Chapter 3 - THE HUSBAND EMILY THOUGHT SHE KNEW
Emily stopped breathing when Dominic placed the photograph on the table.
“That’s Daniel.”
“I know.”
“No.”
She stood.
“No, you don’t know.”
Her voice shook.
“That is my husband.”
“Was.”
Pain flashed across her face.
Dominic regretted the word immediately.
“Sorry.”
She picked up the photograph.
Daniel looked younger.
Maybe twenty-one.
He had one arm around Marco Bellini.
“They knew each other.”
Dominic nodded.
“Looks that way.”
“He never mentioned Marco.”
“Did he mention my family?”
“No.”
That answer came too quickly.
Dominic noticed.
Emily looked down.
“Once.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me if anyone named Vitali ever contacted me, I should leave Chicago.”
Dominic went still.
“When?”
“Two weeks before he died.”
Silence.
Rose was coloring in the next room.
Emily lowered her voice.
“Daniel had been nervous.”
“About what?”
“He said he found something at work.”
“What kind of work?”
“He was an insurance auditor.”
Dominic looked at Luca.
That mattered.
“What company?”
“Hartwell Risk.”
Luca swore softly.
Hartwell insured several Vitali shipping subsidiaries twenty years ago.
Including the warehouse where Antonio was supposedly robbed.
Dominic sat forward.
“Emily, Daniel may have been investigating my father’s death.”
Her face lost color.
“No.”
“He died last year?”
“Yes.”
“And his accident?”
“Highway. Truck crossed the median.”
“Was the driver charged?”
“Driver died too.”
Too clean.
Dominic hated clean.
He asked:
“Did Daniel leave anything behind?”
“Clothes. Books. Laptop.”
“Where is the laptop?”
“Storage.”
Emily glared at him.
“You are not turning my dead husband into another investigation.”
Dominic’s voice softened.
“If someone killed him because of the same secret that killed my father, they may already know about you.”
Her anger faltered.
“And Rose?”
“That’s what worries me.”
Three hours later, they opened Daniel’s storage locker.
Most boxes were ordinary.
Then Rose found a metal lunchbox.
“Daddy’s treasure box.”
Emily froze.
“You know this?”
“He said I couldn’t open it till I was big.”
Inside was a USB drive.
A hotel key card.
And a handwritten note.
Emily recognized Daniel’s writing.
If I die, Marco Bellini knows why.
Dominic stared at the line.
Then Emily found another note beneath it.
This one addressed to her.
Emily, I’m sorry I never told you who my father was.
Her fingers shook.
Dominic read over her shoulder.
His name was Enzo Bellini.
The room went silent.
Marco Bellini was Daniel’s half brother.
May you like
And Rose—
Rose was a Bellini by blood.
