Chapter 15 - The Last Thing Michael Hid
"Tell me."
Dominic did not answer until police and federal agents had Voss in restraints.
Marco was carried out alive.
Barely.
Lily stayed wrapped around me.
Ethan met us outside and burst into tears when he saw her.
They held hands all the way back to the estate.
I waited until both children were asleep in Dominic's private sitting room.
Then I locked the study door.
"Now."
Dominic took a drive from the evidence box.
"Michael wasn't just a contractor."
"I know that much."
"Before he worked here, he had contact with federal investigators."
I stared.
"FBI?"
"Financial Crimes Task Force. Quiet arrangement. He wasn't an agent. He was a source."
"Against you?"
Dominic shook his head.
"Against people around me. Port officials. Union brokers. Shell companies. Men who used my businesses without my approval and men who used my name because it scared questions away."
"And you knew?"
"Not at first."
"When did you find out?"
"Three months before he died."
My nails dug into the desk.
"You kept working with him."
"Because he showed me evidence I couldn't ignore."
He inserted Michael's drive.
Another recording appeared.
Michael looked exhausted.
But he smiled.
"Anna, if Dominic actually gave you this, either he's changed or you're holding a gun on him."
Despite everything, a broken laugh escaped me.
Dominic looked offended.
Michael continued.
"I started collecting evidence because people around Moretti were using his companies for things even he didn't authorize. I thought Dominic was the center of it. I was wrong. That doesn't make him innocent. It makes the map more complicated."
Dominic looked away.
"Voss found out I was tracing Marco. If I disappear, that's why."
Michael leaned closer to the camera.
"People like him think witnesses forget."
He smiled again.
"I don't."
The screen went black.
I sat there without moving.
Dominic broke the silence.
"After Michael died, I tried to move you and Lily away from the estate. Then someone followed you home from the grocery store."
I looked at him.
I remembered that night.
A black sedan three streets behind me.
I had told myself I was imagining it.
"You saw it."
"My men did."
"So you doubled my salary."
"And offered the apartment."
"You kept us inside your fence."
"Yes."
"Without telling me why."
"Yes."
I stood.
"You don't get points for protecting me with a lie."
"I know."
"Stop saying that like it fixes anything."
He flinched.
Small.
Real.
I went upstairs and packed.
Not forever.
I did not know what forever meant anymore.
Just enough clothes for Lily and me to leave for a few days.
I zipped the suitcase.
A knock came at the door.
"Anna?"
Ethan.
I opened it.
He stood there holding an old photograph.
"I found this in Dad's safe. It was stuck behind some papers."
I took it.
Michael stood on the left.
Dominic on the right.
Both younger.
Between them stood a man I had never seen.
Dark hair.
Narrow face.
A black ring on his hand.
Not a lion.
Something else scratched into the metal.
Lily climbed onto the bed behind me.
"Mommy?"
I turned the picture so she could see.
Her face changed.
She stopped swinging her feet.
One finger lifted.
She touched the unknown man's face.
"Mommy."
I knelt beside her.
"What?"
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"That's the other man who was in the cold room."
My hand locked around the photograph.
A floorboard creaked behind me.
Dominic stood in the doorway.
"What other man?"
May you like
I turned the photo toward him.
All the color left his face.
