
Kora’s heart pounded.
“As a daughter?”
Elena’s silence answered.
“No,” Kora whispered.
“As leverage.”
Elena nodded.
“Dominic saw people as property. He believed having his biological child would give him permanent control over me.”
Samuel spoke.
“So I married your mother. Put my name on your birth certificate. We moved twice.”
“And he let you?”
“No.”
Elena looked at the photographs.
“He never stopped watching.”
Mateo picked up the missing recipe page.
“This explains the biometric vault.”
Kora looked at him.
“My DNA isn’t connected to my mother.”
“No.”
Mateo’s eyes hardened.
“It’s connected to Dominic.”
Everyone went silent.
The vault had never been designed for Elena’s family.
Mateo understood the architecture now.
His father and Dominic had originally built it together.
Access required one Bellini family key and one Dominico bloodline verification.
After Mateo’s father turned against Dominic, he had secretly transferred the Bellini key to Kora.
Because she carried Dominico blood.
The one person capable of opening a vault Dominic himself could no longer access without the missing physical key.
“That’s why Leo needed her,” Gino said.
“Yes.”
Mateo looked at Kora.
“You are both halves of the lock.”
Her hand holding the key.
Her DNA opening the scanner.
Kora laughed bitterly.
“Everybody wanted something from me before I even knew it existed.”
Samuel moved closer.
“I wanted nothing except to be your father.”
Her anger cracked.
Because she believed him.
That was the worst part.
Samuel was her father.
Not because of blood.
Because he taught her to ride a bicycle.
Waited outside chemistry exams.
Stayed up when she had pneumonia.
Baked terrible birthday cakes before he learned to bake properly.
Kora walked toward him.
Samuel looked ready for her to hit him.
Instead she hugged him.
For the first time that night, she cried.
Samuel held her tightly.
“I’m sorry.”
“I hate your secrets.”
“I know.”
“I’m still angry.”
“You should be.”
“But you’re my dad.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Mateo turned away to give them privacy.
His own father had died with secrets too.
Perhaps all powerful men convinced themselves secrecy protected the people they loved.
Usually it only made the eventual truth heavier.
Kora wiped her eyes.
“Now what?”
Mateo answered.
“We open the vault before Dominic reaches it.”
“And Millie?”
“First.”
He looked at Gino.
“We rescue your employee. Then the vault.”
Gino’s phone rang.
Anthony.
Mateo motioned for silence.
Gino answered.
“Yeah?”
Anthony sounded somber.
“We lost him.”
Gino forced grief into his voice.
“You sure?”
“Dominico people saw Bellini leave Saint Jude’s badly wounded. No hospital admission. No safe house contact.”
A pause.
“We need to protect the family.”
Mateo mouthed: Let him talk.
Anthony continued.
“I’m calling a council meeting tonight.”
“Who asked you?”
“Somebody has to lead.”
Mateo smiled without humor.
Gino replied.
“I’ll be there.”
Anthony lowered his voice.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“The bride survived.”
Gino glanced at Kora.
Anthony continued.
“Dominic wants her alive.”
“Why?”
“No idea.”
Lie.
Mateo could hear it.
Anthony knew.
The call ended.
Mateo looked at Kora.
“Anthony can lead us directly to Leo.”
She understood.
“Millie.”
“Yes.”
Before they could move, Elena’s phone vibrated.
A message from an old Project Lantern contact.
She read it.
Her face changed.
“What?”
Samuel asked.
Elena turned the screen.
Security footage showed police surrounding the bakery.
Investigators carried boxes outside.
Reporters filled the street.
Then a black government vehicle arrived.
A man stepped out.
Elena whispered:
“Oh, God.”
Kora looked at her.
“Who is he?”
Elena’s voice dropped.
“The police officer who warned Dominic about Project Lantern eighteen years ago.”
The man looked directly toward the bakery security camera.
Almost as if he knew they were watching.
“He’s not police anymore,” Elena said.
Mateo recognized him.
“Deputy Mayor Charles Wynn.”
Kora stared at the screen.
Dominico did not merely have criminals working for him.
He had City Hall.
And if Charles Wynn had protected Dominic for eighteen years, then Saint Jude’s was not simply an attack between two families.
It was a cleanup operation.
May you like
One that had failed.
Because the baker’s daughter had walked out of the fire alive.
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