Chapter 4 – [THE GHOST IN THE WALLS]

I couldn’t scream.

My voice died in my throat as the bookshelf slowly swung open an inch further.

“Arthur?” I whispered, the name feeling foreign on my tongue.

A figure stepped out of the shadows.

He was taller now, his shoulders broader than the fragile sixteen-year-old boy I remembered. But the haunted, desperate look in his eyes was exactly the same.

“Sophie,” he breathed.

“Oh my god,” I gasped, keeping one hand on Grace’s wound. “You’re Leo. You’re Dominic’s brother.”

Leo looked at Grace, who was staring at him in sheer terror.

“I didn’t hurt her,” Leo said, his voice raspy, like he hadn’t spoken in days. “Margaret pushed her. I was in the passage. I unlocked the door for you.”

Grace tried to sit up. “You’re… you’re Leo? Dominic’s brother who died in the fire?”

Leo flinched. “I didn’t die. She just made sure the world thought I did.”

He stepped closer, into the light.

That was when I saw it.

He was holding a thick manila folder.

“What is that?” I asked.

“The truth,” Leo said. He dropped the folder onto the rug beside Grace. “I’ve been breaking into Margaret’s safe for weeks. Gathering everything.”

Grace reached for the folder with a trembling hand. She flipped it open.

I looked down.

Inside were birth certificates. Medical records. And a photograph.

It was a picture of Margaret, taken twenty-three years ago, standing outside a hospital. She was holding a baby.

But Margaret had never been pregnant.

“Grace,” Leo said softly. “Look at the name on the certificate.”

Grace pulled out the yellowed paper.

Her breath hitched.

“Mother: Evelyn Carter,” she read aloud. “Father…”

She stopped. Her face drained of all color.

“Read it,” Leo urged gently.

Grace looked up, tears spilling from her eyes. “Father: Vincenzo Moretti.”

My mind spun.

Vincenzo Moretti was Dominic and Leo’s father.

“Evelyn and Vincenzo had an affair,” Leo explained, his voice breaking. “Margaret found out. She knew that if Vincenzo had a daughter with Evelyn, it would ruin Margaret’s control over the family trust. So Margaret took you when you were born.”

Grace began to sob, shaking her head. “No. No, she’s my mother.”

“She forced Evelyn to give you up,” Leo said. “And she raised you as her own, right under Vincenzo’s nose, to ensure she always had a piece of the Moretti bloodline under her thumb.”

I sat back on my heels, the realization crashing over me.

Grace wasn’t just Margaret’s pawn.

She was Dominic’s half-sister.

And she was engaged to him.

“Oh my god,” Grace gagged, covering her mouth as the horror of her engagement set in. “Dominic… he doesn’t know.”

Suddenly, the library doors rattled violently.

Someone was trying to get in.

“Sophie!” Dominic’s voice boomed through the wood. “Open the door!”

I scrambled to my feet and unlocked the heavy doors.

Dominic burst in, his gun still drawn.

But he wasn’t alone.

He had Margaret by the arm, dragging her into the room. Her emerald gown was torn, and she looked utterly unhinged.

When Dominic saw Leo standing there, he froze.

The gun slowly lowered.

“Leo,” Dominic whispered.

Leo looked at his older brother. Tears welled in his eyes. “Hello, Dom.”

Dominic let go of Margaret and took a step toward his brother.

But Margaret laughed. It was a cold, sharp, evil sound.

“A family reunion,” she sneered, fixing her hair. “How pathetic.”

Dominic turned on her, his eyes blazing with a fury I had never seen. “You told me he was dead. You told my father he died in a fire at the clinic.”

“He was supposed to,” Margaret spat. “But the stupid nurse got him out.”

Dominic raised the gun, pointing it directly at Margaret’s chest.

“Give me one reason not to end this right now.”

Margaret smiled, pulling something from her pocket.

It was my mother’s hospital ID badge.

“Because,” Margaret purred. “If you kill me, Sophie’s mother burns in her own home tonight. I left the order with my men ten minutes ago.”

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