Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO STOOD BESIDE ME
Dominic arrived forty minutes later with two men from my security team.
That alone told me something was wrong.
Before the shooting, nobody brought protection into my bedroom.
Not unless they believed there was danger inside the house.
Dominic entered with his familiar calm smile.
“Vin.”
I held up the forged document.
His smile vanished.
“Interesting morning?”
“Sit down.”
“I have meetings.”
“Then miss them.”
Tessa stood beside the window, pretending to reorganize medication.
Dominic glanced at her.
“She stays?”
“She stays.”
That bothered him.
Good.
I placed the paper on my lap.
“Did you know about this?”
“No.”
“Arya says you did.”
Dominic exhaled.
“Arya says many things when she's scared.”
“Why did you need my signature on the harbor property?”
“Routine transfer.”
“Worth?”
“Forty-two million.”
“And that's routine?”
His jaw tightened.
There it was.
A crack.
Before I could push harder, Tessa's phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen.
Then at me.
“Your physical therapist is at the front gate.”
Dominic stood immediately.
“I thought therapy was suspended.”
Nobody spoke.
I watched him.
“How did you know?”
He froze.
The suspension had been Arya's private instruction.
Dominic had no reason to know.
Unless Arya had told him.
Or unless he had told Arya.
I smiled without humor.
“Sit down, Dominic.”
He didn't.
Instead, he walked toward the door.
“I have nothing to do with your medical schedule.”
“Then why did you know?”
His hand rested on the knob.
For years, Dominic Moretti had been the closest thing I had to a brother.
We had buried friends together.
Built businesses together.
He had been the first man to reach me after the bullet tore through my spine.
I remembered his hands pressing against the wound.
His voice shouting for someone to call an ambulance.
I had trusted that memory.
Maybe too much.
Dominic turned.
“You're tired, Vin.”
“No.”
I gripped the sides of the wheelchair.
“For the first time in six months, I'm awake.”
He left.
Tessa waited until the hallway was silent.
Then she crossed the room.
“You need to see something.”
She opened her phone and showed me a photograph she'd taken downstairs.
A security monitor.
Timestamped five minutes before I had been shot.
May you like
Dominic was standing beside the garage entrance.
Talking to the shooter.
