Chapter 5 - THE SECRET REBECCA TOOK TO HER GRAVE
Rebecca Romano had been dead for four years, three months, and eleven days.
Dominic knew the number without calculating.
Claire discovered that at two in the morning in the hospital chapel.
He sat alone in the last pew.
Not praying.
Dominic Romano did not appear to be a man who prayed often.
He sat with his elbows on his knees and Rebecca’s blue butterfly bracelet clenched in one hand.
Claire had gone looking for coffee.
She found him instead.
“You should sleep.”
He did not turn.
“So should you.”
“I’m not the one running an empire.”
“I’m not running much of anything tonight.”
Claire sat several feet away.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then Dominic said, “Rebecca was thirty-two.”
Claire looked at him.
“She found a lump.”
His voice was flat.
“By the time they diagnosed it, they said it had already spread.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So was Henry.”
Claire felt cold.
“Calder treated her?”
“He coordinated everything.”
Dominic stared ahead.
“He found specialists. Hospitals. Experimental treatment. He was in this house every week.”
“And Vanessa?”
“Rebecca knew her.”
Claire waited.
“From where?”
“College.”
That was new.
Vanessa had always described Rebecca as someone she met socially.
Dominic’s mouth tightened.
“They weren’t close by the time Rebecca and I married.”
“Why not?”
“I never asked.”
Claire studied him.
“You’re starting to hate that answer.”
“Yes.”
He looked at the bracelet.
“Rebecca became suspicious near the end.”
“Of Calder?”
“I thought the medication made her confused.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“What did she say?”
“That someone wanted her dead.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“I told her the cancer was making her frightened.”
Claire said nothing.
“She asked me not to let Vanessa near Lily.”
That sentence landed like glass breaking.
Dominic’s hand tightened around the bracelet.
“And after she died, you eventually became engaged to Vanessa.”
“Yes.”
“Did you remember Rebecca’s warning?”
“Every day.”
Claire stared at him.
“Then why?”
His eyes opened.
“Because Vanessa was there when everything fell apart.”
He laughed bitterly.
“She brought Lily to school when I couldn’t get out of bed. She handled condolences. Helped with the funeral. Sat in the nursery when Lily woke up screaming for her mother.”
He looked at Claire.
“She made herself indispensable.”
Claire felt something cold move through her.
That word again.
Indispensable.
“How soon after Rebecca died did Vanessa begin helping?”
“The day after.”
“Who called her?”
Dominic became still.
“I assumed Rebecca had.”
Claire frowned.
“Before she died?”
“No.”
“Then?”
Dominic looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
A terrible possibility sat between them.
Claire stood.
“We need Rebecca’s records.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Calder controlled them.”
“Not all of them.”
He looked at her.
“Hospital systems keep records.”
“After four years?”
“Yes.”
Claire had worked in a hospital.
Not as a doctor.
Not as a nurse.
But she understood how documentation worked.
“You’ll need Lily’s legal connection, your status as Rebecca’s spouse at the time, and probably a court order for some things. But Morris can help.”
Dominic stood.
For the first time all night, direction returned to him.
By morning, investigators were reopening questions surrounding Rebecca’s death.
Nobody called it murder.
Not officially.
The original diagnosis had been real.
Rebecca did have cancer.
Nothing could change that.
But medical records revealed something strange.
During her final three months, Rebecca suffered repeated episodes of respiratory distress more severe than her scans predicted.
Calder documented them as complications.
Another physician had disagreed.
A pulmonologist named Dr. Amanda Ruiz had written concerns into the chart.
Claire watched Detective Morris read the note aloud.
“Patient’s acute decline inconsistent with expected disease progression. Recommend toxicology screening and medication review.”
Dominic’s face tightened.
“Was it done?”
Morris looked at the next page.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Calder canceled the order.”
Silence.
Dominic’s hand closed.
“He canceled it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He documented that additional testing would cause unnecessary distress.”
Dominic turned away.
Claire could almost see the violence building inside him.
She stepped closer.
“Dominic.”
He looked at her.
“Do not tell me to calm down.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Good.”
“I was going to tell you Lily is watching.”
He turned.
Lily sat in the hospital room drawing at a small table.
She had not heard.
But she could see her father.
Dominic slowly opened his hands.
The transformation was immediate.
He walked inside.
Lily held up her drawing.
It showed three people in front of a house.
One tall figure.
One small figure.
One woman with yellow hair.
Claire’s hair.
Dominic stared.
“That’s us,” Lily said.
Claire froze.
Lily pointed.
“Daddy. Me. Claire.”
Dominic looked at Claire.
Neither spoke.
Lily continued coloring.
Children had no respect for emotional complications.
By afternoon, police located Dr. Amanda Ruiz in Virginia.
She agreed to speak by video.
Dominic, Claire, and Detective Morris sat in a private room.
Ruiz remembered Rebecca immediately.
“She was frightened.”
“Of the cancer?” Dominic asked.
Ruiz hesitated.
“Of Dr. Calder.”
Dominic’s face became still.
“Why?”
“She believed he was altering her medication.”
Claire’s pulse quickened.
“Did she say how?”
“She told me she would feel significantly worse after certain injections.”
“Did you document that?”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t it investigated?”
Ruiz looked uncomfortable.
“Calder was senior. He said she was confused from pain medication.”
Dominic’s voice became cold.
“And you accepted that?”
“No.”
The doctor’s expression tightened.
“I ordered a toxicology panel.”
“He canceled it.”
“I know.”
“Did you challenge him?”
“Yes. And two weeks later, I was removed from her case.”
Nobody spoke.
Ruiz continued.
“Rebecca called me once afterward.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“When?”
“About a week before she died.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she had hidden something.”
“Where?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
Claire’s heart jumped.
“What kind of thing?”
“Evidence.”
Dominic whispered, “Of what?”
Ruiz looked directly at him through the screen.
“She said if anything happened to her, someone had to protect Lily.”
The room went silent.
Dominic stood so fast the chair fell backward.
Claire reached for his arm.
This time, he did not pull away.
“Where would Rebecca hide something?” she asked.
Dominic stared into nothing.
“I don’t know.”
“You knew her better than anyone.”
“Apparently not.”
“Stop doing that.”
He looked at Claire.
“Doing what?”
“Turning every betrayal into proof you failed.”
His expression hardened.
“My wife told me she was in danger.”
“You thought she was sick.”
“She was.”
“You trusted her doctor.”
“Who was my friend.”
“That makes his betrayal his.”
Dominic stared at her.
Something in his face broke.
Not completely.
Enough.
Lily’s voice came from the doorway.
“Daddy?”
They turned.
She stood holding her stuffed rabbit.
“Mommy had a secret place.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
Lily looked uncertain.
“For treasures.”
Claire crouched.
“Where?”
“In my room.”
Dominic walked beside them to Lily’s room at the mansion that evening after police cleared their return under guard.
The wallpaper with white birds covered every wall.
Lily went directly to the window seat.
She pulled off one cushion.
Then another.
Nothing.
She frowned.
“Mommy said behind the bird that flies backward.”
Claire looked at the wallpaper.
Hundreds of white birds flew toward the right.
She searched.
Dominic searched.
Lily found it first.
A tiny bird near the baseboard faced left.
Dominic knelt.
Behind the wallpaper, the wood sounded hollow.
A panel came away.
Inside sat a small metal box.
Dominic stopped breathing.
Police photographed it before opening.
Inside were letters.
A flash drive.
Three medical vials.
And a photograph.
Rebecca, Vanessa, and Dr. Calder stood together at a university fundraiser years before Dominic ever met Vanessa.
On the back, Rebecca had written one sentence.
IF HENRY TELLS DOMINIC I’M CONFUSED, DON’T BELIEVE HIM.
Dominic sat on the floor.
Claire had never seen a powerful man look so powerless.
He unfolded the first letter.
It was addressed to him.
Dom,
If you’re reading this, then I was right to be afraid.
I need you to know something before anger convinces you to become the man everyone thinks you are.
Protect Lily first.
Truth second.
Revenge never.
Claire watched Dominic read those lines twice.
His eyes filled.
He kept reading silently.
When he finished, he handed the letter to Morris.
Then he covered his face with both hands.
Lily walked over.
She put her arms around his neck.
Dominic held her.
Claire turned away to give them privacy.
Then Dominic said her name.
“Claire.”
She looked back.
He extended one hand.
Not an order.
An invitation.
Claire crossed the room.
She knelt beside them.
Lily pulled her into the embrace.
Dominic’s hand touched Claire’s back.
For one fragile moment, the three of them stayed there beneath Rebecca’s wallpaper.
Not a replacement family.
Not yet.
Just three people holding one another because the truth was too heavy to carry alone.
The flash drive contained more.
Rebecca had recorded conversations.
Calder discussing medications.
Vanessa arguing with Rebecca about Dominic.
Celeste’s name appeared in financial records.
So did another name.
Salvatore Romano.
Dominic’s uncle.
The man who had acted as Dominic’s adviser since Dominic was nineteen.
The man currently managing half of Dominic’s business interests while Dominic remained at the hospital.
Dominic stared at the screen.
His face changed.
Claire whispered, “Who is he?”
“My father’s brother.”
“And?”
Dominic looked toward the door.
“The only man alive with enough power to move through this house without security questioning him.”
Claire’s skin turned cold.
A phone rang downstairs.
One of Dominic’s men answered.
Then shouted.
“Boss!”
Dominic stood.
They hurried down.
Anthony held the phone.
“Warehouse fire in Newark.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Which warehouse?”
“Pier Nine.”
Dominic stopped.
Claire understood nothing.
Then she saw everyone else’s faces.
“What?”
Dominic looked at her.
“The records Rebecca found connect Salvatore to Pier Nine.”
Anthony added, “Uncle Sal was there twenty minutes before the fire started.”
Dominic reached for his coat.
Claire caught his arm.
“Where are you going?”
“To finish this.”
“No.”
His eyes flashed.
“Claire.”
“Rebecca’s first instruction was protect Lily.”
“She is protected.”
“By people you thought you trusted yesterday?”
That stopped him.
Claire stepped closer.
“This is exactly what they want.”
Dominic stared at her.
“Who?”
“Whoever is still moving pieces. They want you angry. They want you running somewhere alone.”
His phone buzzed.
A message.
Dominic looked down.
Claire watched his face go pale.
The message contained a photograph.
Vanessa sat tied to a chair inside what appeared to be a warehouse.
Behind her stood Salvatore Romano.
May you like
And beneath the image were six words.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT ANSWERS.
