Chapter 5 - The Woman Dominic BuriedDaisy had believed Dominic Calabra had no living parents.
He had told her his father died of a heart attack twelve years earlier.
Whenever Daisy asked about his mother, Dominic avoided specifics.
Eventually she assumed the woman had died before Giuseppe.
Now Salvatore stood on the upper balcony telling her otherwise.
Dominic lowered his weapon half an inch.
It was the first evidence Daisy had ever seen that he could be shocked into losing control.
“Isabella is dead.”
Salvatore smiled without humor.
“No.”
“I buried her.”
“You buried a closed casket.”
Dominic’s nostrils flared.
“She died in Switzerland.”
“That was the story Giuseppe purchased.”
Daisy looked at Dominic.
“You told me she died.”
He did not answer.
“Dominic.”
“I believed she did.”
Salvatore slowly removed the weapon from Maria’s throat.
Maria immediately elbowed him and moved away.
Several guards started forward.
Salvatore lifted both empty hands.
“If I wanted anyone here dead, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Dominic looked toward Leo.
“Take Maria.”
Leo escorted her downstairs.
Daisy rushed to her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, sweetheart.”
Maria clutched Daisy’s hand.
“He didn’t hurt me.”
Salvatore descended the staircase.
Every weapon tracked him.
He stopped twenty feet from Dominic.
“You attacked my house,” Dominic said.
“I attacked your wall.”
“Two men were injured.”
“They were hit in their body armor.”
Dominic took another step.
“You kidnapped Maria.”
“I needed your attention.”
“You have it.”
The air between uncle and nephew felt combustible.
Daisy stepped between them.
Vincent muttered, “Jesus Christ.”
Dominic immediately reached for her.
“Daisy.”
“No.”
She faced Salvatore.
“My mother.”
Salvatore’s face changed.
“When did you last see her alive?”
“Seventeen years ago.”
Eli spoke from the hallway.
“Four days ago.”
Salvatore looked at the teenager.
Pain crossed his face.
“You’re Eli.”
“How do you know me?”
“Your mother sent photographs.”
Daisy stared.
“You were in contact with her?”
“For seventeen years.”
Anger hit her so violently she almost lost her balance.
“You knew where she was.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I was in foster care.”
“Yes.”
“And neither of you came for me.”
Salvatore absorbed the accusation.
“We couldn’t.”
“Don’t say couldn’t.”
Daisy stepped closer.
“I slept in houses where people locked refrigerators because they thought foster kids stole food. I spent two years with a family that made me sleep in a basement. I aged out at eighteen and lived on subway grates.”
Dominic’s jaw clenched.
Daisy continued.
“My mother was alive.”
Salvatore’s eyes lowered.
“And you knew.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Giuseppe Calabra knew you existed.”
Daisy froze.
Salvatore looked toward Dominic.
“Your father wanted Angela dead because she discovered Lazarus. When she disappeared with evidence, Giuseppe threatened her daughter.”
Daisy felt sick.
“He threatened me?”
“He promised that if Angela contacted you, he would have you killed.”
“Why didn’t she go to the police?”
Salvatore laughed bitterly.
“Half the people investigating Giuseppe were on Lazarus.”
Daisy turned toward Dominic.
He looked devastated.
“My father…”
“Yes,” Salvatore said. “Your father was a monster.”
Dominic crossed the distance between them.
His fist connected with Salvatore’s mouth.
Salvatore staggered backward.
Guards moved.
Daisy shouted, “Stop!”
Dominic grabbed his uncle’s collar.
“You don’t get to walk into my home and talk about my father.”
Salvatore wiped blood from his lip.
“Still defending him?”
“I know what he was.”
“No, Dominic.”
Salvatore’s expression became almost pitying.
“You know what he allowed you to see.”
Dominic punched him again.
This time Salvatore went down.
Daisy grabbed Dominic’s arm.
“That’s enough.”
“No.”
“If he knows about my mother, I need him conscious.”
Dominic’s chest rose and fell heavily.
Finally he released Salvatore.
They returned to the study.
No one sat comfortably.
Salvatore was given a chair opposite Dominic.
Two guards stood behind him.
“Start talking,” Dominic said.
Salvatore dabbed his bleeding mouth with a handkerchief.
“Project Lazarus began as insurance.”
“Against what?”
“Everyone.”
He looked toward Daisy.
“Your mother was an accountant.”
Daisy frowned.
“She told foster services she was a waitress.”
“She was both. Angela had a gift with numbers. I hired her to examine construction accounts because money was disappearing.”
“You trusted a twenty-something accountant with mafia records?”
“I fell in love with her.”
Silence.
Eli looked startled.
Daisy stared.
“What?”
Salvatore smiled sadly.
“I loved your mother.”
Eli’s voice was barely audible.
“Were you my father?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“Your father was a good man named Daniel Morgan. Angela met him years after we separated.”
Eli nodded slowly.
“What happened to him?”
“Cancer.”
Eli looked down.
That matched what his mother had told him.
Daisy crossed her arms.
“Continue.”
“Angela discovered Giuseppe was moving money to Meridian Group.”
“The same organization in the files?”
“Yes.”
“What was Meridian?”
Salvatore looked toward Dominic.
“An alliance.”
“Between?”
“Crime families, politicians, intelligence contractors, judges, businessmen.”
Vincent scoffed.
“You’re describing a conspiracy.”
“I’m describing Chicago.”
Salvatore leaned back.
“Meridian existed to ensure that no single election, prosecutor, police commissioner, or mafia war could threaten the people at the top.”
“Who was at the top?” Dominic asked.
Salvatore’s expression hardened.
“Giuseppe.”
Dominic stared at him.
“And Isabella.”
Daisy felt Dominic go rigid.
“Why would my mother participate?”
“Because your mother was always more ambitious than your father.”
Dominic laughed once.
Cold.
“You expect me to believe the woman who spent half her life attending charity galas secretly ran criminal intelligence?”
“That is precisely why she was effective.”
Salvatore reached slowly into his jacket.
Three guns immediately aimed at him.
He stopped.
“Photograph.”
Vincent removed it for him.
The picture showed a younger Isabella Calabra.
Elegant.
Dark-haired.
Beautiful.
Beside her stood Senator Hawthorne.
Behind them was Angela.
Daisy took the picture.
“When?”
“2008.”
Two years after Salvatore supposedly died.
Dominic stared.
“Where?”
“Vienna.”
Dominic looked up.
“My mother was in Europe for cancer treatment.”
“No.”
Salvatore’s voice softened.
“She was building Meridian’s international network.”
Dominic sat completely still.
Daisy moved closer.
“What happened when Angela discovered everything?”
“She copied part of Lazarus.”
“And?”
“She intended to expose Meridian.”
“Then why didn’t she?”
“Giuseppe found out.”
Salvatore’s face became dark.
“He ordered me to kill her.”
Daisy’s hand moved instinctively toward the pistol Dominic had insisted she begin carrying months earlier.
Salvatore noticed.
“I refused.”
“So he tried to kill both of you?”
“Yes.”
“You survived.”
“Barely.”
“My mother?”
“I moved her to Wisconsin under another identity.”
“And me?”
“You were already in state custody.”
Daisy stared.
“Why?”
Salvatore hesitated.
“Because Angela deliberately surrendered custody.”
The words hurt more than Daisy expected.
“She did abandon me.”
“No.”
“She signed me away.”
“She did it to erase your connection to her.”
Daisy turned.
She suddenly could not breathe.
Dominic stood immediately.
“Enough.”
“No.”
Daisy wiped her eyes angrily.
“I want the whole thing.”
Salvatore continued.
“If Giuseppe believed Angela no longer cared about you, he had no reason to use you against her.”
“And for seventeen years she never tried to get me back.”
“She watched.”
“I didn’t need watching!”
Daisy shouted.
“I needed my mother!”
Eli began crying silently.
Salvatore lowered his head.
“There is no explanation that makes what she did painless.”
The honesty stopped Daisy.
“She hated herself for it,” he continued. “Every year she wanted to come for you.”
“But she didn’t.”
“No.”
Daisy looked away.
Dominic moved beside her.
His hand touched the small of her back.
She leaned into him despite herself.
“What does Isabella want now?” Dominic asked.
“Lazarus.”
“Why?”
“Because your father kept the master file hidden.”
“Where?”
“I thought Angela knew.”
Eli stood.
“The box.”
Everyone looked at him.
“The box Mom gave me.”
Dominic’s voice was immediate.
“Where is it?”
Eli hesitated.
Daisy stepped toward him.
“You can tell me.”
“I hid it in Milwaukee.”
“Where?”
“A bus station locker.”
Vincent was already grabbing his coat.
“I’ll send a team.”
“No,” Salvatore said.
Everyone turned.
“If Isabella knows Eli came here, she will monitor every road north.”
Dominic’s expression sharpened.
“She knows?”
“She knows everything.”
Daisy thought about the attack.
The mansion.
Maria being taken inside their own home.
“How did you get through security?” she asked.
Salvatore smiled faintly.
“I designed this estate.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
Salvatore looked directly at him.
“The panic room. The tunnels. The hidden staircase under the wine cellar.”
Daisy went cold.
“There are tunnels?”
Dominic turned toward Vincent.
“Seal them.”
Salvatore’s smile disappeared.
“You can’t.”
“Watch me.”
“You misunderstand.”
Salvatore leaned forward.
“One tunnel exits beyond your property.”
Silence.
“Where?”
“Dominic,” Salvatore said, “your mother has had a path into this house since before you inherited it.”
An alarm sounded.
Not the perimeter alarm.
A medical alarm.
Maria screamed from the hallway.
“Daisy!”
They ran.
Eli was no longer standing behind them.
The teenager had collapsed.
He lay on the marble floor convulsing.
Foam collected at the corner of his mouth.
Daisy dropped beside him.
“Eli!”
The doctor rushed in.
“What did he eat?”
“Nothing!”
Maria cried.
The doctor smelled Eli’s breath.
His expression changed.
“Cyanide.”
Daisy looked up.
Someone had poisoned him.
Inside the fortress.
Dominic slowly turned toward the staff lining the hallway.
His eyes became terrifying.
“Nobody leaves.”
The estate doors locked automatically.
Dozens of guards raised their weapons.
Dominic looked at Vincent.
“Search everyone.”
Then he turned toward Daisy.
May you like
“Someone inside my home works for my mother.”
And somewhere beneath the floorboards, hidden tunnels ran into darkness.
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