Chapter 4 - THE MAN MARCO HAD BEEN TOO ASHAMED TO REMEMBER
Dominic did not confront Marco in front of Mara.
That was the first intelligent decision he made after seeing the photograph.
He looked at it.
Then at her.
“Where did you get this?”
“Daniel’s mother.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Dominic frowned.
“She’s alive?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Mara’s expression hardened.
“Because you didn’t ask.”
There it was again.
A recurring theme he was beginning to hate.
Daniel’s mother, June Bell, lived in Syracuse.
She had kept one box of Daniel’s papers Mara never knew about because Daniel had told her:
“If anything happens, don’t give this to Mara until Sophie is safe.”
Four years.
June waited.
When Mara called after fleeing the estate, she finally opened it.
Inside:
The photograph.
And one note:
Marco Falcone tried to warn me. If I die, don’t assume he helped them.
Dominic felt something loosen.
Not fully.
“Why would Marco deny knowing Daniel?”
Mara shrugged.
“Ask him.”
He did.
That evening.
Back at a federal interview office, not the estate.
Marco looked at the photograph.
His face changed.
Then he sat down.
“I knew him.”
Dominic stared.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Marco looked toward Rachel Kim.
She said:
“You should have counsel.”
He declined.
Bad habit.
Then:
“Because I failed him.”
Dominic said nothing.
Marco continued.
Four years earlier, Daniel approached him outside Dock Nine.
He had evidence of theft.
He did not trust Dominic.
Marco told him:
“You should.”
Daniel asked:
“Would you trust a man whose father built the system I’m investigating?”
Fair question.
Marco agreed to look at one ledger page.
He saw Vittorio’s name.
Carlo’s.
Old payments.
Then made the mistake.
He confronted Carlo privately.
Not Vittorio.
Carlo had been Marco’s friend for thirty years.
Marco believed the older man might explain.
Instead, Carlo denied everything.
The next night Daniel died.
Marco immediately suspected his confrontation had alerted the wrong people.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Dominic asked.
Marco’s eyes hardened.
“You had buried three men that month.”
The room went quiet.
Dominic did not correct him.
Not literal burial maybe, but orders leading to deaths.
“Two rival crews were moving on us. Your father had been dead less than a year. Everyone wanted to know whether Dominic Valente was strong enough.”
Marco’s voice became bitter.
“You were proving it.”
Blood.
Fear.
Force.
Dominic remembered.
“I thought if I told you Daniel’s death involved Vittorio and Carlo, you would start a war inside the family.”
“Maybe I would have.”
“You would have.”
That mattered.
Marco continued.
“So I tried to investigate quietly.”
He found almost nothing.
Raven was hidden.
Then Carlo suffered a stroke the following year.
Died months later.
Vittorio became more powerful.
Marco told himself Daniel’s death was probably Carlo’s order and that the secret died with him.
It didn’t.
Mara had entered the estate by then.
Marco did not know she was Daniel’s widow until almost a year later.
“How?”
Dominic asked.
“Sophie’s birth paperwork.”
Marco had seen emergency contact records.
Recognized Daniel’s name.
“Why didn’t you tell her?”
“What could I tell her?”
Marco’s face twisted.
“That I may have gotten her husband killed because I trusted the wrong old friend?”
Silence.
“I watched her.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Watched?”
“Protected.”
“Without telling me?”
“Yes.”
Marco had quietly ensured Mara and Sophie always had the servant suite closest to secure exits.
Changed night guards after one man asked too many questions.
Moved Sophie away from certain gatherings.
He had tried to protect them invisibly.
Mara had never known.
Dominic felt anger.
Then shame.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this when they left?”
Marco looked at him.
“Because for four years you never asked me who Mara’s husband was.”
That one.
Dominic sat back.
“I thought you knew.”
“No.”
“You knew everything.”
“Not everything.”
Marco’s eyes turned toward the observation window.
“And maybe I stopped telling you things that would make you violent.”
There it was.
The cost of fear.
Dominic had built an organization where even his most loyal man edited truth based on what Dominic might do with it.
That was not loyalty.
Not fully.
It was management.
Dominic asked:
“Did you know Vittorio threatened Mara?”
“No.”
“I believe you.”
Marco looked surprised.
“Why?”
“Because Sophie’s video.”
No Marco.
Only Vittorio.
Then Rachel returned.
“We have a problem.”
Vittorio had vanished.
His passport remained at home.
Car still in Manhattan.
Phone abandoned.
But $2.8 million moved from a Raven account twelve hours before Dominic froze access.
“He knew.”
Marco said.
Someone warned him.
Who?
Only a limited circle knew.
Dominic.
Marco.
Federal team.
Vittorio himself would notice financial lockouts eventually.
Maybe enough.
Then another agent entered.
“We traced one of Serra’s alternate phones.”
Last signal:
Westchester County.
Near Yonkers.
Dominic stood.
Mara.
Rachel immediately said:
“Do not go.”
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because you are not law enforcement.”
Fair.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Silence.
Then Sophie’s voice.
Tiny.
“Mr. Dominic?”
His blood froze.
“Sophie.”
Mara was breathing somewhere nearby.
Fast.
“Where are you?”
Sophie whispered:
“Mama says hide.”
Dominic’s heart slammed.
“Is Mama with you?”
“Yes.”
A sound.
Door hitting something.
Mara grabbed the phone.
“Dominic.”
First name.
Fear erased formality.
“Vittorio found us.”
“Where?”
“Church residence. Back hallway.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Mara’s voice cracked.
“No, police. Send police.”
She understood him.
Good.
Dominic looked at Rachel.
She was already signaling agents.
Mara whispered:
“He has two men.”
“Are you safe right now?”
“For seconds.”
Then Vittorio’s voice came faintly through the line.
“Mara.”
Sophie whimpered.
Dominic felt every violent instinct in him rise at once.
He gripped the phone.
“Mara.”
“Yes?”
“Do exactly what the federal agent tells you when she calls.”
“What about you?”
“I’m staying here.”
Silence.
Mara understood what that cost him too.
“Okay.”
The call ended.
Rachel’s team moved.
Dominic waited.
Longest seventeen minutes of his life.
No pacing.
No orders.
Nothing he did would make them arrive faster.
Marco stood beside him.
At minute nine:
“We should go.”
Dominic stared.
“No.”
Marco nodded.
Good.
Minute fourteen.
Nothing.
Minute sixteen.
Dominic’s phone rang.
Rachel answered her own first.
Listened.
Then looked at him.
“They have Mara and Sophie.”
Dominic exhaled so hard it hurt.
“Vittorio?”
“Escaped through rear service corridor.”
Of course.
One accomplice arrested.
One fled.
No shots fired.
Sophie safe.
Mara uninjured.
Then Rachel’s face changed.
“What?”
The arrested man had a phone.
Inside was a message from Vittorio:
If you lose them, use Plan Two. Valente will come himself.
Dominic stared.
“What is Plan Two?”
They found out ten minutes later.
An explosive device? Better not. Maybe a staged police tip meant to get Dominic arrested/ambushed? Keep safe. Plan Two: leak manipulated evidence claiming Dominic ordered Daniel murder, forcing law enforcement to arrest him and discredit. Let's do.
A media outlet received files.
Anonymous source.
Documents showing payment from Dominic’s personal holding company to Leo Marconi the morning after Daniel died.
Dominic looked at the transfer.
Signature authorization:
His.
Except he had never signed it.
Marco stared.
Vittorio was not only running.
May you like
He was preparing to frame Dominic for Daniel Bell’s murder.
And if the fake evidence worked, Mara would have every reason to believe the man Sophie trusted was the killer she had spent four years trying to find.
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