Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Knew Everything
Diana called her mother immediately.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Dominic’s security team reached her apartment twenty minutes later.
Empty.
No sign of forced entry.
Her coat was gone.
Her overnight bag too.
“She left voluntarily,” Dominic said.
“How do you know?”
“Because she packed.”
Diana paced the penthouse office.
“Then where is she?”
Marcus stood near the window.
“Maybe she knew this was coming.”
Dominic looked at Vincent.
“You know something.”
Vincent sighed.
“She contacted me yesterday.”
Diana stepped toward him.
“You said nothing?”
“She asked me not to.”
“Everyone keeps protecting me by lying to me!”
Her voice finally broke.
Eighteen months.
Sixteen years.
A lifetime of adults deciding which truths Diana was strong enough to survive.
“No more.”
She looked at all three men.
“No more secrets.”
Vincent nodded slowly.
“Your mother asked me to meet her tonight.”
“Where?”
“The old Caruso restaurant in Brooklyn.”
They arrived shortly before midnight.
The restaurant had been closed for renovations.
Only one light burned inside.
Diana entered first.
Her mother sat at a table.
“Elena.”
Diana almost cried from relief.
“Mom.”
They embraced.
Then Diana stepped back.
“Tell me everything.”
Her mother looked older than she had three days earlier.
“I wanted you away from this.”
“I know.”
“I thought silence would protect you.”
“It didn’t.”
Elena nodded.
“No.”
She looked at Dominic.
“You promised me.”
Dominic answered quietly.
“I know.”
“You were supposed to let her go.”
“I tried.”
Diana almost laughed.
“When?”
Dominic looked at her.
“The morning I broke the glass.”
Her anger disappeared for a moment.
“You told me I was replaceable because you wanted me to quit?”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“That was your brilliant plan?”
“No.”
“Good, because it was terrible.”
Marcus almost smiled.
Even Elena did.
Then Diana’s mother became serious.
“Anthony discovered Adrian’s plan. But Adrian wasn’t alone.”
Diana sat.
“Who helped him?”
“Nobody.”
Confusion spread across the room.
Elena continued.
“Adrian never intended Anthony to die.”
Dominic frowned.
“He sabotaged the car.”
“No.”
Elena shook her head.
“Anthony’s death wasn’t planned.”
She explained.
Adrian had arranged to steal Anthony’s evidence from the parking garage.
Anthony discovered him.
They fought.
Anthony drove away.
But the vehicle had a mechanical defect that had been reported weeks earlier and never repaired.
The crash had been an accident.
Adrian believed his actions caused it.
So did Salvatore.
So did Vincent.
Everyone had spent sixteen years hiding pieces of a crime that had never actually happened.
Diana stared.
“My father died because of a faulty car?”
Elena nodded tearfully.
“Yes.”
“Then why hide everything?”
“Because the evidence he carried could have destroyed people. Adrian had committed crimes. Vincent had moved illegal money. Salvatore had covered transactions. Everyone had something to lose.”
Dominic looked at Vincent.
“So everyone lied.”
“Yes,” Vincent said.
Diana suddenly understood.
“But who sent the messages?”
Elena looked toward the kitchen.
A man stepped out.
Older.
Thin.
Gray at the temples.
Marcus gasped.
Dominic whispered:
“Adrian.”
Diana stared.
The dead man from the photograph was alive.
Adrian Vitelli had never died seven years earlier.
His death had been staged.
He had disappeared because he couldn’t live with what he believed he had done to Anthony.
“I’m sorry,” Adrian said.
Diana stood.
“You watched me?”
“Yes.”
“You photographed me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed to know whether Dominic had told you.”
“Told me what?”
Adrian looked at Dominic.
“That your father’s last request was about him.”
Diana slowly turned.
Dominic’s face changed.
“What request?”
Adrian pulled a folded paper from his coat.
“I found this in Anthony’s belongings after the accident.”
He handed it to Diana.
Her father’s handwriting.
If anything happens to me, protect Elena and Diana.
Below it was another line.
Dominic Caruso is young, but there is good in him. One day, he may become better than the men who raised him.
Diana’s eyes filled.
Dominic looked away.
Adrian continued.
“Dominic spent years quietly protecting your family.”
Diana looked at him.
“What?”
“Your mother’s mortgage.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Dominic.”
“The scholarship Diana received.”
Diana stared.
“No.”
“The anonymous medical payment when your sister needed surgery.”
Her knees nearly gave way.
Dominic stepped toward her.
She backed away.
“You did all that?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because your father didn’t ask me to be thanked.”
Silence filled the restaurant.
Diana remembered every cruel thing Dominic had said.
Every impossible demand.
Every time she had believed he felt nothing.
“You’re the most confusing man I have ever met.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“I know.”
“And the worst communicator.”
“I’ve been told.”
“By whom?”
“You. Repeatedly.”
A laugh escaped her through tears.
Then Marcus’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Everyone looked at him.
Marcus slowly lowered the phone.
“The board just removed Dominic as CEO.”
Dominic became still.
“On whose authority?”
Marcus looked devastated.
May you like
“Mine.”
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