Chapter 7 - THE SHOT IN THE DARK
The gunshot shattered the humid silence of the greenhouse.
My bullet didn’t hit Vanessa.
It hit the glass bottle in her raised hand.
The heavy glass exploded inward, spraying the yellow liquid across the stone path and over Vanessa’s expensive designer dress.
She screamed, dropping the silver lighter in pure reflex.
The lighter hit the damp stone floor with a clink and instantly went out.
No spark. No fire.
Answer One: The immediate threat was neutralized without killing her.
Vanessa fell to her knees, staring in shock at her empty, bleeding hands. She had been cut by the flying glass, but she was alive.
I didn’t wait for her to recover.
I rushed forward, kicking the dropped lighter far away into the dirt, and kept my gun aimed firmly at her head.
“Don’t move,” I commanded, my voice cold and steady.
Vanessa looked up at me. The arrogant, untouchable mafia fiancée was completely gone. In her place was a broken, terrified woman weeping in the dirt.
Open Two: How bad was Dominic hurt? And would the Romano family try to retaliate once they realized Vanessa had failed?
I backed up slowly toward the orchids where Dominic lay. I didn’t take my eyes off Vanessa.
“Dominic,” I whispered loudly, crouching down beside him.
He groaned softly.
Blood was trickling down the side of his face from a deep gash near his temple. Beside him lay a heavy iron gardening trowel. Vanessa had struck him from behind.
“Dom, you have to get up,” I urged, gripping his shoulder.
His dark eyes fluttered open. It took him a second to focus, but when he saw me, and then saw Vanessa kneeling in the dirt, clarity returned.
He sat up slowly, wincing in pain.
“You missed,” Dominic muttered, wiping the blood from his eye.
“I didn’t miss,” I replied quietly. “I shot the bottle.”
Dominic looked at me, a faint, genuine smile crossing his face. “Remind me to double your salary.”
He stood up, towering over Vanessa.
The reversal in power was absolute.
For two years, this woman had tormented me, humiliated me, and tried to destroy the only family I had left. Now, she was sobbing at his feet.
“Dominic, please,” Vanessa begged, grabbing the hem of his trousers. “My father made me do it. He said if I didn’t marry you and take over the estate, he would kill my sisters. You know what he’s like!”
Dominic stared down at her with zero sympathy.
“Your father is a dying old man,” Dominic said coldly. “He only had power because I allowed it. Because I thought you were innocent. That ends tonight.”
Dominic grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to her feet.
We marched her out of the greenhouse and back onto the main lawn.
The estate was completely secured.
Dominic’s men had zip-tied the Romano guards. Sirens wailed in the distance. The local police, whom Dominic had deep in his pockets, were arriving to clean up the mess.
Isabella was still sitting on the grass, holding Anthony tightly.
When Dominic approached, he threw Vanessa into the arms of his two largest guards.
“Lock her in the basement holding cell,” Dominic ordered. “Tomorrow, I make a call to her father. He’s going to surrender his entire operation, or I mail him his daughter in a very small box.”
The guards dragged a screaming Vanessa away toward the darkness of the estate.
Dominic turned to Isabella.
He knelt down beside her and wrapped his massive arms around both his wife and his son.
I watched the family reunite, feeling a strange ache in my chest.
They were together. The mystery was solved. The villains were caught.
But I was still just a housekeeper.
My job was done.
I slowly turned around and started walking toward the staff quarters to check on my brother.
“Clara.”
I stopped.
Isabella was standing up, holding a small velvet box in her hand.
I recognized the box. It was the jewelry box I had seen on Vanessa’s dresser earlier that week.
“When I faked my death,” Isabella said, walking toward me, “I knew I was leaving Anthony behind. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I prayed every night that someone would watch over him.”
She stopped in front of me and placed the velvet box in my dirty, soot-stained hands.
“I didn’t know it would be you,” Isabella smiled gently. “But thank God it was.”
I opened the box.
Inside rested a stunning, heavy diamond necklace. It was easily worth enough to pay for my mother’s medical treatments for the rest of her life, and put my sister through nursing school ten times over.
But it wasn’t the diamonds that caught my eye.
It was a small, handwritten note tucked beneath the jewels.
I pulled the note out.
The handwriting wasn’t Isabella’s.
May you like
It was my father’s.
My breath caught in my throat.
