Chapter 6 - The Price of TruthDominic crushed the phone beneath his shoe.
Chloe watched the screen fracture.
“That was incredibly useful,” she said.
He looked at her.
“He was offering information.”
“He was manipulating you.”
“Those are not mutually exclusive.”
Behind them, Rosa sat against the wall while Leo packed gauze over the bullet wound in her shoulder. The shot had passed cleanly through, missing major arteries, but blood still coated his hands.
Chloe knelt beside Rosa.
“You’re going to be okay.”
Rosa managed a smile.
“I’ve survived Dominic’s teenage years.”
Dominic turned.
“This is not the time.”
“It’s never the time with you.”
Even injured, Rosa apparently remained Rosa.
A medic from Dominic’s secondary team arrived minutes later. No hospital. No ambulance. Too many questions.
Chloe hated how quickly she was becoming accustomed to that.
While Rosa was treated in an upstairs bedroom, Dominic and Leo searched the vault.
Gabriel had taken Isabella’s ledger but left dozens of boxes.
Chloe joined them.
Dominic looked up.
“You should stay with Rosa.”
“She told me to stop hovering.”
“I am telling you to hover.”
“Rejected.”
He sighed.
Leo murmured, “You’re getting better at that.”
“At what?”
“Realizing she won’t listen.”
Dominic looked offended.
Chloe opened a file box.
Inside were photographs.
Carlo Moretti beside politicians.
Judges accepting envelopes.
Hospital executives at private dinners.
Victor Vale appeared in several.
Younger.
Silver-blond hair instead of white.
Same cold eyes.
Chloe stopped at a photograph of Isabella.
She stood beside Elaine on the lawn of the Newport house.
Isabella was heavily pregnant.
Elaine had one hand on her shoulder.
They were laughing.
Chloe touched the edge of the photograph.
Dominic came beside her.
“That’s her.”
“I know.”
Chloe looked at Isabella’s face.
There was something familiar in the smile.
Not exact.
But enough.
“Do I look like her?”
Dominic answered immediately.
“When you’re angry.”
Chloe glanced at him.
“So constantly?”
“Recently.”
She returned to the photograph.
“Did she know she was going to die?”
“I don’t know.”
A handwritten date on the back showed it was taken eleven days before Chloe’s birth.
Chloe slid the photo into her pocket.
Dominic noticed.
He said nothing.
Leo opened another box.
“Found something.”
A set of cassette tapes lay inside.
Each had a name.
CARLO.
VICTOR.
ANDREW.
ELAINE.
ISABELLA.
Chloe picked up the one labeled ELAINE.
“Can we play these?”
Leo searched the shelves.
“There’s an old recorder.”
It took several minutes to clean the machine and replace batteries.
Then Elaine’s voice filled the vault.
Chloe nearly dropped the tape.
She had not heard her mother’s voice since the funeral.
Not clearly.
Voicemail recordings existed on her old phone, but she had been unable to play them.
Hearing Elaine unexpectedly was like being struck.
“If you’re listening to this,” Elaine said, “something went wrong.”
Chloe sat on the floor.
Dominic remained beside her.
“I agreed to record this because Isabella believes Carlo will keep his promise. I don’t.”
A pause.
Elaine sounded younger.
Stronger.
“Andrew is dead. Isabella is afraid. Victor knows there is a child, though I don’t think he knows the baby survived.”
Chloe closed her eyes.
“I made Isabella a promise. Her daughter will not grow up in this world.”
Dominic looked down.
Elaine continued.
“She will not know the Moretti name. She will not inherit Carlo’s enemies. She will have a normal life, even if I have to disappear to give it to her.”
Chloe began to cry.
Quietly.
Dominic’s hand moved toward hers.
Stopped.
Then continued.
His fingers closed around her hand.
She did not pull away.
“If Carlo is listening,” Elaine said, “understand this clearly. You lost the right to call yourself her grandfather when you allowed Victor Vale to decide whether Isabella lived or died.”
Dominic went rigid.
Chloe squeezed his hand without thinking.
“I know what happened at the hospital.”
The tape hissed.
“Victor bribed Dr. Samuel Pierce to delay Isabella’s surgery. Carlo knew afterward. He killed Pierce, but by then Isabella was dead.”
Chloe opened her eyes.
“Victor killed her.”
Dominic’s face had gone still.
Elaine continued.
“Carlo helped me take the baby because guilt is sometimes the only useful thing a cruel man possesses.”
The tape ended.
No mention of Elaine’s death.
No answer to Victor’s claim.
Leo inserted the next tape.
ANDREW.
A man’s voice.
Young.
Nervous.
“Isabella thinks somebody is following me.”
Chloe’s throat tightened.
Her father.
A voice she had never heard.
“She wants me to leave Boston. I told her I won’t leave without her.”
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
“I know what her father thinks of me. I don’t care. If the baby is mine, I want her. If Carlo refuses, we’ll go somewhere else. Elaine said she’ll help.”
The recording skipped.
Then Andrew’s voice returned.
“If anything happens to me, Victor Vale arranged it.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
“He came to the hospital today. Told me accidents happen to young doctors who reach above their station.”
The tape clicked off.
Leo muttered a curse.
Chloe stared into nothing.
Andrew had known.
Isabella had known.
Everyone had known except her.
Dominic crouched in front of her.
“Chloe.”
“I’m okay.”
“You don’t have to be.”
She laughed weakly.
“That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said.”
His thumb moved across her knuckles.
Leo pretended not to notice.
Chloe looked toward the tapes.
“Play Isabella.”
Dominic’s hand tightened.
“Maybe later.”
“No.”
“Chloe.”
“I need to hear her.”
He looked at the cassette.
Fear crossed his face.
Not fear of guns.
Not Victor.
Grief.
Chloe understood.
“You don’t have to stay.”
“Yes,” he said.
Leo inserted the tape.
For several seconds, static.
Then a young woman laughed.
Dominic’s face collapsed.
Not dramatically.
His shoulders simply lowered.
His eyes closed.
“Dom is angry at me.”
Chloe looked at him.
Isabella’s voice continued.
“He thinks I’m leaving him.”
Dominic turned away.
“I tried explaining that I’m not. Not really. But twelve-year-old boys aren’t known for nuance.”
Chloe’s tears returned.
“I told him someday he’ll understand that loving someone sometimes means leaving before your enemies learn their name.”
Dominic covered his mouth.
Chloe moved closer.
On the tape, Isabella spoke softly.
“My daughter will never know what our father made us.”
A pause.
“If Elaine succeeds, she’ll be somewhere safe. Maybe she’ll be a teacher. Maybe a doctor. Maybe she’ll own a bakery. God, I hope she never marries a Moretti.”
Chloe laughed through tears.
Dominic did too.
Barely.
“I named her Chloe because Dom once told me if he had a daughter someday, he liked that name.”
Chloe turned toward him.
Dominic stared at the recorder.
“You named me?”
“I was twelve.”
“Apparently you had good taste.”
Isabella continued.
“And Isabel because Elaine says every girl deserves a piece of her mother’s name.”
The tape hissed.
Then her voice became quieter.
“Dominic, if you ever hear this, I’m sorry.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“I didn’t run away.”
His eyes filled.
“I would never leave you willingly.”
Chloe reached for his hand.
This time he held hers tightly.
“If my daughter ever finds you, don’t turn her into what Father turned us into.”
A long pause.
“Protect her.”
Dominic’s jaw trembled.
“But don’t cage her.”
Chloe looked at him.
Despite everything, she almost smiled.
Isabella’s final words came gently.
“She’s going to be stubborn. I can already tell.”
The tape ended.
The vault became silent.
Chloe wiped her cheeks.
Dominic looked toward the ceiling.
“I hate her.”
“No, you don’t.”
“She knew.”
“She knew you.”
“That’s worse.”
Chloe leaned her shoulder against his.
For a long time, neither spoke.
Eventually Leo cleared his throat.
“I hate interrupting the emotional breakthrough.”
Dominic looked at him.
Leo held up a file.
“But this matters.”
Inside was a list of names.
One was Michael Russo.
Another was Gabriel Moretti.
And a third Chloe recognized immediately.
Thomas Callahan.
Her restaurant owner.
“What?”
She grabbed the document.
Callahan’s name appeared beside the designation CUSTODIAN THREE.
“He was part of this?”
Dominic read.
“Custodian.”
“Of one archive fragment?”
Leo nodded.
Chloe thought of Callahan rushing toward Dominic after the shooting.
White-faced.
Apologizing.
Had he known who she was?
“Where is he?”
Leo called.
No answer.
The restaurant had been destroyed, but Callahan had not been inside.
They checked his house.
Empty.
His car was found near Logan Airport.
No flight records.
Gone.
Chloe’s mind raced.
“If Callahan was protecting a fragment, Victor destroyed the restaurant because he thought it was there.”
“Maybe,” Dominic said.
“But if Callahan moved it first—”
“Victor needs him alive.”
Leo looked at the list.
“There are five custodians. Russo. Callahan. Gabriel’s father. Rosa.”
Chloe looked up.
“Rosa?”
“One more,” Dominic said.
The final name was heavily blacked out.
But handwriting appeared beside it.
E.B.
Elaine Bennett.
Chloe stared.
“Five fragments. Five custodians.”
Leo nodded.
“Gabriel’s father had Newport. Elaine had the key drive. Russo probably had another.”
“And Callahan has one.”
Dominic’s gaze hardened.
“We find him.”
Chloe remembered something.
The Brass Lantern had a private wine cellar below street level.
Callahan never let staff enter the oldest section.
He said the foundation was unstable.
“Maybe we already know where.”
An hour later, Dominic’s team returned to Boston.
The restaurant was a burned shell.
Firefighters had cleared the scene.
Dominic’s men entered through an adjacent building.
Chloe led them through the basement.
Smoke burned her eyes.
The wine cellar had partially collapsed.
She reached the locked section.
The old steel door was still intact.
Dominic forced it.
Behind it was not wine.
A small office.
Documents.
A safe.
And blood.
Fresh.
Chloe stopped.
Callahan sat against the wall.
Alive.
Barely.
He raised his head when he saw her.
“Chloe.”
She ran toward him.
Dominic caught her before she stepped into the blood.
Callahan had been shot twice.
Leo called the medic.
Callahan grabbed Chloe’s hand.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I knew.”
Her heart stopped.
“Knew what?”
“Who you were.”
Tears ran from his eyes.
“Elaine asked me to hire you.”
Chloe stared.
Three years.
She had thought she found the job through an online listing.
“You hired me because of her?”
“To watch you.”
Dominic’s face darkened.
Callahan struggled to breathe.
“Victor came.”
“When?”
“Before explosion.”
“Where’s the fragment?”
Callahan looked at Chloe.
“He doesn’t have it.”
“Where?”
Callahan smiled faintly.
“Where Elaine knew nobody would look.”
Chloe leaned closer.
“Where?”
His eyes moved toward her.
“Your hospital debt.”
She frowned.
“What?”
“The debt isn’t debt.”
Callahan coughed blood.
“It’s an account.”
Then his body went limp.
Chloe screamed his name.
The medic rushed forward.
Dominic pulled Chloe backward.
Leo opened the safe.
Empty.
Except for one envelope.
CHLOE BENNETT.
Inside was a hospital collection notice.
The same company that had been calling Chloe for weeks.
Mercury Recovery Services.
Leo typed the company into his tablet.
His face changed.
“It’s a shell.”
“Owned by?” Dominic asked.
Leo looked at Chloe.
“Bennett Medical Holdings.”
Chloe stared.
Her fourteen thousand dollars in medical debt had never been debt.
It had been a code.
A number.
14,327.62.
Dominic looked at the amount.
“Coordinates?”
Leo tested it.
No.
Account reference?
Nothing.
Chloe remembered Elaine’s final hospital room.
The unpaid bills stacked near the window.
Her mother saying something strange.
Don’t pay the last one.
Chloe had thought she was joking.
She reached for the notice.
At the bottom was a twelve-digit account number.
She read it aloud.
Dominic went still.
“What?”
He took the page.
“That isn’t an account.”
“How do you know?”
He pointed.
“Those numbers are dates.”
Five sets.
Five dates.
Isabella’s birth.
Andrew’s death.
Chloe’s birth.
Carlo’s death.
Elaine’s death.
Leo’s phone suddenly rang.
He answered.
His face drained.
“Dominic.”
“What?”
“Rosa’s transport was attacked.”
Chloe’s blood went cold.
“Is she okay?”
Leo listened.
Then lowered the phone.
“She’s gone.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Dead?”
Leo shook his head.
“Taken.”
A message arrived.
Video.
Victor Vale appeared on the screen.
Behind him, Rosa sat tied to a chair.
Blood covered her bandage.
Victor smiled.
“Goddaughter.”
Chloe stepped closer.
His pale eyes seemed to look directly through the screen.
“I told Dominic I would trade information.”
He touched Rosa’s shoulder.
“Now I’ll trade family.”
A location appeared.
An abandoned shipyard in South Boston.
Midnight.
Victor smiled.
“Come alone, Chloe.”
Dominic took the phone from Leo.
“No.”
Victor’s recording continued as if he knew exactly what Dominic would say.
“And if Dominic Moretti is within one mile of that shipyard…”
A man behind Rosa raised a gun.
May you like
Victor smiled.
“…you’ll lose your second mother too.”
