Chapter 4 - the first woman Dominic loved
Caroline Mercer had disappeared from Dominic’s life three weeks before their wedding.
No goodbye.
No explanation.
Only a note.
I cannot become what your family needs me to become.
Dominic had searched for her for months.
Eventually he learned she had moved to California.
He never contacted her again.
Pride had prevented it.
Then anger.
Then time.
Now Sophia was telling him Caroline had known about the ledger.
“That’s impossible.”
Sophia watched him carefully.
“She knew more about our family than you realized.”
“Why?”
“Because your father trusted her.”
Dominic stepped away from the bed.
“My father barely spoke to her.”
“In front of you.”
Isabella sighed.
“Dominic, sit down.”
“I don’t want to sit down.”
“Then stop looking like you’re about to put your fist through a wall.”
He turned on her.
“You don’t get to come back from the dead and tell me how to behave.”
Isabella accepted that.
“You’re right.”
The agreement disarmed him more than an argument would have.
Sophia continued.
“Caroline worked at Sterling and Finch before you met.”
Dominic remembered the Manhattan legal firm.
“They handled corporate trusts.”
“Yes.”
“Dad’s trusts.”
“Yes.”
Dominic stared at his mother.
“You’re saying Caroline met my father before she met me?”
“Two years before.”
Something ugly grew in his chest.
“Did she approach me because of him?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Vincent tried to keep you away from her.”
Dominic remembered.
His father had disliked Caroline.
Or pretended to.
“He was protecting her,” Dominic realized.
Sophia nodded.
“She helped him trace money being moved through shell companies.”
“Did she know Isabella was alive?”
“Yes.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Another betrayal.
Another person who had watched him mourn while knowing the truth.
“Why did Caroline leave?”
Sophia looked at Isabella.
Isabella answered.
“Because someone threatened her.”
“Who?”
“We never proved it.”
Dominic laughed.
“You people built an entire life around not proving things.”
Isabella ignored the insult.
“Caroline received photographs of you leaving your office. Your car. Your bedroom window. Then a photograph of her younger brother outside his school.”
Dominic remembered Caroline’s brother Michael had been seventeen then.
“She was told if she married you, you would die.”
Dominic’s anger became quieter.
“That was why she left.”
“Yes.”
“Where is she now?”
Sophia and Isabella exchanged a glance.
Dominic saw it.
“Where?”
Isabella said, “New York.”
Dominic’s head snapped toward her.
“For how long?”
“Eight months.”
“And you know this because?”
“She contacted me.”
Dominic walked to the window.
Outside, armed security teams crossed the lawn.
The mansion looked peaceful from a distance.
Inside it, nearly every certainty in Dominic’s life was collapsing.
“Why did she contact you?”
“She found something.”
“The ledger?”
“No.”
Isabella pulled a folded paper from inside her coat.
Dominic took it.
It was a bank transfer statement.
Seventeen years old.
The sender was one of Vincent Vance’s holding companies.
The recipient was a private medical clinic in Connecticut.
Dominic frowned.
“What is this?”
“Look at the date.”
He did.
Two days after Isabella’s staged death.
Then he saw the patient reference.
D. VANCE.
Dominic looked up.
“I wasn’t in a clinic.”
“No.”
“Then who was?”
Sophia started crying again.
Dominic turned toward her.
“Mom?”
Sophia whispered, “Your father.”
Dominic stared.
“You said he was in Manhattan.”
“He was.”
“Then why is there a medical payment in his name?”
Isabella said, “Because D didn’t stand for Dominic.”
Dominic looked at her.
She continued.
“It stood for Daniel.”
Dominic said nothing.
The name meant nothing.
Until suddenly it did.
A childhood memory.
His father shouting at someone in the garage.
A man Dominic had seen perhaps three times.
Dark hair.
Same eyes as Vincent.
Someone introduced only as a business associate.
“Daniel Vance.”
Sophia nodded.
Dominic’s stomach dropped.
“Our father had another brother?”
“No.”
Sophia’s answer was nearly inaudible.
“Your father had another son.”
Dominic stared at her.
Isabella closed her eyes.
Dominic understood before Sophia spoke.
“Daniel was your half brother.”
Dominic sat down.
Finally.
Not because Isabella had told him to.
Because his legs no longer felt reliable.
“Our father had a son before you married him.”
Sophia shook her head.
“During.”
Dominic looked at her.
The wound was still there after all these years.
“Who was the mother?”
“A woman named Evelyn Price.”
“What happened to Daniel?”
“Vincent supported him privately. He never brought him into the family.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“Apparently Dad was very good at secret family members.”
Sophia said nothing.
Dominic looked at Isabella.
“And Daniel is the person who has been beside me?”
“We don’t know.”
“You just said someone I loved betrayed us.”
“Because Dad believed Daniel had help from someone close to you.”
“Who?”
“We never identified that person.”
Emma had been silent.
Now she spoke.
“Maybe Caroline did.”
Dominic looked at her.
Emma held up the anonymous message.
“If Caroline knows the ledger isn’t at the church, maybe she knows where it is.”
Dominic stared at the message again.
“Can you trace the number?”
Emma hesitated.
“I can try.”
Dominic narrowed his eyes.
“You can try?”
Emma realized her mistake.
“What exactly did you do before you became a maid?”
Sophia sighed.
Dominic looked at his mother.
“You know.”
Emma lowered her gaze.
“I worked in digital forensics.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“Of course you did.”
“I left.”
“Why?”
Emma looked toward Isabella.
That was enough.
Dominic stood.
“She put you here.”
Isabella nodded.
“Three years ago.”
“You placed a spy in my house.”
“A protector.”
Dominic looked at Emma.
“You reported to her?”
“Only when there was a threat to Mrs. Vance.”
“So all those moments I thought you were quietly serving coffee…”
“I was quietly serving coffee.”
Dominic almost smiled despite himself.
“Fine. Trace the message.”
Emma began working.
Thirty seconds later she frowned.
“What?”
“It’s routed through several services.”
“Can you break it?”
“Eventually.”
Dominic looked at Isabella.
“Where would Caroline go?”
Isabella hesitated.
“There’s a hotel in Manhattan.”
“Which one?”
Before she could answer, Dominic’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Dominic?”
He stopped breathing.
Thirteen years vanished in a single voice.
Caroline.
“Where are you?”
“Listen carefully.”
“Where are you?”
“You cannot trust the people in your house.”
“That list is growing.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
A pause.
Then Caroline said, “Your father did not die because of the ledger.”
Dominic looked at Sophia.
“Then why?”
“Because he found Daniel.”
Dominic’s grip tightened.
“Where is Daniel?”
Caroline whispered, “Closer than you think.”
A sound came through the phone.
A door opening.
Caroline inhaled sharply.
Then another voice spoke in the background.
Male.
Calm.
Familiar.
Dominic went cold.
The call ended.
Emma looked at him.
“What happened?”
Dominic did not answer.
He knew that voice.
He had heard it almost every day for twenty years.
May you like
It belonged to the family accountant.
Paul DeLuca.
