Chapter 9 - VANESSA FINALLY CHOSE A SIDE
Vanessa came to Dominic before sunrise.
No diamonds.
No ivory coat.
No father.
She looked twenty years younger and ten years more frightened.
“Adrian acted without me.”
Dominic didn’t invite her to sit.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
Vanessa placed her phone on the table.
“I expect you to verify it.”
Messages.
Hundreds.
Carlo ordering Adrian to move Leo.
Adrian refusing at first.
Carlo threatening him.
Vanessa arguing with both.
One message from Vanessa:
THE CHILD IS OFF LIMITS.
Carlo:
HE IS THE ENTIRE PROBLEM.
Vanessa:
HE IS SIX.
Grace watched from beside the window.
She still didn’t trust Vanessa.
But truth did not require liking the person telling it.
Dominic scrolled.
“Why help now?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“Because my father told Adrian to kill Grace next.”
Silence.
Grace’s stomach dropped.
Vanessa continued.
“He thinks she is the bridge between you and the DeLuca claim.”
“That’s not why.”
“No.”
Vanessa looked ashamed.
“It’s because you listen to her.”
Dominic’s eyes moved briefly toward Grace.
Vanessa saw that too.
“It started before the explosion.”
“What did?”
“You changing.”
Dominic almost laughed.
Vanessa didn’t.
“You stopped taking meetings with men my father recommended. You were cutting Bellini access to the ports. Elena returning would have accelerated it. Leo would have given you another reason to break the alliance.”
“So your father tried to kill us.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know about the bomb?”
Her silence lasted too long.
Grace closed her eyes.
Dominic’s voice became quiet.
“Vanessa.”
“I knew he planned something.”
“Something?”
“I thought they were going to frighten Elena’s nun and move Leo before you found him.”
“You knew my route had leaked.”
“I found out an hour before.”
“Did you warn me?”
“No.”
That was her guilt.
Not ordering the explosion.
Silence.
Dominic’s face changed.
“I could have died.”
“I know.”
“My son could have died.”
Vanessa started crying.
“I know.”
“Grace almost died trying to stabilize us.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
His voice never rose.
That made Vanessa cry harder.
“I was afraid of my father.”
Grace heard every person in the room think the same thing.
Fear again.
The excuse behind generations of damage.
Vanessa looked at Grace.
“I watched them remove you because I thought if you disappeared from his room, maybe you wouldn’t tell Dominic what you saw.”
Grace stared.
“You let a guard hurt me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was still trying to save my engagement after my family tried to kill the man I was marrying.”
The honesty was ugly.
It was also real.
Dominic removed the engagement ring from the bedside safe and placed it on the table.
Vanessa looked at it.
“No.”
“We were finished before today.”
“Dominic—”
“You loved the life.”
Her face broke.
“Maybe I loved you too.”
“Maybe isn’t enough.”
He pushed the ring toward her.
Vanessa didn’t take it.
Instead she stood.
“I’ll testify.”
Dominic stared.
“Against Carlo?”
“And Adrian.”
“You understand what happens after that.”
“My father will never forgive me.”
Grace finally spoke.
“Maybe forgiveness is not the thing you should be afraid of losing.”
Vanessa looked at her.
Then nodded slowly.
Before leaving, she turned.
“There’s one last thing.”
Dominic waited.
“My father kept Elena’s belongings after her death.”
Leo’s mother.
“Where?”
“Bellini estate.”
“What belongings?”
“A journal.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“And?”
Vanessa looked at Grace.
“A sealed envelope addressed to Dominic.”
She swallowed.
“My father opened it.”
“What did it say?”
Vanessa’s voice dropped.
“That Elena had planned to return to New York and tell Leo about his father on his sixth birthday.”
Leo had turned six four days before the explosion.
But that was not the part that stunned Dominic.
Vanessa continued.
“Elena also wrote that if she died before she could come back, there was one person she trusted to raise Leo if Dominic refused.”
Grace frowned.
“Who?”
May you like
Vanessa looked directly at her.
“Grace Bennett.”
