Chapter 7: The Man Who Kept a Copy
A child cried in the darkness.
“Boys, answer me,” Elena called.
“Here!” Luca shouted.
“Here,” Leo and Nico answered together.
Matteo’s voice came last.
“Someone touched my bow tie.”
Dominic crossed the room by the light of his phone.
He found Matteo beside Teresa and lifted him into his arms.
“Who touched you?”
“I don’t know.”
The emergency lights flickered on.
A small black disk hung beneath Matteo’s loosened bow tie.
Owen pulled it free.
“It’s a tracker.”
Sloane stared at Victor.
“That wasn’t part of our agreement.”
Detective Ellis stepped between them.
“Nobody leaves.”
Victor raised his hands.
“I know nothing about it.”
A side door opened, and Malcolm Reyes, a retired Moretti driver, entered carrying a metal document box.
Victor’s face changed.
“You were dismissed five years ago.”
“You dismissed me,” Malcolm said.
“Dominic’s father hired me.”
Malcolm placed the box on the table and looked at Elena.
“I drove you to South Station the night you left.”
Elena gripped the chair.
“You were behind the partition.”
“I heard everything.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Whatever he brought is stolen.”
Detective Ellis blocked him.
“Let him open it.”
Inside were visitor logs, envelopes, memory cards, and a small recorder.
Malcolm handed Dominic a logbook.
“Gavin entered your house eleven times while you were traveling.
Twice while you were home asleep.”
Dominic found Gavin’s signature beside Victor’s authorization code.
“Why keep this?” he asked.
“Your father came to regret what he did.
Before he d!ed, he asked me to gather proof.”
Victor laughed once.
“My brother could barely recognize his nurses.”
Malcolm pressed play on the recorder.
Dominic’s father spoke first.
“Victor promised the Barrett merger would secure the company.
He said Elena and the children threatened everything.”
Victor’s recorded voice followed.
“You frightened her once.
Let me make sure she stays frightened.”
Sloane lunged for the recorder.
Owen caught her arm.
“Let go of me!”
“You erased my computer,” he said.
“You’re not erasing this.”
Victor looked toward the detectives.
“A recording made without consent is useless.”
Claire closed the metal box.
“Not as useless as you hope.”
Luca approached Dominic, his face tight with confusion.
“Did you choose the ring lady because you didn’t want Mom?”
Dominic’s shoulders folded.
He knelt, but no answer came.
Elena crouched beside Luca.
“Your father didn’t know where we were.”
“He stopped looking,” Luca said.
The words landed harder than Victor’s accusations.
Dominic lowered his head.
“Yes.
I stopped.”
Elena stared at him.
“I believed my father because doubting him meant admitting my own family might have taken you,” Dominic said.
“I should have kept looking.”
“And I stopped trying after the second year,” Elena replied.
“Fear became easier than hope.”
Tears slipped down her face.
Dominic reached for her, then waited.
Elena placed her hand in his.
Matteo wrapped both arms around Dominic’s neck.
Leo and Nico joined him, and Luca stepped in last.
“I’m sorry,” Dominic whispered.
“I cannot return those six years.”
“Then don’t waste tomorrow,” Elena said.
Malcolm quietly turned the recorder over.
A memory card was taped beneath it.
“This is the copy Victor never knew existed.”
Sloane pulled away from Owen.
“Dominic, you still don’t understand.
Victor didn’t continue the warnings because of the marriage.”
“Then why?”
May you like
Malcolm looked at the four boys.
“Because the moment Dominic legally acknowledges them, Victor loses control of the Moretti estate.”
