Chapter 6 - The Man Behind the Engagement
By sunrise, Dominic had stopped believing in coincidences.
The medication bottle, the forged archive request, the missing ledger, his mother's disappearance, and Vanessa's sudden interest in the Romano family were no longer separate problems.
They were pieces of a pattern.
But a pattern was not proof.
Dominic understood that distinction better than most people. He had seen innocent men destroyed by accusations and guilty men escape because someone wanted revenge more than justice.
He would not make that mistake with Emily.
Or his father.
Or his mother.
At eight in the morning, Michael arrived with a preliminary report from the independent investigator.
The unknown medication had not yet been conclusively identified, and the laboratory would need more time to determine its composition. The pharmacy had no record of dispensing the bottle. Its packaging appeared to have been produced by a private supplier.
The investigator had also recovered deleted messages from a tablet used in the mansion's administrative office.
Several messages mentioned the phrase blue box.
One had been sent by Vanessa to a contact saved only as R. Hale.
The old man is becoming difficult. The girl is writing everything down. We need the original before Dominic sees it.
A reply followed.
You were supposed to have this handled months ago.
Dominic read the exchange twice.
“Who is R. Hale?”
Michael shook his head.
“The account was created with a prepaid phone. We're tracing the number, but it may take time.”
Daniel, sitting under supervision across the room, spoke for the first time.
“Richard Hale.”
Dominic turned toward him.
“Explain.”
“Hale was your father's business partner before you took over the legitimate companies. He left the organization fourteen years ago after a dispute over the shipping contracts.”
“Why would Vanessa be communicating with him?”
“Because he funded her family's debts.”
Daniel hesitated.
“And because he's the man who hired me.”
The room fell silent.
Dominic stared at him.
“You told me my father hired you.”
“He approved my appointment. Hale paid the security firm that recruited me. I didn't know he still had influence over the house.”
“You knew he was involved with Vanessa?”
“I suspected it last year. I didn't have proof.”
Dominic rose from his chair.
“Every time you say you didn't know something, another person ends up in danger.”
Daniel accepted the accusation without defending himself.
“I understand.”
“No. You understand that you're in trouble. That's not the same thing.”
Michael intervened.
“We should focus on preserving evidence and identifying the people involved. If Hale is connected to the medication or the missing records, we need documentation before we approach him.”
Dominic sat again.
“What else do we know?”
The investigator had traced several payments from an account associated with Vanessa to a private storage facility on the outskirts of Chicago. The payments began shortly after her engagement to Dominic and continued every month.
A search warrant had not yet been obtained.
The investigators were preparing an application based on the financial records and the recovered messages.
Dominic looked at Emily.
“Did you ever see a blue box in the house?”
She thought for a moment.
“There was a small blue case in the library. Mrs. Sterling told me it contained old family photographs. She ordered me not to touch it.”
“When?”
“About three weeks ago.”
Antonio, resting in a hospital bed, opened his eyes.
“The box isn't in the library anymore.”
Everyone turned toward him.
“Where is it?” Dominic asked.
Antonio shook his head.
“I don't know. But Thomas brought it to the house before he disappeared.”
Emily's voice trembled.
“My grandfather came here?”
“On the night he was dismissed,” Antonio said. “He asked me to protect something. I refused because I thought he was trying to save himself.”
He closed his eyes.
“I was a coward.”
Dominic took his father's hand.
“You can tell us the rest when you're stronger.”
“No.” Antonio opened his eyes again. “If I wait, someone else will pay for what I did.”
He told them that Thomas had come to the mansion with a blue metal box. He claimed the box contained a duplicate of the ledger and evidence of a payment made before Elena's accident.
Antonio had ordered him to leave.
The following morning, Thomas was accused of theft.
Within weeks, the family publicly disowned him.
Antonio had never seen the box again.
“Who else knew about it?” Dominic asked.
“Richard Hale. Vanessa. And one other person.”
“Who?”
Antonio looked at the closed hospital door.
“I don't know his name. He wore a ring with a black stone. Thomas said the man was the only person who could make the accounts disappear.”
Emily's hand flew to her own ring.
Silver.
Dark stone.
Dominic saw the resemblance.
“Emily, take it off.”
She recoiled.
“No.”
“I'm not trying to take it from you. I need to see whether there's a mark underneath.”
She hesitated, then slowly removed it.
On the inner band, nearly invisible beneath years of wear, were three engraved letters.
E.R.
Elena stared.
“My initials.”
Dominic looked from the ring to his mother.
“Why would Thomas give Emily a ring with your initials?”
Elena's face went pale.
“Because it wasn't originally mine.”
She reached into her handbag and removed another ring.
It was nearly identical.
Same silver band.
Same dark stone.
Same tiny engraving.
Only this one carried the letters T.C.
“Thomas made two copies,” Elena whispered. “He said one would protect the person who carried the evidence, and the other would identify the person who had ordered the theft.”
Emily stared at her grandfather's ring.
“Where is the evidence?”
Elena shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Dominic looked at Michael.
“Find out who made these rings. Trace the engraving. Search every document Thomas left behind.”
Before Michael could answer, Dominic's phone rang.
The caller was an unknown number.
He answered.
A man's voice spoke calmly.
“Dominic Romano. You have something that belongs to me.”
“Who is this?”
“You can call me Richard Hale.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“What do you want?”
“The blue box. The ring. And your mother.”
A pause followed.
Then Hale added, almost pleasantly, “Bring all three to the old Romano warehouse by nine tonight. Come alone.”
Dominic glanced at the clock.
It was 8:14 a.m.
“And if I refuse?”
Hale's voice turned cold.
May you like
“Then the next person who wakes up struggling to breathe won't be your father.”
The line went dead.
