Chapter 2: The Face in the Photograph
Part 2 — continued in comments ⬇️
---
Olivia walked straight to the far wall of the library.
She stopped in front of a framed photograph I had forgotten was there.
A staff photo.
Taken three years ago at the mansion's annual Christmas gathering.
Forty-one people standing in rows on the back lawn.
Isabelle had insisted on it every year.
Sophie pointed at a face in the second row.
I leaned closer.
My chest stopped.
I knew that face.
He had been standing in my house this morning.
"Grace," I said quietly.
"Where is Marco right now?"
She didn't answer immediately.
That told me everything.
"Mr.
Romano—"
"Where.
Is.
He."
"He left twenty minutes before you arrived." Her voice was steady but her hands were not.
"He said you called him in early.
That you needed him at the warehouse."
I had called no one.
I had told no one I was coming home.
Nora tugged Grace's sleeve and whispered something directly into her ear.
Grace closed her eyes for one second.
Then she looked at me.
"She says he was there that morning.
In Garden City.
She remembers his coat."
A three-year-old.
She had carried his face for fourteen months and never had the words to tell me.
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
One message.
*You weren't supposed to come home early, Dominic.*
---
What Dominic found next made even his most loyal men go pale.
May you like
The full story — and the truth about who gave that order — is in the link below.
This goes deeper than anyone expected.
