Chapter 2 - TAKE YOUR HAND OUT OF YOUR COAT
Anthony Kane did not move.
Dominic Moretti stood at the opposite end of the hallway with Emma in his arms.
Camille was between them.
Maria stood near the staircase.
And for one long second, the entire house seemed to understand that something had changed.
“Anthony.”
Dominic’s voice remained quiet.
“Take your hand out of your coat.”
Kane slowly lifted his hand.
Empty.
Then the other.
“Dominic, this isn’t what you think.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“What do I think?”
Kane glanced at Emma.
That was his second mistake.
His first had been moving toward his jacket.
Dominic adjusted his daughter against his chest.
“Don’t look at her.”
Kane’s jaw tightened.
Camille stepped forward.
“This is ridiculous.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Is it?”
“You come home in the middle of the night, find one child sleeping somewhere she wasn’t supposed to, and suddenly everybody is guilty of something.”
“One child?”
Camille’s expression changed.
Dominic stared.
“You mean my daughter.”
“I know exactly who Emma is.”
“I’m beginning to wonder.”
Emma’s arms tightened around his neck.
Dominic felt it.
That changed his priorities instantly.
He looked toward Maria.
“Take Emma to my room.”
Emma lifted her head.
“No.”
Dominic looked at her.
“I want you away from this conversation.”
Her eyes widened.
“Are you sending me away?”
The question stopped him.
Not from the hallway.
From inside.
“Emma.”
Her lip trembled.
“I can be quiet.”
Dominic closed his eyes for half a second.
Then opened them.
“You are not being sent anywhere.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
“Even if Camille stays?”
Camille inhaled sharply.
Dominic ignored her.
“Even if the entire city moves into this house, your place in it does not change.”
Emma studied his face.
Children were suspicious when adults started making promises after other adults had already broken them.
Dominic understood that now.
He kissed her forehead.
“You’re sleeping in my room tonight.”
“Where will you sleep?”
“The chair.”
“There’s a couch.”
“Even better.”
She hesitated.
Then let Maria take her.
As Maria passed Kane, Emma turned her face into the maid’s shoulder.
Dominic saw it.
He would remember that too.
The moment Maria and Emma disappeared around the corner, Dominic’s expression changed.
“Now.”
Camille folded her arms.
“We are not doing this like some interrogation.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You put my daughter in a laundry room.”
“She chose the laundry room.”
“After you gave away her bedroom.”
“It was temporary.”
“To make your daughter happy.”
“Ava has had a terrible year.”
“So has Emma.”
Camille stared.
Dominic continued.
“Her mother died.”
“Four years ago.”
The words came too quickly.
Camille realized it immediately.
Dominic went completely still.
Kane looked away.
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“You should be very careful what comes out of your mouth next.”
Camille’s face paled.
“I didn’t mean—”
“My daughter’s grief did not expire because you got tired of seeing evidence that Isabella existed.”
“This isn’t about Isabella.”
“Then why are her pictures in the garbage?”
Camille said nothing.
Dominic looked at Kane.
“Did you know?”
“About photographs?”
“About any of this.”
Kane hesitated.
“I knew there were tensions in the house.”
“Tensions.”
“Camille thought Emma needed more structure.”
Dominic laughed once.
It had no humor in it.
“Structure.”
Kane had stood beside Dominic during funerals.
Business wars.
Police raids.
Two attempts on Dominic’s life.
He had once taken a knife across the forearm protecting him outside a restaurant in Brooklyn.
Dominic had trusted him with everything.
Apparently including enough authority to make his daughter afraid to ask for help.
“Did you order my staff not to call me?”
Kane straightened.
“You said Vegas was sensitive.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“You told me you didn’t want household distractions.”
Dominic stared at him.
Kane continued.
“You had meetings. You were handling the Nevada problem.”
“So when a maid tried to tell me my nine-year-old was sleeping on towels, you decided that was a household distraction?”
Maria had not said she tried to call.
Dominic had guessed.
Kane’s face gave him the answer.
“You stopped her.”
“Dominic—”
“How?”
“She came to me.”
“And?”
“I told her you had enough on your plate.”
Dominic took one step forward.
Kane did not move.
“You told my employee that I did not want to hear about my child.”
“I told her what I thought you wanted.”
“Never think for me again.”
Kane’s eyes hardened.
There it was.
Not guilt.
Resentment.
Dominic saw it clearly.
Camille did too.
“Anthony,” she said quietly.
Kane looked at her.
Too quickly.
Too naturally.
Dominic watched the exchange.
Then he looked toward Camille’s bedroom door.
“Emma says you go into Camille’s room after I leave.”
Kane’s jaw tightened.
Camille answered first.
“He handles security.”
“At one thirty in the morning?”
“Sometimes.”
“Behind a closed door?”
Neither spoke.
Dominic’s stomach turned.
Not because he was heartbroken.
Not yet.
Betrayal was still arriving in pieces.
He looked at Camille.
“How long?”
“Dominic.”
“How long?”
She lifted her chin.
“What exactly are you asking?”
“When did you start sleeping with him?”
Kane stepped forward.
“That’s enough.”
Dominic looked at him.
Kane stopped immediately.
Dominic smiled.
“For twelve years, you’ve watched men learn when to stop talking around me.”
He took off his cuff links and placed them carefully on the hall table.
“Don’t forget the lesson now.”
Camille’s face was white.
“Nothing happened.”
Dominic looked at her.
He wanted to believe her.
Then he remembered Emma sleeping on towels.
Trust had lost its privileges tonight.
He called one number.
Marco DeLuca answered before the first ring finished.
“Boss?”
“Come upstairs.”
A pause.
“I’m outside.”
Of course he was.
Marco had been Dominic’s driver and personal guard before Kane became security chief.
Dominic had told him to take the night off.
Marco apparently hadn’t.
Thirty seconds later, the older man came through the staircase doors.
He saw Kane.
Then Camille.
Then Dominic.
His expression changed.
“Take Anthony’s weapon.”
Kane laughed.
“Dominic.”
Marco approached.
Kane didn’t move.
“Come on. You really want to do this?”
Dominic looked at him.
“I want you unarmed in the house where my daughter sleeps.”
Kane’s eyes went cold.
“You think I’d hurt Emma?”
Dominic stared.
“No.”
Then he looked toward the laundry room downstairs.
“I think you already did.”
Kane’s face changed.
Marco removed the gun from inside Kane’s coat.
Then a second one from his ankle.
Camille stared.
“You brought two guns upstairs?”
Kane ignored her.
Dominic noticed that too.
“Take him to the east guest room,” Dominic told Marco.
Kane laughed again.
“You’re locking me up?”
“I’m asking you to enjoy my hospitality.”
“Until when?”
“Until I know what you’ve been doing in my house.”
Kane’s smile disappeared.
“You don’t want to do this.”
It was the first thing he said that sounded like a threat.
Dominic heard it.
Marco heard it.
Camille definitely heard it.
Dominic stepped close enough that only Kane could hear the next sentence.
“If you have spent twelve years beside me and still think tonight is the night to threaten me, then I overestimated you.”
Kane said nothing.
Marco escorted him away.
Dominic turned to Camille.
She suddenly looked very alone.
“You too.”
Her eyes widened.
“What?”
“Guest room. Opposite side of the house.”
“This is my home.”
Dominic looked toward Emma’s bedroom.
“No.”
His voice remained calm.
“Tonight you reminded me whose home it is.”
Camille stared at him.
Then:
“You’re choosing a child’s story over me?”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“She is nine.”
“She exaggerates.”
“She slept on towels.”
“She wanted attention.”
“She apologized when I found her.”
Camille stopped.
That part had no comfortable explanation.
Dominic continued.
“Children who want attention usually run toward their parents.”
His voice softened.
“Mine thought being seen was something she had to apologize for.”
Camille looked away.
Dominic called a female member of the household staff and told her to stay with Camille.
Then he walked downstairs alone.
Out the kitchen.
Across the back patio.
The garbage cans stood behind a stone wall near the service entrance.
Dominic opened the first.
Nothing.
Second.
Kitchen waste.
Third.
He saw the frame immediately.
Dominic froze.
It was Isabella holding Emma at the beach when Emma was three.
The glass was cracked across Isabella’s face.
Under it lay another photograph.
Their wedding.
And the third.
Isabella sitting on the edge of Emma’s bed, reading Charlotte’s Web.
Dominic stood in the cold for a very long time.
Then Maria appeared behind him.
“I tried to save them.”
He did not turn.
“You saved my daughter.”
Maria’s eyes filled.
“I should have called someone else.”
“Yes.”
She swallowed.
“I was afraid.”
Dominic finally turned.
“Of Camille?”
Maria hesitated.
“Of Mr. Kane.”
That answer mattered more.
“What did he say?”
“That people who caused problems in this house didn’t stay employed very long.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“And you believed him?”
Maria looked at him.
“Mr. Moretti…”
Her voice trembled.
“He showed me three people who proved it.”
Dominic stared.
“Who?”
“Mr. Rossi from the kitchen.”
Dominic knew the name.
Fired two months ago.
“Mrs. Bennett from laundry.”
Gone.
“And Peter from the gate.”
Dominic’s pulse changed.
Peter had served the Moretti family for fifteen years.
Kane told Dominic the man retired.
“He didn’t retire?”
Maria shook her head.
“Mr. Kane sent him away.”
“Why?”
“He saw something.”
Dominic looked back at the house.
“What?”
Maria hesitated.
Then said:
“He saw Mr. Kane leave Camille’s bedroom.”
Dominic did not react.
Not outwardly.
But Maria had one more thing.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Yes?”
“Peter left something with me before he went.”
Dominic turned.
Maria reached into the pocket of her uniform.
Not paperwork.
A key.
Old brass.
Dominic recognized it immediately.
The key to Isabella’s locked garden room.
No one had used it since she died.
“Why did Peter have this?”
Maria’s hand trembled.
“He said if anything happened, I should give it to you.”
Dominic looked at the key.
“What’s in the garden room?”
Maria shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Then she whispered:
May you like
“But Mr. Kane has been going in there for months.”
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