Chương 5
Dominic noticed the bag.
“Evidence?” he asked.
“Laundry.”
“Ruiz already photographed it.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you carrying it?”
“Because it’s mine.”
He nodded as though she had explained something larger.
By midnight, Marcus’s photograph had been distributed to law enforcement agencies across the region. His name appeared on television with the words armed and dangerous beneath it. No broadcaster mentioned the Rosetti organization directly, but old footage of Dominic entering federal court accompanied every report.
Marcus released his own statement through an attorney at twelve thirty-seven.
The attorney claimed Marcus had uncovered a conspiracy by Nora to manipulate a traumatized child, fabricate a recording, and gain access to Rosetti family assets. He described the mansion incident as a private employment dispute that became violent when Nora attacked Marcus with a metal object.
The statement included Nora’s old nursing disciplinary record.
It also included a copy of a preliminary guardianship document signed by Eva.
Nora saw it on a muted television in the family lounge.
Dominic stood beside her.
She read the line twice.
In the event of my death or incapacity, I request that Nora Elizabeth Vale be considered temporary guardian of my daughter, Lily Eva Rosetti, should Lily’s father be unavailable, unwilling, under investigation, incarcerated, or determined to present an immediate threat to her safety.
Dominic picked up the remote and turned off the television.
“You knew,” he said.
“No.”
“Your full name is in it.”
“I know my name.”
“Eva named you guardian.”
“She requested consideration. That is not the same thing.”
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
He studied her with the same concentration he might have used on a rival across a negotiating table. “Marcus had this before I did.”
“Which means it came from someone with access to Eva’s attorney or her files.”
“It means he wants the world to believe you came for Lily.”
“And you?”
Dominic did not answer quickly enough.
Nora laughed once. It sounded wrong in the empty lounge.
“Of course.”
“I am trying to decide what I believe.”
“Try harder.”
“My wife secretly created a plan to give my daughter to a woman I had met twice.”
“Three times.”
“That improves it.”
Nora turned toward him. “Eva believed you might be unavailable, incarcerated, or dangerous. Which part are you finding unrealistic?”
His eyes hardened.
She regretted the sentence as soon as it left her mouth, not because it was false but because Lily was asleep less than thirty feet away and grief did not become less human because the grieving man frightened people.
Dominic set the remote down carefully.
“You think I don’t know what I am?”
“I think you know exactly what you are and call that honesty.”
“And you think regret makes you different?”
The old hospital room returned before Nora could stop it: a nine-year-old boy named Caleb, a pump set ten times too high, her friend Denise crying in the medication room, begging for twenty minutes to correct the chart before the attending physician saw it. Nora had given her twelve.
Twelve minutes had been enough.
“No,” Nora said.
Dominic looked at her cut palm.
Neither apologized.
At one in the morning, an older man in a brown overcoat arrived with a leather briefcase. He introduced himself as Samuel Pike, Eva’s estate attorney.
He refused to speak in Lily’s room.
They met in a consultation office containing a round table, four plastic chairs, and a framed print of a sailboat that looked chosen to offend no one.
Pike removed his glasses and cleaned them with a cloth.
“I advised Mrs. Rosetti not to execute the guardianship request without discussing it with her husband.”
Dominic leaned back. “You advised my wife to tell me she thought I might be a danger to our daughter.”
“I advised your wife to communicate with you about a document affecting your parental rights.”
“Did you tell Marcus?”
“No.”
“Who had access?”
“My paralegal, Mrs. Rosetti, and I.”
“Your paralegal’s name.”
Pike replaced his glasses. “You are not questioning one of your employees, Mr. Rosetti.”
“Not yet.”
Nora put both hands on the table. “Did Eva leave anything else?”
Pike looked at her.
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether you are prepared to receive it.”
Dominic’s chair shifted.
Pike raised one palm. “Not emotionally. Legally.”
He opened his briefcase and withdrew a sealed envelope.
“This was delivered to my office by courier two days before Mrs. Rosetti’s death. The instructions required that I provide it to Ms. Vale only if she appeared in person following a credible threat to Lily.”
He slid the envelope toward Nora.
Dominic reached across the table and placed two fingers on it.
Pike looked down at his hand.
“It concerns my daughter,” Dominic said.
“It is addressed to Ms. Vale.”
“She can open it in front of me.”
Nora looked at the envelope. Her name was written in Eva’s hand, the letters upright and impatient.
“I can,” she said. “I’m not saying I will.”
Dominic’s gaze moved to her.
Pike leaned back, wisely allowing the conflict to belong to them.
Nora drew the envelope from beneath Dominic’s fingers.
“I’ll read it alone.”
“You expect me to accept that?”
“No. I expect you to dislike it.”
“Marcus is loose. Someone gave him a confidential legal document. My daughter has been shot twice in six months.”
“And Eva still chose not to address this to you.”
His chair scraped the floor as he stood.
Pike did not flinch. “Mr. Rosetti, threatening either of us would confirm the concern expressed in the document Marcus released.”
Dominic looked at him. “If I threatened you, Samuel, you would not need to interpret it.”
Nora hated that part of her understood why Eva had loved him. His loyalty carried heat. Stand close enough and it could feel like shelter. Stay too long and it burned the shape of your life into whatever remained.
Dominic turned toward the door.
Nora said, “Wait.”
He stopped.
May you like
She tore open the envelope.
The letter was six pages long.
