By sunrise, Raymond Shaw had disappeared.
His Manhattan apartment was empty.
His phone had been abandoned in a taxi.
Three bank accounts had been drained.
And Victor discovered something even worse.
Raymond hadn't worked alone.
Someone inside the Moretti estate was still helping him.
Dominic gathered the senior household staff in the main dining room.
Sophia watched from the hallway.
She knew she shouldn't be there.
She also knew the danger involved her.
That gave her the right to listen.
Dominic stood at the head of the table.
Twelve people faced him.
Security supervisors.
Drivers.
Administrative staff.
House managers.
Men and women who had worked there for years.
“Raymond betrayed us,” Dominic said.
Nobody moved.
“He gave outsiders access to routes, warehouses and schedules.”
A nervous murmur moved through the room.
Dominic raised one hand.
Silence returned.
“He did not do it alone.”
Several faces changed.
Sophia noticed.
So did Victor.
Dominic continued.
“Until we identify whoever assisted him, nobody leaves without clearance.”
One man objected.
“You can't accuse all of us.”
Dominic looked at him.
“I didn't.”
“You're locking us in.”
“Temporarily.”
“This is insane.”
Dominic's eyes cooled.
The man stopped speaking.
Victor began reviewing access logs.
Sophia returned upstairs.
She expected Lily to be coloring.
Instead, the child was sitting on the floor beside the closet, inspecting something.
“What do you have?”
“Button.”
Sophia crouched.
Lily held up a small black object.
“That isn't a button.”
It was smaller than a coin.
Smooth.
Round.
A tiny blinking light appeared once every few seconds.
Sophia's stomach tightened.
“Where did you find it?”
“Under chair.”
“Which chair?”
“Mr. Dominic's room.”
Sophia froze.
“His bedroom?”
Lily nodded.
“I went looking for George.”
Sophia stood immediately.
She carried the object downstairs.
Victor examined it.
His expression darkened.
“Wireless transmitter.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Recording device?”
“Audio.”
“Range?”
“Probably routed through the house network.”
Dominic turned toward Lily.
“Where exactly was this?”
Lily happily demonstrated by crawling beneath an armchair in Dominic's bedroom.
Victor searched the room.
He found another device behind a lamp.
Then another inside the office molding.
By noon, they found seven.
One in Dominic's office.
Two in his bedroom.
One in the library.
One near the service entrance.
Two in the conference room.
Someone had been listening for months.
Dominic stood beneath the chandelier while Victor's team dismantled the devices.
His expression was terrifyingly calm.
Sophia had started recognizing that calm.
The quieter Dominic became, the angrier he was.
“You should eat,” she said.
He turned.
“What?”
“You haven't eaten since last night.”
“This isn't a good time.”
“It never is.”
He stared at her.
She held up a sandwich.
Dominic almost smiled.
“Are you ordering me to eat?”
“Yes.”
“People usually don't order me.”
“Then this is probably good for your character.”
Victor walked past them.
“I agree.”
Dominic looked at him.
“You're both becoming reckless.”
Sophia handed him the sandwich anyway.
He took it.
The gesture seemed insignificant.
It wasn't.
Because Dominic obeyed.
He sat down.
Ate.
And while everyone around them hunted a traitor, Sophia realized something unsettling.
She no longer saw Dominic only as the feared man whose name appeared in whispered newspaper stories.
She saw exhaustion beneath the authority.
Loneliness beneath the discipline.
And occasionally, when he looked at Lily, she saw a boy who had never been allowed to remain a boy.
That afternoon, Dominic found Sophia in the greenhouse.
Rain tapped against the glass.
Lily slept on a cushioned bench nearby.
“You shouldn't be alone.”
Sophia glanced around.
“There are two guards outside.”
“Still.”
“You can't shadow me forever.”
“Watch me.”
She smiled despite herself.
“You're impossible.”
“So I've been told.”
Dominic leaned against the stone table.
Sophia looked at him.
“Can I ask something?”
“Depends.”
“Why don't you trust anyone?”
The question would have gotten most people dismissed.
Dominic simply stared at the rain.
“My mother died when I was five.”
“I know.”
“My father believed grief made children weak.”
Sophia's expression softened.
“He wasn't kind.”
“He was effective.”
“Those aren't the same thing.”
“No.”
Dominic looked at her.
“When I was twenty-three, I trusted someone completely.”
“A woman?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She sold information about my family.”
Sophia said nothing.
Dominic appreciated that.
Most people rushed to offer sympathy.
Sophia simply waited.
“I never made that mistake again.”
“You mean trusting someone?”
“Yes.”
“Sounds lonely.”
“It was safe.”
“Was it?”
Dominic glanced toward Lily.
“No.”
Sophia lowered her eyes.
“Daniel used to say something.”
“What?”
“Love doesn't make you fearless. It gives you a reason to be brave while you're terrified.”
Dominic absorbed that.
“He sounds like a good man.”
“He was.”
“Do you still love him?”
Sophia didn't hesitate.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt Dominic more than expected.
Then Sophia continued.
“But loving someone who died doesn't mean the living part of you has to die with them.”
Dominic looked at her.
Neither spoke.
Something quiet and dangerous passed between them.
Not lust.
Not yet.
Recognition.
Two people who had lost love differently and reacted the same way.
By surviving instead of living.
A security alarm shattered the moment.
Dominic's phone rang.
Victor.
“We found something.”
They returned to the office.
Victor spread documents across the desk.
“Raymond wasn't selling information.”
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
“He was buying something.”
Victor pointed at transfers.
“Companies connected to our competitors deposited money into accounts Raymond controlled. I assumed payment.”
“So did I.”
“But look at the timing.”
Dominic studied it.
Each transfer happened shortly before one of Raymond's security recommendations.
“That makes no sense.”
“Unless the transfers funded the operations.”
Sophia stood behind them.
“You mean he wasn't working for your rivals.”
Victor looked at her.
“He was creating rivals.”
Dominic understood.
“Destabilize the company.”
“Exactly.”
“Why?”
Victor slid another document forward.
A legal agreement.
Dominic read the first page.
Then went still.
It involved Moretti Holdings.
Specifically, succession control if Dominic were removed.
The beneficiary wasn't Raymond.
It was Dominic's cousin.
Matteo Moretti.
Dominic looked up slowly.
“No.”
Victor's expression remained grim.
“I checked the signatures.”
“Forgery.”
“Your father's is real.”
Dominic stared at him.
Matteo.
His cousin.
Raised like a brother.
They had attended school together.
Buried Salvatore together.
Matteo had stood beside Dominic through everything.
He had access to the security system.
He knew every route.
Every meeting.
Every weakness.
Dominic's phone buzzed.
A message.
From Matteo.
We need to talk. Alone.
Dominic stood.
Victor blocked the door.
“No.”
“Move.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I said move.”
“And I heard you.”
Sophia stepped between them.
“Dominic.”
He looked at her.
“If Matteo is involved, going alone is exactly what he wants.”
“He's family.”
Sophia's expression hardened.
“So?”
That single word stopped him.
Family.
Dominic had spent his life treating blood as proof of loyalty.
Yet Lily wasn't blood.
Sophia wasn't blood.
Victor wasn't blood.
And somehow they were the people trying hardest to keep him alive.
“I need answers,” Dominic said.
“Then get them intelligently,” Sophia replied.
Victor looked almost proud.
Dominic exhaled.
“Fine.”
The meeting was arranged for midnight at an old waterfront restaurant owned by Moretti Holdings.
Dominic wore a listening device.
Victor positioned men nearby.
Sophia remained at the estate with Lily.
At 11:55, Matteo arrived.
He looked tired.
Not guilty.
Dominic hated that.
“Sit,” Dominic said.
Matteo obeyed.
“You think I betrayed you.”
“I know Raymond did.”
Matteo laughed bitterly.
“Raymond has been planning this for years.”
“Your name is on the succession papers.”
“I know.”
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“Explain.”
“Our uncle created the agreement after your father died.”
“What uncle?”
“Antonio.”
Dominic went still.
Salvatore's younger brother.
Exiled from the family twenty years earlier after an attempted takeover.
Everyone believed Antonio had died overseas.
Matteo continued.
“He's alive.”
Dominic stared at him.
“He contacted Raymond five years ago.”
“And you?”
“Six months ago.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Matteo looked ashamed.
“Because he had my daughter.”
Dominic's anger vanished.
“What?”
Matteo showed him a photograph.
A teenage girl Dominic knew well.
His goddaughter, Olivia.
“She told everyone she was studying in Switzerland,” Matteo said. “She wasn't.”
Dominic's blood turned cold.
“Antonio took her?”
“Raymond arranged it.”
“And you've been helping them.”
“Yes.”
“Shipments?”
“Yes.”
“Security codes?”
Matteo's voice broke.
“Yes.”
Dominic wanted to rage.
Instead, he saw a father.
Terrified.
Compromised.
Doing terrible things to keep his child alive.
“And Sophia?”
Matteo shook his head.
“That wasn't me.”
“Then why is Raymond watching her?”
“Because she saw Antonio.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
“The man she saw with Raymond in the west corridor.”
Matteo leaned forward.
“That was your uncle.”
Dominic felt the pieces snap together.
Antonio had been inside his home.
Close enough to study everything.
Close enough to plant listening devices.
Close enough—
His phone rang.
Victor.
Dominic answered.
Victor didn't say hello.
“Get home.”
Dominic stood.
“What happened?”
A pause.
Then Victor spoke the words that made the entire world disappear.
“Someone breached the estate.”
Dominic's heart stopped.
“Sophia?”
“She’s here.”
“Lily?”
Silence.
Dominic's voice became barely audible.
“Victor.”
“We can't find Lily.”
---