Chapter 4 – THE SINS OF THE FATHER

The air in the ballroom vanished.

Guests scrambled toward the edges of the room, abandoning their expensive dinners.

Luca immediately stepped in front of me and his brother, shielding us from the men at the door.

“Dominic Rossi,” Luca said. The name tasted like poison in his mouth. “You’re violating the truce. You step foot in my house, you don’t leave it.”

Dominic chuckled, leaning heavily on his silver-tipped cane.

“There is no truce, Luca. Not since your father stole what was rightfully mine.”

Dominic pointed his cane at the brass key still in Luca’s hand.

“That key belongs to my family. And the girl holding it is my leverage.”

I backed away, terrified. “I don’t know you! I’ve never seen you before in my life!”

Dominic looked at me with cold, dead eyes.

“Your mother never told you? How disappointing. Margaret always was a coward.”

My breath hitched.

My mother’s name was Margaret.

“Margaret was my father’s personal nurse twenty years ago,” Dominic explained to the terrified room. “When my father was on his deathbed, your father, Luca, paid her to switch the wills. He stole the south side territory from us using a forged document. A document he locked in a safe deposit box at First National.”

He pointed at the key.

“The Weeping Angel key. My father’s key.”

Michael looked at me, horrified. “Your mother forged the will?”

“No!” I cried, tears spilling hot down my cheeks. “My mother is a good person! She works at a bakery! She’s been sick for months!”

Dominic smiled a cruel, thin smile.

“She’s sick, Emily, because three months ago, I finally found out where she was hiding. I visited her. I told her that if she didn’t get that key out of the Moretti estate, I would make sure she suffered.”

I felt the room spin.

The mysterious illness my mother had developed. The sudden medical bills that drained my savings. It wasn’t a disease.

He had poisoned her.

“You monster,” I whispered.

“I told her she had an inside connection,” Dominic continued smoothly. “You. The new maid. I told her to have you find the key and bring it to me. But instead, she kept her mouth shut. So, I approached someone else.”

Dominic’s eyes shifted.

Past me. Past Luca.

To Vanessa.

Vanessa shrank against the wall, her face pale as a ghost.

“Vanessa has been very helpful,” Dominic purred. “She hired the investigator to find Margaret’s real identity. She planted the pocket watch. She was supposed to find the key and hand it over tonight.”

Luca turned to Vanessa, absolute betrayal etched into every line of his face.

“You sold us out.”

“Luca, I had to!” Vanessa sobbed. “He threatened my family! He said if I didn’t help him get the contract back, he would kill my parents!”

“So you let him poison my brother instead?” Luca roared.

“I didn’t poison him!” Vanessa screamed.

She pointed at Michael.

“Michael did that himself! Because Dominic told Michael that if he didn’t drop out of the downtown project, Luca would take the fall!”

It was a web of lies, and everyone in the room had been trapped in it.

Dominic stepped closer.

“Give me the key, Luca. And I will walk out of here. Keep it, and this room becomes a slaughterhouse.”

Luca didn’t move.

He looked at the key. Then at me.

“Emily,” Luca said softly. “Do you want to save your mother?”

I looked at him, tears streaming down my face. “More than anything.”

Luca nodded.

He turned toward Dominic.

And threw the brass key perfectly into the old man’s hand.

“Take it,” Luca said. “And get out of my house.”

Dominic smiled, pocketing the key.

“A wise choice, boy.” He turned to leave.

But as he reached the doors, Bruno suddenly broke away from Michael’s leg.

The old German shepherd ran forward and clamped his jaws viciously onto the bottom of Dominic’s heavy wool coat.

Dominic cursed, trying to kick the dog away.

But as he pulled, the coat ripped.

And something fell from the lining, clattering loudly against the marble floor.

It was a small, delicate silver rosary.

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