Chapter 4 - THE MAN GUARDING LILY HAD BEEN SELLING DOMINIC’S SCHEDULE TO VICTOR ROMANO FOR SIX MONTHS
The compromised guard was not allowed near the house again.
His name was Peter Vale.
Thirty-four.
Six years with Moretti security.
Married.
Two daughters.
Clean record.
Trusted enough to stand outside Dominic’s study during private meetings.
Marco discovered the first irregularity from a banking alert.
Peter had received four payments through a consulting company linked to Victor Romano’s nephew.
Not enormous.
Five thousand.
Eight.
Twelve.
Enough to matter.
Not enough to look like betrayal if nobody checked closely.
Dominic wanted Peter detained privately.
Sophia heard him giving the order.
“No.”
He turned.
“What?”
They stood inside Margaret’s laundry room because the rest of the house contained approximately thirty relatives.
“Police.”
Sophia said.
“This is Pennsylvania.”
“Yes.”
“Your point?”
“My security officer sold information to a criminal rival.”
“That remains a crime.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“I can get answers faster.”
“And what happens after?”
“Sophia.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“My daughter is upstairs.”
“My dying mother is twenty feet away.”
“My sister gets married tomorrow.”
“You do not turn this house into an interrogation site because your world followed us here.”
Dominic looked furious.
Then something shifted.
Isabella’s letter remained folded inside his breast pocket.
Sophia saw his hand move toward it.
Power will always tell you it cannot wait.
He exhaled.
“Police.”
“Good.”
Peter was intercepted at a gas station fifteen miles away.
Local law enforcement coordinated with Chicago investigators already examining the unauthorized access.
He denied everything for two hours.
Then learned bank records existed.
Then asked for a lawyer.
Good.
Lawful.
Slow.
Infuriating.
Dominic survived.
Meanwhile, Victor Romano sent a message.
Not threatening.
Worse.
Polite.
SORRY YOU COULDN’T MAKE THE WATERFRONT MEETING. FAMILY COMES FIRST. WE SHOULD ALL REMEMBER THAT.
Dominic showed Sophia.
“What does that mean?”
“He knows where I am.”
“He knew anyway.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“The meeting change was restricted.”
“Only Marco, my scheduler, and security leadership knew Pennsylvania was involved.”
“Peter.”
“Probably.”
“Then Victor knows Lily is here.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Yes.”
Sophia’s stomach twisted.
“Get us out.”
He became still.
“What?”
“I know what I said earlier.”
“Get my mother, Emily, everyone out.”
Dominic almost responded immediately.
Then stopped.
“What do you want?”
Again.
He was learning.
Sophia considered.
“We cannot cancel the wedding without telling Emily why.”
“We don’t have to cancel.”
Dominic said.
“We move it.”
“To where?”
“A secure property.”
Sophia laughed bitterly.
“My sister is not marrying in a bunker.”
Margaret’s voice came from behind them.
“Why not?”
They turned.
She stood in the doorway.
Oxygen tank beside her.
Sophia closed her eyes.
“How much did you hear?”
“All of it.”
“Mom.”
Margaret entered.
“If some gangster thinks cancer makes me easy to frighten, he should have tried chemotherapy first.”
Dominic stared at her.
Then smiled despite himself.
Margaret continued.
“Emily gets married tomorrow.”
“Not because criminals permit it.”
“So secure the venue.”
Sophia protested.
“Mom—”
“No.”
Margaret’s eyes sharpened.
“You have spent four years making your life smaller because you’re afraid anything difficult will spill onto Lily.”
Sophia froze.
“That is not fair.”
“It is absolutely fair.”
“You work.”
“You come home.”
“You parent.”
“You sleep.”
“You reject every invitation to dinner.”
“You never date.”
“You barely visit because traveling costs money and you hate asking anyone for help.”
Sophia’s face heated.
“This is not the time.”
“It is exactly the time.”
Margaret softened.
“Baby, safety is not the same thing as disappearing.”
Dominic looked away.
This conversation was not his.
Good.
Margaret took Sophia’s hand.
“You are allowed to need people.”
“That does not mean they own you.”
Sophia’s eyes filled.
That sentence stayed with her.
Security at Emily’s wedding became almost invisible.
Almost.
Local police knew.
Venue staff were screened.
Deliveries checked.
The ceremony remained at the stone inn.
Emily learned the truth that evening.
She stared at Sophia for a full minute.
Then said:
“You brought a mafia war to my wedding?”
Sophia nearly cried.
“I’m sorry.”
Emily started laughing.
Sophia stared.
“This is not funny.”
“No.”
Emily wiped her eyes.
“It’s just…”
“For twelve years you were the responsible sister.”
“I got arrested protesting tuition.”
“You paid Mom’s bills.”
“I married first.”
“You became a single mother.”
“I always thought if anyone eventually brought organized crime to a family event, it would be me.”
Sophia laughed helplessly.
Then cried.
Emily hugged her.
“No one is ruining tomorrow.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
Then Emily whispered:
“Is Dominic actually your boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Shame.”
“Emily.”
“He looks at you like one.”
Sophia pulled away.
“He looks at threats like that too.”
“Not the same.”
Unfortunately, Sophia knew that.
The rehearsal dinner went safely.
Dominic stayed at a nearby hotel with security rather than Margaret’s house.
Sophia insisted.
At 11:20 p.m., Lily could not sleep.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Is Mr. Dominic sad?”
Sophia looked up from packing Emily’s emergency sewing kit.
“Why?”
“He looked sad when Grandma talked.”
Three-year-olds.
Emotional snipers.
“Yes.”
“Because his mommy went to heaven?”
“Yes.”
Lily hugged her rabbit.
“Grandma is going too.”
Sophia’s chest broke open.
She put down the kit.
Pulled Lily onto her lap.
“Someday.”
“Soon?”
“Maybe.”
Lily started crying.
Sophia had tried to protect her from the bluntness.
Children notice anyway.
“Is Grandma scared?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’m scared.”
“Me too.”
Lily looked surprised.
“Grown-ups get scared?”
“All the time.”
“Mr. Dominic too?”
Sophia smiled sadly.
“Especially Mr. Dominic.”
The next morning, Emily married Thomas Reed beneath an arch of winter roses.
Margaret sat front row.
Oxygen tubing hidden poorly beneath a silk scarf because she refused to let medical equipment become shameful.
Sophia stood beside Emily.
Lily scattered flower petals in clusters rather than evenly.
Dominic sat in the last row.
Not beside Sophia.
Not pretending.
Just there.
Margaret noticed.
She looked back once.
Then smiled at him.
Halfway through the reception, nothing had happened.
Sophia began to relax.
Mistake.
At 4:32 p.m., the venue lights went out.
Music stopped.
People laughed uncertainly.
Backup lights flickered.
Dominic stood immediately.
His phone vibrated.
Marco.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We lost exterior cameras.”
“How long?”
“Twenty seconds.”
Dominic looked across the room.
Sophia.
Emily.
Margaret.
Lily—
Dominic’s heart stopped.
Lily had been beside the dessert table.
Now she was gone.
“Sophia.”
She turned.
Saw his face.
Then looked toward the table.
Empty.
“No.”
The word came out of her like something tearing.
“Lily!”
Dominic was already moving.
Security locked exterior doors.
Wedding guests froze.
Sophia ran toward the hallway.
“Lily!”
Then a tiny voice answered from behind the kitchen doors.
“Mommy?”
Sophia nearly collapsed.
Lily emerged holding Beatrice? no—holding the hand of a young server.
She looked confused.
“I went to find sprinkles.”
Sophia dropped to her knees and grabbed her.
Dominic stopped ten feet away.
Relief almost knocked him over.
Then Marco appeared.
His expression remained hard.
“This wasn’t about Lily.”
Dominic looked at him.
“What?”
Marco held up a device found attached behind the electrical panel.
“Remote blackout.”
“Why?”
“To pull security inward.”
“Toward the ballroom.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“The parking lot.”
Marco nodded.
One of the Moretti vehicles had been opened.
Nothing stolen.
Except a locked document case inside Dominic’s SUV.
“What was in it?”
Sophia asked.
Dominic went completely still.
“Waterfront contracts.”
“That’s all?”
“No.”
A second folder.
Evidence Marco had collected about Victor Romano’s payments to Peter Vale.
Someone had blacked out the wedding to steal proof linking Victor to the security breach.
Dominic looked around.
Whoever did it knew exactly which vehicle.
Exactly where the case sat.
Peter was already in custody.
Which meant there was another leak.
Closer.
Marco’s expression said he had reached the same conclusion.
Then Margaret’s voice came from behind them.
“Dominic.”
He turned.
She was pale.
Too pale.
One hand pressed to her abdomen.
Sophia rushed forward.
“Mom?”
Margaret’s knees buckled.
Dominic caught her before she hit the floor.
Sophia screamed for a doctor.
The wedding disappeared instantly.
No flowers.
No music.
No mob threat.
Just a daughter on the floor beside her dying mother.
Margaret opened her eyes.
Looked at Dominic.
Then Sophia.
Her voice barely carried.
“Don’t waste…”
Sophia leaned closer.
“What?”
Margaret looked toward both of them.
“Don’t waste what I did.”
Then her eyes closed.
For one horrifying second, Sophia thought she had died.
She had not.
The ambulance arrived nine minutes later.
Margaret was alive.
But the doctors said the cancer had caused an internal complication.
Hours.
Maybe days.
Not months anymore.
And in the hospital waiting room, Dominic received another message from Victor Romano.
YOU MISSED THE WATERFRONT MEETING FOR A WEDDING. NOW YOU’VE LOST THE EVIDENCE TOO. HOW MANY TIMES ARE YOU GOING TO CHOOSE THE WRONG ROOM?
Dominic stared at those words.
Then at the ICU door.
For fifteen years, guilt had taught him one lesson.
Victor wanted him to learn it again.
Business first.
Always.
Dominic deleted the message.
May you like
Then sat beside Sophia.
He did not go anywhere.
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