Chapter 7 - THE FRIEND WHO HELPED BUILD THE LIE
Gabriel Hayes looked like a man who had not slept in days.
Dominic ended the call with Emma after making her promise to contact the police if anyone approached her.
Then he locked the study door.
“Start talking.”
Gabriel sat down.
“I found out about your mother six months ago.”
“The poison?”
“Yes.”
“My father?”
“No.”
Gabriel looked confused.
Dominic handed him Vincent’s letter.
Gabriel read the first page.
Then went pale.
“This is worse than I thought.”
Dominic laughed without humor.
“That sentence is becoming popular.”
Gabriel put the letter down.
“I was investigating Harbor financing.”
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa found irregular payments.”
Dominic frowned.
“Vanessa?”
“She worked for Moretti Foundation accounting before your mother pushed her out.”
Dominic remembered.
Vanessa had supposedly resigned.
Margaret said she wanted to travel.
Another lie.
Gabriel continued.
“Vanessa found payments to clinics, investigators, judges.”
“And you slept with her.”
Gabriel flinched.
“Yes.”
“You’re married.”
“Separated.”
“Not divorced.”
“No.”
Dominic looked away.
“You let everyone think her child was mine.”
Gabriel’s voice cracked.
“I was trying to protect her.”
“You protected yourself.”
“Yes.”
The admission landed heavily.
Dominic understood that kind of cowardice.
He had practiced his own version for three years.
Gabriel continued.
“Margaret told Vanessa if she publicly named me, she’d destroy my divorce case and take custody leverage from me.”
“So she used me instead.”
“Yes.”
“And you allowed it.”
“Yes.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“You laughed in my study.”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
“I know.”
“You laughed when I said I pretended not to hear Emma because I didn’t want conversation.”
“I know.”
“You should have hit me.”
“I should have.”
Dominic almost smiled bitterly.
“I would have deserved it.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“You loved her.”
Dominic said nothing.
“You still do.”
Dominic looked toward the divorce papers.
“I don’t know when it happened.”
“Probably while you were too busy avoiding her.”
That hurt.
Because it was true.
Gabriel stood.
“Margaret has someone working for her.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“She threatened you?”
“She had my car followed. Then someone broke into my apartment.”
“Why?”
“Because I copied files.”
“What files?”
Gabriel removed a memory card from inside his jacket.
“I found records tied to Luca Bellini.”
Dominic took it.
“Why?”
“Because your mother was moving assets out of Moretti Family Holdings.”
“How much?”
“Almost four hundred million.”
Dominic stared.
“To where?”
“A trust.”
“Whose?”
Gabriel swallowed.
“Your child’s.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
“Not Emma’s baby specifically.”
“Then whose?”
“A future Moretti heir.”
Dominic frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if your mother planned to control the heir.”
Gabriel opened his laptop.
He showed Dominic documents.
A trust.
Assets.
Properties.
Beneficiary:
First legitimate biological descendant of Dominic Moretti.
Dominic sat down.
Margaret had spent years preventing him from having children.
Yet created a trust for one.
Why?
Gabriel pointed to another clause.
Trustee until beneficiary age twenty-five:
Margaret Moretti.
Dominic understood.
She did not want to prevent an heir forever.
She wanted an heir she controlled.
Someone born under circumstances she selected.
Vanessa’s baby?
No.
Not his.
Maybe Margaret had expected Vanessa to conceive with Dominic years earlier.
Maybe Emma was never supposed to.
Emma’s pregnancy disrupted everything.
“She’ll come after Emma.”
Gabriel nodded.
“That’s why I called her.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“You knew she was pregnant before I did.”
“I saw the ultrasound.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“It wasn’t my secret.”
For once, Gabriel had made the correct choice.
Dominic looked at the trust again.
“There’s another condition.”
He read it.
If no eligible heir exists before Dominic Moretti reaches age forty-five, assets revert to a charitable foundation designated by the trustee.
Dominic was forty-two.
Three years.
Margaret had a clock.
A plan.
A reason to manipulate pregnancies.
Dominic’s phone rang.
Margaret.
He answered.
“Mother.”
Her voice was calm.
“Gabriel is with you.”
Not a question.
Dominic looked at Gabriel.
“How do you know?”
“I know everything happening in my family.”
“No.”
Dominic stared at the trust.
“You used to.”
Margaret’s voice hardened.
“Where is Emma?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“Why?”
“Because she has something that belongs to this family.”
Dominic’s hand tightened.
“My child?”
Margaret said nothing.
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“If you touch her—”
“I would never hurt Emma.”
He laughed.
“You drugged her.”
“I protected the future.”
“From what?”
Margaret sighed.
“From men who confuse love with weakness.”
Then she said something that made Dominic go still.
“Ask Emma why her maiden name is Moretti.”
Dominic frowned.
“Her maiden name is Carter.”
Margaret laughed softly.
“No, Dominic.”
Then the call ended.
Gabriel stared.
“What did she mean?”
Dominic opened Emma’s background file from the family archive.
Emma Carter.
Born Evanston.
Mother: Julia Carter.
Father: Samuel Carter.
Then he found an adoption record.
Sealed.
Unsealed by Margaret years earlier.
Original birth name:
Emma Lucia Moretti.
Dominic stopped breathing.
May you like
Emma was not just his wife.
She belonged to another branch of his family.
