Chapter 2 - THE SISTER IN THE DINING ROOM
Dominic didn’t breathe.
For ten seconds, the only sound in the small guest room was the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hallway.
“My sister.”
His voice was hollow.
Empty of the cold authority that usually commanded rooms, businesses, and men.
I nodded, my injured hand trembling against my skirt.
“Yes, sir.”
Dominic looked away. He stared at the locked door. Downstairs, the woman he was supposed to marry in six weeks was entertaining his friends.
His half-sister.
“Did she know?” he asked quietly.
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“I don’t know. But she was looking for that specific envelope. She knew exactly what it looked like and where your father kept it.”
Dominic’s eyes snapped back to mine.
The shock was fading. The mafia boss was returning.
“If she knew we shared a father, why accept the proposal? Why push for the wedding?”
I swallowed hard. “Because of the bylaws of your father’s trust.”
Dominic froze.
I had read the documents. I hadn’t wanted to, but Elena had forced me to hold the flashlight while she photographed them.
“If you die without a wife or children,” I whispered, “the estate goes to the board. But if you die married… everything goes to the widow.”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.
Elena didn’t want to marry Dominic to be his wife.
She wanted to marry him to be his widow.
And as his sister, the bloodline would quietly, secretly retain control. She would have the money, the power, and the life her father had denied her.
Dominic looked at the diamond earring in his palm. His hand slowly closed into a fist.
“Where is the marriage certificate now?” he asked.
“She took it. And the birth record.”
“Why not destroy them?”
“Leverage,” I said. “In case the marriage didn’t happen.”
Dominic stepped toward the door.
“Mr. Caruso, wait.”
He stopped, his hand on the brass lock.
“If you go down there now,” I said, my voice shaking, “she’ll know I told you. And my brother—”
“Your brother is protected,” Dominic said.
“You don’t understand. Tommy isn’t just at the warehouse. He works the night shift.” I stepped closer, forgetting my place. Forgetting the rules. “Elena said she made a phone call before dinner. If she doesn’t text a specific number by eleven o’clock tonight, Tommy doesn’t come home.”
Dominic looked at his watch.
10:34 p.m.
“She didn’t just threaten his job, Grace. She threatened his life.”
“Yes.”
Dominic’s jaw set. “Who does she have at my warehouse?”
“I don’t know. But she showed me a picture on her phone.”
I closed my eyes. The image was burned into my mind.
“It was Tommy’s silver pocket watch,” I whispered. “The one our grandfather left him. He never takes it off. But in the picture, it was sitting on a metal shipping crate.”
Dominic’s phone vibrated in his jacket pocket.
He pulled it out.
His eyes scanned the screen.
The color drained from his face.
“What is it?” I asked.
He looked up at me.
May you like
“That was Michael. There was an explosion at the south warehouse three minutes ago.”
My knees gave out.
