“Then we have to make sure Dominic never learns Lily is mine.”

The recording shut off.

For several moments, no one moved.

The kitchen suddenly felt smaller around me. The clock over the doorway ticked. The refrigerator buzzed.

Somewhere upstairs, I could hear Leo showing Lily one of his toy trains, his little voice growing excited whenever she intentionally called the locomotive a “choo-choo dragon.”

Ordinary sounds. Comforting sounds.

They seemed impossibly distant.

Dominic stood near the kitchen island with the recorder in his hand.

His expression had become completely unreadable.

Not furious. Not surprised.

Motionless.

I had learned enough about Dominic Moretti to know that silence was more unsettling than shouting.

“Play it again,” I whispered.

His gaze rose to mine.

“Isabella.”

“Play it again.”

“You heard it.”

“I want to hear his voice.”

Something changed in Dominic’s expression.

Maybe sympathy. Maybe worry.

I wanted neither.

“I know what I heard,” I said. “Play it.”

He pushed the button.

Elena’s voice came back, faint beneath the static of the old recording.

“If anything happens to me, Isabella must never trust Matteo.”

A pause.

Then him.

The voice I had spent almost four years trying to erase.

Caleb.

Lily’s father.

“Then we have to make sure Dominic never learns Lily is mine.”

The recording stopped again.

My legs felt unsteady.

I held the edge of the counter.

For years, I had imagined countless explanations for Caleb’s disappearance.

Fear. Cowardice.

Another woman.

A different life somewhere far away.

Sometimes, during the nights Lily had a fever and cried for someone she had never met, I had imagined him gone forever because that was easier to accept than abandonment.

But this?

This meant he had known Dominic.

He had known Elena. He had known about me before I even knew Elena existed.

And he had concealed something involving my daughter.

Dominic set the recorder carefully on the marble.

“When did he leave you?”

The question was soft.

“Before Lily was born.”

“How long before?”

“Seven months.”

Dominic’s jaw tightened.

I laughed once, though nothing about it was funny.

“He said he needed time.”

Dominic remained silent.

“He kissed me goodbye.”

My voice cracked without warning.

I turned aside.

I would not cry in Dominic Moretti’s kitchen. I would not cry in the room where my daughter had spent the afternoon making bubbles and laughing beside a lonely little boy.

I had cried enough over Caleb.

“He told me he was going to clear his head for a few days,” I continued. “He took one bag. Left most of his clothes. Left his books. Left a coffee mug in the sink.”

I faced Dominic.

“Who leaves a coffee mug if they know they’re never coming back?”

Dominic’s expression softened almost invisibly.

“Someone who wants you to believe they will.”

That response hurt more than it should have.

I lowered my eyes to my hands.

“He sent one message two weeks later. He said not to look for him.”

“Do you still have it?”

“No. My old phone broke years ago.”

“Did he ever mention Matteo?”

“No.”

“Elena?”

“No.”

“Me?”

I stared at him.

“Trust me, Mr. Moretti. If the father of my child had told me he knew Boston’s most feared crime boss, I probably would have remembered.”

His eyes narrowed slightly.

“Crime boss?”

“You prefer businessman?”

For the first time since the recording had begun playing, the corner of Dominic’s mouth shifted.

Barely.

It disappeared immediately.

“This isn’t a joke.”

“I know.”

I rested both palms against the counter.

“I’m trying not to fall apart.”

That erased the hint of amusement from his face.

Dominic glanced toward the ceiling.

Toward the children upstairs.

Then returned his attention to me.

“You’re not leaving this house tonight.”

I tensed.

“That wasn’t a request.”

“It sounded like one of your orders.”

“It was.”

“Then the answer is no.”

His eyebrows rose.

Fear should have silenced me.

It didn’t.

Maybe after discovering that the late sister I had never known had tried to locate me, that my missing boyfriend had been connected to her secrets, and that someone had deliberately placed me inside this house, my capacity for intimidation had temporarily disappeared.

“You do not get to decide where Lily sleeps,” I said.

“Someone manipulated your employment records to place you here.”

“I know.”

“They had Lily’s birth certificate.”

“I heard that part too.”

“And now we have evidence that her father was connected to Elena before her de:ath.”

My throat tightened.

Dominic softened his voice.

“Your apartment is not secure.”

“And this house is?”

The question struck harder than I meant it to.

Dominic stared at me.

Then I watched realization settle over him.

His wife had died while living beneath his protection.

Someone had concealed a recording inside his son’s toy chest.

His brother’s name appeared on it.

His security had failed before.

I nearly regretted the question.

Nearly.

Dominic turned toward the window overlooking the shadowed garden.

“No,” he said finally.

The admission caught me off guard.

“This house is not as secure as I believed it was.”

He faced me again.

“But it’s more secure than anywhere else I can put you tonight.”

Before I could respond, light footsteps came from the hallway.

Lily appeared first.

Her curls remained damp from the kitchen mishap, and she had changed into one of Leo’s old T-shirts because her dress was soaked.

It reached almost to her ankles.

Leo stood behind her carrying a stuffed lion.

“Mommy?”

I quickly arranged my face into something calmer.

“Hey, sweetheart.”

Lily examined me with unsettling three-year-old seriousness.

“Are you sad?”

“No.”

She frowned.

“You make that face when you’re sad.”

Dominic glanced at me.

I ignored him.

“I’m just tired.”

Lily walked closer and raised both arms.

“Up.”

I lifted her.

She curled herself around me.

For a moment, everything inside me gave way.

Her little body felt warm and solid.

Real.

Whatever mysteries surrounded her birth, whatever Caleb had concealed, whatever Elena had feared, Lily remained Lily.

Mine.

She rested her cheek against my shoulder.

Leo stayed beside the doorway.

His focus wasn’t on me.

It was on his father.

Dominic noticed.

“What is it?” he asked.

Leo tightened his hold around the stuffed lion.

“Is Lily going home?”

Dominic looked toward me.

“I don’t know yet.”

Leo’s expression dropped.

Then Lily leaned back in my arms.

“I can sleep here.”

I nearly laughed.

Dominic blinked.

“You can?”

“Yes.”

She pointed seriously toward Leo.

“Big brother gets scared.”

Leo flushed red.

“I do not.”

“You did yesterday.”

“I did not.”

“You came in my room.”

“I was checking.”

“For monsters?”

Leo looked horrified.

Dominic’s attention moved to his son.

“Monsters?”

“There are none,” Leo said quickly.

Lily nodded.

“I told him.”

“And how did you know?” Dominic asked.

Lily gave him the patient expression children reserve for adults who obviously fail to understand something simple.

“Because I checked under the bed.”

Dominic’s mouth twitched again.

Then Leo said something that made it disappear.

“Mom used to check.”

Silence.

Dominic became motionless.

Leo looked toward the floor.

“She checked the closet too.”

I felt Lily’s fingers tighten around my shirt.

Leo continued quietly.

“I forgot that until Lily did it.”

Dominic looked as though the memory had struck somewhere deep.

“Leo.”

“I remember her blanket.”

His voice shook.

“The yellow one.”

Dominic moved closer.

Leo stepped backward half a step.

It was subtle.

Almost nothing.

But Dominic noticed.

So did I.

He stopped at once.

The emotion that passed across his face felt so personal that I turned away.

Then Lily squirmed free from my arms.

I lowered her down.

She walked directly to Leo, grabbed his hand, and then, apparently deciding the adults were making everything unnecessarily difficult, pulled him toward Dominic.

Leo resisted.

Lily continued tugging.

“Come.”

“Lily.”

“Come.”

“I don’t want to.”

She looked up at him.

“Your daddy is sad too.”

My chest tightened.

Dominic froze.

Leo slowly lifted his eyes.

Father and son stared at each other.

Neither seemed to know what to do.

It was Lily who solved that problem too.

She took Dominic’s hand.

Then Leo’s.

Then she brought their hands together.

“There.”

Dominic looked down at their connected hands.

Leo’s fingers remained tense inside his father’s palm.

“Leo,” Dominic said quietly.

The boy swallowed hard.

“I remember Mom laughing.”

Dominic shut his eyes.

“I know.”

“I made her run.”

The words were almost a whisper.

Dominic opened his eyes.

“No.”

Leo’s lip quivered.

“I did.”

“No.”

“She was chasing me.”

“Leo.”

“You said I had to stop running outside.”

Dominic’s expression shifted.

Something deeply pa!nful crossed his face.

Understanding.

Leo withdrew his hand.

“You said I had to be careful all the time.”

Dominic looked heartbroken.

“Because I was afraid.”

“You don’t get scared.”

“Yes.”

The response came immediately.

Leo stared at him.

Dominic lowered himself until their eyes were level.

“I get scared every day.”

Leo frowned slightly.

“Of what?”

Dominic studied his son for a long moment.

“Losing you.”

Everything around them became quiet.

Leo’s lower lip trembled.

Dominic went on.

“After your mother d!ed, I thought if I controlled everything around you, nothing else could happen.”

His gaze traveled across the immaculate kitchen.

The countertops. The carefully positioned chairs.

The room that, until the previous day, had barely seemed like a child actually lived there.

“I thought quiet meant safe.”

Leo whispered, “You don’t like when I’m loud.”

“I was wrong.”

The admission appeared difficult for Dominic.

Still, he said it.

“You were never the reason your mother died.”

Leo’s eyes became watery.

Dominic extended a hand toward him, then paused.

He left it suspended between them.

Waiting.

It was the first time I had watched Dominic silently ask for permission.

Leo looked at the offered hand.

Then he stepped closer.

Dominic embraced him.

The sound Leo made was quiet and emotional.

He tucked his face against his father’s shoulder.

Dominic held him as though nothing else in the world mattered beyond one frightened six-year-old boy.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” he whispered.

Leo held tightly to him.

“Then why did she d!e?”

Dominic closed his eyes.

“Because somebody made a terrible choice.”

“Who?”

Dominic’s embrace tightened.

I could see the answer he wanted to provide.

I could also see him reconsider.

“I’m still trying to understand that.”

Leo’s tears came faster.

“I miss her.”

“So do I.”

“You never talk about her.”

“I know.”

“Why?”

Dominic rested his cheek against his son’s hair.

“Because every time I said her name, it hurt.”

Leo leaned back.

“It hurts me too.”

Dominic nodded.

“Then maybe we stop hurting alone.”

I turned my gaze away.

Not because I wanted to leave them their privacy.

Because my own eyes had started stinging.

Lily climbed onto one of the chairs, apparently pleased with what she had accomplished.

“Can we have cookies now?”

Leo made a damp, startled sound that quickly became laughter.

Dominic looked at him.

Then he laughed as well.

It was soft.

Unpracticed. Almost unfamiliar. But unmistakably there.

And something within that enormous house changed.

Not repaired. Not completely healed.

But opened.

After a moment, Dominic stood.

His hand stayed resting on Leo’s shoulder.

“You and Lily can watch one movie.”

Leo glanced upward.

“Two?”

“One.”

“Dad.”

“One.”

Lily lifted one finger.

“Two.”

Dominic turned toward her.

She met his stare.

“One,” he repeated.

“Two little ones.”

I covered my mouth.

Leo smiled broadly.

Dominic exhaled.

“One movie and fifteen minutes of another.”

Lily thought about the proposal.

“Deal.”

She extended her hand.

Dominic looked down at it.

Then, with all the seriousness of a man finalizing an international agreement, he shook her hand.

“Deal.”

The children hurried toward the family room.

Dominic watched them leave.

For the first time, Leo didn’t reduce his pace because his father was looking.

He ran freely.

Dominic saw that too.

For a moment, his eyes closed.

Then he faced me.

“They stay.”

This time, it sounded slightly less like an order.

I crossed my arms.

“For tonight.”

“For tonight.”

“And tomorrow, you tell me everything you know.”

His expression immediately sharpened.

“I’ve already told you—”

“No.”

I moved closer.

“You told me Elena was your wife. You told me she d!ed. You told me someone may have been watching Leo.”

I gestured toward the recorder.

“You did not tell me why your dead wife knew my name. You did not tell me why your brother is involved. You did not tell me why the man who fathered my child was standing close enough to Elena to be recorded.”

Dominic’s expression hardened.

“You assume I know.”

“I assume you know more than I do.”

“That is not the same thing.”

“No. But I spent three years raising Lily alone while someone out there apparently knew more about my life than I did.”

I lowered my voice.

“I’m done being the last person in the room to understand what’s happening.”

Dominic regarded me silently.

Finally, he nodded.

“Tomorrow morning.”

“Tonight.”

“Isabella.”

“Tonight.”

His gaze shifted briefly toward the family room.

The children’s laughter drifted through the hallway.

Dominic spoke more quietly.

“Some of what I know may change how you see Caleb.”

I swallowed hard.

“He already disappeared while I was pregnant.”

“It could make that easier to understand.”

Something inside me tightened.

“Or harder?”

Dominic offered no response.

That silence told me enough.

An hour later, Leo and Lily had fallen asleep beside each other on the family room couch.

The movie continued playing.

Lily rested her head against Leo’s shoulder.

Leo had wrapped one protective arm around her, although his stuffed lion remained caught beneath his elbow.

Dominic stood quietly in the doorway.

I studied his expressions while he watched them.

“Leo hasn’t slept in a room without the lights on since Elena died,” he said.

I looked toward the dim family room.

Only the television provided a gentle glow.

“He feels safe with her.”

Dominic nodded.

Then he guided me toward his study.

I had been inside that room countless times to wipe down shelves or retrieve empty coffee cups.

Now it seemed completely different.

Dominic unlocked a drawer behind his desk.

A thick folder rested inside.

He set it down before me.

“Elena started looking for you two months before she died.”

I opened the folder.

My own face looked back at me.

An old photograph from college.

Another taken outside a grocery store. Another captured near a bus stop.

I instinctively leaned back.

“What is this?”

“She hired someone.”

“To follow me?”

“To find you.”

I began examining the documents.

My home address.

My mother’s maiden name.

A copy of my academic records.

My stomach tightened uneasily.

“Why?”

Dominic sat opposite me.

“Elena’s mother left when Elena was eleven.”

“My mother.”

“Yes.”

I stared across at him.

“She never told me.”

“Elena didn’t know about you until after your mother died.”

“How?”

“Your mother contacted her.”

My fingers stopped moving.

“What?”

Dominic reached into the folder and pulled out a letter.

It had been folded twice.

Elena’s name appeared across the envelope.

The handwriting made my heart seem to stop.

I recognized it instantly.

Birthday cards.

Shopping lists.

Small notes slipped into my lunch when I was young.

My mother.

I opened the letter.

Dear Elena,

There is no way to ask forgiveness for missing most of your life.

There is only truth, and I should have given you that years ago.

You have a sister.

Her name is Isabella.

She does not know about you.

Please do not blame her for my silence.

If you ever choose to find her, tell her I was afraid, not ashamed.

My vision became unfocused.

I paused in my reading.

Dominic remained silent.

I made myself continue.

The letter was relatively brief.

My mother explained that she had been very young when she gave birth to Elena.

That Elena’s father came from an influential family who had threatened to pursue custody if she ever came back.

That eventually fear turned into routine.

Then guilt. Then so many years had gone by.

The final line shattered me.

You girls were the two best things I ever did, and my greatest failure was making sure neither of you knew the other existed.

I lowered the letter.

For years, grief had reduced my mother to simple memories.

She had been loving.

Headstrong. Funny. Awful with money. Completely obsessed with old musicals.

Mine.

Now, without warning, there was an entire life she had lived before me.

Another daughter before me.

Another source of regret before me.

“Did Elena read this?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Six months before she died.”

“And she waited four months to look for me?”

“She didn’t.”

I frowned.

Dominic settled back in his chair.

“She started searching immediately. But your records were difficult to trace because you had moved twice and changed jobs.”

“Then what happened two months before she died?”

“That’s when she found you.”

I looked at the photograph of myself.

“Why didn’t she contact me?”

“She planned to.”

“Planned?”

Dominic said nothing.

My stomach dropped.

“Caleb.”

His jaw tensed.

“Yes.”

I shoved the folder away from me.

“No.”

“Isabella—”

“No.”

I got to my feet.

The room seemed to shift around me.

Dominic stood as well, though he kept his distance.

“What did he have to do with her?”

“Elena recognized him in one of the photographs.”

“What photograph?”

Dominic slowly rotated the folder toward himself.

He removed a photograph.

Me.

Pregnant.

Walking across a park.

Caleb beside me.

One hand resting against my back.

I had almost forgotten that day.

I had been five months pregnant.

That was the afternoon he bought Lily her first stuffed rabbit.

I remembered joking with him because the rabbit was almost the size of a newborn baby.

He had kissed me on the forehead.

Promised he would put the crib together that weekend.

Two months afterward, he disappeared.

“Elena knew him?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“How?”

Dominic paused.

“Caleb worked for me.”

I could do nothing except stare at him.

It felt as though the ground had vanished beneath me.

“No.”

“For nearly five years.”

“No.”

“He wasn’t part of my public businesses.”

“I said no.”

“He handled security.”

“Stop.”

“He was good at finding information without being seen.”

I brought both palms down against the desk.

“Stop telling me this like we’re discussing an employee.”

Dominic went quiet.

The only thing I could hear was my own breathing.

“He told me he repaired alarm systems.”

“In a way, that was true.”

A bitter laugh escaped me.

“Wonderful. At least one sentence wasn’t a lie.”

Dominic’s expression became firm.

“I don’t think everything he told you was a lie.”

“You don’t get to defend him.”

“I’m not.”

“It sounds like it.”

“I’m trying to tell you that Caleb disappearing may have been connected to keeping you alive.”

Everything became silent.

My breath caught.

“What?”

Dominic glanced toward the study door, seemingly checking that it remained shut.

“Two weeks before he left you, Caleb came to Elena and told her someone had accessed the file she had created on you.”

“What file?”

“Everything she had found.”

“Who accessed it?”

“He didn’t know.”

“And then?”

“Elena asked him to move you somewhere safe.”

My hands suddenly felt cold.

“Did he?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because he said taking you suddenly would confirm to whoever was watching that you mattered.”

My voice dropped to a whisper.

“So he abandoned me instead?”

“I don’t know.”

“You just said—”

“I know what Elena told me.”

Dominic’s tone sharpened.

“She said Caleb believed disappearing from your life would make it look as though you were unimportant to him.”

I stared across at him.

“That makes no sense.”

“I agree.”

“And Lily?”

Dominic remained silent.

My heartbeat quickened again.

“Why would he say you could never know she was his?”

“That is the question I have been asking since we heard the recording.”

I studied him.

There was something in his expression that made me pause.

“You really don’t know.”

“No.”

For the first time that evening, I believed him without reservation.

Dominic turned toward the bookshelves behind the desk.

“Elena kept secrets from me at the end.”

“Why?”

“I thought she was protecting Leo.”

“From Matteo?”

Dominic’s gaze grew distant.

“Perhaps.”

“Do you believe your brother killed her?”

His expression became cold.

“I believe Matteo has lied to me.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“No.”

The response caught me by surprise.

Dominic faced me again.

“I don’t believe Matteo killed Elena.”

“Then why would she warn me not to trust him?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where is he now?”

Dominic’s silence lingered.

My stomach tightened.

“Dominic.”

“In Boston.”

I stared at him.

“You’ve known that all evening?”

“Yes.”

“And you haven’t called him?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because if Matteo knows that recorder exists, I want him to believe we haven’t found it.”

I glanced toward the doorway.

“Is he d@ngerous?”

Dominic waited too long before answering.

“To Lily?”

Another silence.

Then, softly, “I don’t know.”

I moved backward.

Dominic immediately lifted both hands.

“Isabella.”

“I’m taking her and leaving.”

“No.”

“You just told me you don’t know whether your brother is dangerous to my daughter.”

“And leaving makes you easier to find.”

“I don’t care.”

“I do.”

“Why?”

The question burst from me.

“Why do you care?”

Dominic looked directly at me.

I regretted asking almost immediately.

Not because the question lacked fairness.

Because I already understood his answer before he gave it.

His gaze moved toward the family room.

“Because Elena wanted to find you.”

His voice shifted.

“And I failed her.”

I stayed silent.

“I knew she was searching for her sister. I knew she thought she had found you. I told her to wait.”

His jaw became tense.

“I said we had enough problems. I said bringing someone new into our lives was dangerous.”

His gaze lowered.

“She told me family wasn’t something you postponed until it became convenient.”

The words hung heavily in the room.

“Three weeks later, she d!ed.”

I watched Dominic work to keep his voice controlled.

“So yes. I care.”

He met my eyes.

“I care because Elena would have wanted you safe.”

His attention shifted toward the doorway.

“And because my son looked happy yesterday for the first time in three years.”

I had no response.

Dominic offered a smile without any real humor.

“And apparently your daughter has decided she runs this house.”

In spite of everything, I laughed.

Quiet. Tired. Genuine.

“She does that.”

“I noticed.”

I lowered myself into the chair again.

Dominic followed.

For several minutes, silence remained between us.

Then I asked, “Was Caleb a bad man?”

Dominic thought carefully before responding.

“No.”

“Was he a good man?”

Another brief pause.

“Sometimes.”

“That isn’t comforting.”

“It shouldn’t be.”

I looked again at the photograph of Caleb beside me.

He appeared completely ordinary in it.

So young. So content.

Perhaps I had been naive.

Or perhaps the hardest secrets to recognize were those concealed inside perfectly ordinary moments.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

Dominic clasped his hands together.

“Tomorrow, we will find out who altered your staffing records.”

“You said Matteo was one of only four people who knew Elena was looking for me.”

“Yes.”

“But that doesn’t mean he sent me here.”

“No.”

“Who were the other two?”

Dominic looked directly at me.

“Elena’s investigator.”

“And?”

“Caleb.”

I stared at him.

“You said two were de:ad.”

“Yes.”

My throat tightened.

“You think Caleb is de:ad.”

Something shifted in Dominic’s expression.

“Isabella.”

I rose so abruptly that the chair dragged across the floor behind me.

“You said two were de:ad.”

“I was told Caleb d!ed.”

My entire world seemed to contract until only Dominic’s face remained.

“When?”

“Three years ago.”

“No.”

“Four months after Elena.”

“No.”

“He was in a car recovered near Providence.”

“No.”

“The identification—”

“No.”

I pressed my hands over my ears.

Childish. Useless.

But I couldn’t listen anymore.

Dominic walked around the desk.

He stopped a few feet from me.

“Isabella.”

I dropped my hands.

Tears were already running down my cheeks before I even realized they had started.

“You knew?”

“No.”

“You knew he was Lily’s father.”

“Not until tonight.”

“But you knew Caleb was dead.”

“I believed he was.”

I stared at him.

“Believed?”

Dominic’s gaze sharpened.

“That is the important word.”

My heart pounded.

“What does that mean?”

“I never saw the body.”

I wiped the tears from my cheeks.

“The report said identification was made through personal effects and dental records.”

“And you accepted that?”

“At the time, yes.”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

“Because Caleb had betrayed my trust before disappearing.”

My heartbeat quickened.

“How?”

Dominic glanced toward the recorder resting on the desk.

“He stole files from me.”

“What files?”

“I never knew.”

“Elena’s?”

“Possibly.”

“About me?”

“Possibly.”

“About Lily?”

His silence gave me the answer.

Nausea twisted through me.

Dominic crossed to a cabinet in the corner and filled a glass with water.

He offered it to me.

My hands trembled too much to keep the glass steady.

His fingers stayed beneath it until I had a secure grip.

Only then did he move back.

“I want to show you something,” he said.

He opened his laptop.

Entered a password.

Then accessed an archived security file.

A grainy black-and-white photograph filled the screen.

A man was standing outside the gates of the Moretti estate.

The picture lacked clarity.

It had been captured at night.

Still, my heart seemed to stop.

“That’s Caleb.”

Dominic nodded.

The date displayed in the corner was three days before Elena died.

Caleb faced the camera.

His expression looked tense.

A baseball cap cast a shadow across his eyes.

He carried an envelope in one hand.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He left this for Elena.”

Dominic brought up another image.

A photograph showing a sealed envelope.

Three words had been written across the front.

FOR YOUR SISTER.

A chill moved over my skin.

“What was inside?”

“It disappeared from Elena’s desk after she d!ed.”

“Who had access?”

“Me. House staff. Security.”

“Matteo?”

“Yes.”

I shut my eyes.

Every explanation seemed to create two new mysteries.

“Why would Caleb leave something for me with a woman I didn’t know existed?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why wouldn’t Elena give it to me?”

“She died three days later.”

I kept staring at the photograph.

Then one detail caught my eye.

“Wait.”

I moved closer to the screen.

“What?”

“His wrist.”

Dominic enlarged the photograph.

Caleb had a watch around his wrist.

Plain.

Dark leather band.

Silver face.

“What about it?”

“He hated watches.”

Dominic looked toward me.

“He said they made him feel trapped.”

Dominic turned his attention back to the screen.

“So?”

“So I bought him one for his birthday once and he returned it.”

I leaned even closer.

“That isn’t his.”

Dominic enlarged the picture once more.

The image became increasingly pixelated.

But a tiny marking seemed to be engraved into the metal.

Dominic suddenly became motionless.

“What?”

He increased the magnification.

His expression shifted.

I turned toward him.

“What is it?”

Dominic gave no answer.

He stood and crossed to a drawer.

He removed another photograph.

Elena.

She stood beside Matteo at what appeared to be a formal gathering.

Matteo seemed younger than Dominic, sharing the same dark hair and defined features, though his smile appeared more relaxed.

Dominic indicated Matteo’s wrist.

The identical watch.

My breath caught.

“That’s Matteo’s.”

“Yes.”

“Why was Caleb wearing it?”

“I don’t know.”

A noise came from the hallway.

Dominic immediately closed the laptop.

The study door swung open.

Leo stood in the doorway.

His hair was messy from sleeping.

“Dad?”

Dominic’s posture instantly softened.

“What happened?”

“Lily’s gone.”

I was already standing before Leo completed the sentence.

“What?”

“She was next to me and now she isn’t.”

I hurried into the hallway.

“Lily?”

Nothing.

Dominic was already in motion.

Not losing control.

Searching methodically.

We checked the downstairs bathroom.

Kitchen. Dining room. Library.

Each time, I called her name more loudly.

“Lily!”

Then we heard laughter.

From outside.

Cold fear swept through me.

Dominic reached the back door ahead of me.

The garden lights glowed across the patio.

Lily stood in the center wearing Leo’s oversized shirt without any shoes.

A man was crouched in front of her.

Tall.

Dark coat. Dark hair.

For one terrifying moment, I thought—

Caleb.

Then the stranger rose.

Dominic stopped next to me.

His entire expression transformed.

Not anger. Not fear.

Something deeper. Something w0unded by history.

“Matteo.”

The man smiled.

His resemblance to Dominic made an introduction unnecessary.

Lily turned around.

“Mommy!”

I rushed toward her.

I swept her into my arms.

“What are you doing outside?”

“Uncle Matt found my bunny.”

Every muscle in my body tightened.

“What did you call him?”

Lily pointed toward the man.

“Uncle Matt.”

Dominic’s voice dropped to an unsettling calm.

“Get inside, Isabella.”

Matteo lifted one hand.

“Dom.”

“Inside.”

“Listen to me.”

Dominic moved between us.

Leo appeared at the doorway.

“Uncle Matteo?”

Matteo’s expression softened.

“Hey, buddy.”

Leo paused uncertainly.

Dominic glanced over his shoulder.

“Leo, go inside with Isabella.”

Leo listened.

I reached for his hand.

But just before stepping through the doorway, I heard Matteo call to me.

“Isabella.”

I turned around.

Dominic remained facing forward.

Matteo slowly reached inside his coat.

Dominic immediately tensed.

“Careful.”

Matteo froze.

“Relax.”

He pulled out a small stuffed rabbit.

Old.

Well-worn.

One ear folded over.

My legs nearly failed me.

Lily gasped.

“My bunny!”

It was the same rabbit Caleb had purchased on the day the photograph in the park had been taken.

The rabbit that had vanished when Lily was still an infant.

I had always assumed we had misplaced it during one of our moves.

I stared directly at Matteo.

“Where did you get that?”

He met my eyes.

“Caleb gave it to me.”

The night seemed to freeze around us.

Dominic turned toward him.

“When?”

Matteo’s expression shifted.

“Three days ago.”

Nobody spoke.

Beside me, I heard Leo inhale sharply.

Dominic stepped toward his brother.

“That’s impossible.”

Matteo held his gaze.

“No.”

Then he looked toward me again.

“Caleb is alive.”

The ground beneath me suddenly felt unstable.

Lily reached toward the stuffed rabbit.

I remained frozen.

“Where?” I whispered.

Matteo swallowed.

“That’s why I came.”

Dominic’s voice turned cold.

“You came through my garden instead of calling?”

“I couldn’t call.”

“Why?”

“Because your phones are being monitored.”

Dominic became completely still.

“By whom?”

Matteo glanced back at the house.

Then into the darkness stretching beyond the garden.

“Not here.”

Dominic gave a short, humorless laugh.

“You think I’m walking somewhere alone with you after Elena left a recording telling Isabella not to trust you?”

The color drained from Matteo’s face.

“She found the recorder?”

“You knew about it.”

“I knew Elena made one.”

Dominic stepped nearer.

“And you never told me.”

“I couldn’t.”

“You could have told me at her funeral.”

“No.”

“You could have told me at any point in the last three years.”

“No, Dominic.”

“Why?”

Matteo’s gaze shifted toward Leo.

Whatever response he had intended to give never left his mouth.

Dominic followed the direction of his eyes.

His expression changed immediately.

“Is this about my son?”

Matteo shook his head.

“Get the children inside.”

“Tell me.”

“Dominic.”

“Tell me!”

Leo recoiled slightly.

Dominic noticed.

At once, he softened his voice.

That small decision meant more than anything else.

The Dominic I had first known would have continued.

This Dominic looked at his son and remembered what he had just promised.

He lowered himself into a crouch.

“Leo.”

Leo regarded him cautiously.

“Take Lily to the movie room.”

“But—”

“Please.”

That single word caught all of us by surprise.

Leo nodded.

Lily complained as I lowered her to the ground.

“I want bunny.”

I glanced toward Matteo.

He extended the stuffed rabbit in my direction.

Dominic intercepted him.

“I’ll take it.”

Matteo gave it to him.

Dominic handed the rabbit to Lily.

She immediately wrapped both arms around it.

Then Leo reached for her hand.

“Come on.”

“Can we finish the movie?”

“Yeah.”

“Two movies?”

Leo glanced toward his father.

Dominic released a tired sigh.

“Tonight, yes.”

Lily smiled victoriously.

The two children went back inside.

Dominic waited for the door to shut behind them.

Then he turned toward Matteo.

“Talk.”

Matteo let out a long breath.

“Elena believed someone inside your organization was feeding information to an outside group.”

“Who?”

“She didn’t know.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“She suspected me.”

Dominic’s expression hardened.

“I noticed.”

“She was supposed to.”

I stared at Matteo.

“What does that mean?”

Matteo turned toward me.

“Elena and Caleb needed someone to appear guilty.”

A chill moved across my skin.

“Why?”

“Because if whoever was watching them believed I was the thre:at, they might stop looking for the real problem.”

Dominic stared directly at his brother.

“You let my wife believe you betrayed her?”

“No.”

Matteo’s voice faltered.

“She knew.”

Dominic’s anger disappeared instantly.

“What?”

“She wrote that message about me intentionally.”

Cold spread through me.

The recording.

If anything happens to me, Isabella must never trust Matteo.

“You’re saying she lied?” I asked.

“No.”

Matteo dragged both hands over his face.

“She was giving you instructions.”

“Instructions to distrust you.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because she knew Dominic would do exactly what he did tonight.”

Dominic narrowed his eyes.

“What did I do?”

“You didn’t call me.”

Nobody spoke.

Matteo nodded once.

“You found something with my name connected to it, and instead of warning me, you watched.”

Something shifted in Dominic’s expression.

Matteo continued speaking.

“If someone is listening to your calls, they still believe you suspect me.”

My heartbeat accelerated.

“So whoever is actually involved doesn’t know we found the recording.”

“Exactly.”

Dominic continued staring at his brother.

“Then why are you here?”

“Because Caleb surfaced.”

I stepped closer.

“Where is he?”

Matteo met my gaze.

“For three years, I thought he was dead too.”

“But he isn’t.”

“No.”

“Where is he?”

“He contacted me in person.”

“When?”

“Three days ago.”

“You said that.”

My voice trembled.

“Where is he now?”

“I don’t know.”

Anger surged through me.

“You don’t know?”

“He disappeared again.”

“Of course he did.”

“Isabella—”

“No.”

I moved another step toward him.

“You don’t get to say my name like you know me. You don’t get to appear in a garden holding my daughter’s toy and tell me the man who abandoned us is alive, then say you don’t know where he is.”

Matteo accepted my anger without trying to defend himself.

Somehow, that made me even angrier.

“Did he ask about Lily?” I demanded.

“Yes.”

My throat tightened.

“What did he say?”

Matteo reached inside his coat once more.

This time, Dominic allowed him to continue.

He pulled out a folded sheet of paper.

“He told me to give this to you only if I believed the house was compromised.”

Dominic’s gaze sharpened immediately.

“You believed it was.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Matteo handed the paper to me.

“Because when I came through the east garden gate tonight, it was already unlocked.”

Dominic became completely motionless.

I turned my attention toward the house.

Suddenly, every illuminated window seemed unfamiliar.

Every pane of glass. Every shadow behind it.

Someone had opened that gate.

Could it have been someone inside?

My fingers shook while I unfolded Caleb’s note.

Only six lines were written there.

Isabella,

I know you have every reason to hate me. I did not leave because I stopped loving you. I left because Lily was never supposed to exist in their records.

If Dominic learns the truth too soon, they will come for both children.

Do not trust the story about Elena’s death.

And whatever happens do not let Dominic open the blue room.

I read the message twice.

Then once more.

Dominic spoke beside me.

“What blue room?”

I turned toward him.

“You tell me.”

All the color had vanished from his face.

Because he recognized the reference.

I understood immediately.

“There is one,” I whispered.

Dominic remained silent.

“Where?”

Matteo looked directly at his brother.

“Dom.”

Dominic raised his gaze toward the house’s second floor.

His attention settled on one unlit window in the east wing.

The same wing I had been instructed never required cleaning.

The same corridor that remained permanently locked.

Then a memory returned.

My first week working at Moretti House.

Mrs. Carver, the elderly house manager, removed the ring of keys from my hand.

Not that one, dear.

Mr. Moretti keeps the east wing closed.

At the time, I had never thought to question it.

I stared at Dominic.

“What’s in there?”

For several seconds, he seemed incapable of answering.

Then Leo screamed.

“Dad!”

We rushed inside.

Dominic reached the staircase ahead of everyone else.

Leo stood halfway down the steps, his face pale and his body trembling.

Lily held tightly to his hand.

“Someone’s upstairs.”

Dominic stopped.

“What?”

Leo pointed toward the eastern hallway.

“I heard the door.”

Every adult standing in the foyer became silent.

Then, faintly, somewhere above us—

creak.

A door slowly swung open.

Dominic turned toward Matteo.

Matteo looked back at Dominic.

For a single moment, every trace of distrust between the two brothers disappeared.

Both brothers understood the same reality.

The east wing should have been securely locked.

Dominic started toward the staircase.

I caught his arm.

“The children.”

He stopped immediately.

Those two words pulled his attention back.

He looked toward Leo.

Then toward Lily.

He lowered himself to their level.

“Leo, take Lily into the study.”

Leo’s eyes grew wide.

“What about you?”

“I’ll be right behind you.”

“You promise?”

Dominic paused.

Then he met his son’s eyes directly.

“I promise I will do everything I can to come back to you.”

It wasn’t the easy reassurance adults sometimes offer children when they cannot guarantee the outcome.

It was better than that.

A promise he genuinely intended to honor.

Leo nodded.

I guided both children toward the study.

Lily held the stuffed rabbit tightly against her chest.

Halfway across the room, she suddenly stopped.

“Mommy.”

“What?”

“Bunny is hard.”

I almost missed what she said.

“What?”

She pressed her fingers against the stuffed rabbit.

“There’s something in him.”

I took the toy from her hands.

The rabbit had always felt completely soft.

But underneath the worn fabric covering its stomach, my fingers found something solid.

Rectangular.

Dominic noticed my reaction.

“Bring it.”

We hurried into the study.

Matteo secured the door behind us.

Dominic opened a desk drawer and removed a small pair of scissors.

I stared at him.

“Why do you keep scissors in a locked desk?”

He glanced at me.

“Not important.”

Even Matteo nearly smiled at that.

Dominic carefully cut open one of the seams along the rabbit’s back.

Lily gasped.

“You hurt him!”

“I’ll fix it,” I promised.

Dominic slipped his fingers inside.

They closed around an object.

He pulled out a small brass key.

Old-fashioned.

A narrow strand of blue thread had been tied around its neck.

Nobody said anything.

Dominic stared down at the key.

Matteo whispered, “No.”

“What?” I asked.

Dominic raised his eyes toward the ceiling.

Toward the sealed east wing above us.

“The blue room.”

A chill moved across my skin.

“The key opens it?”

Dominic slowly nodded.

“How do you know?”

His expression became impossible to read.

“Because Elena kept this key around her neck.”

I looked back at the stuffed rabbit.

The toy Caleb had purchased for our daughter before she was even born.

The same toy that had somehow traveled from Caleb to Matteo.

And inside it had been concealed a key that once belonged to my late half-sister.

Leo remained beside his father.

“Dad?”

Dominic lowered his gaze.

“What’s in the blue room?”

Dominic closed his fingers around the key.

For the first time since I had met him, I could clearly see fear in his expression.

“I don’t know.”

Matteo stared at his brother.

“You never went inside?”

“No.”

“Not after Elena d!ed?”

Dominic shook his head.

“Why?”

Dominic turned his gaze toward the shadowed hallway outside the study.

“Because Elena made me promise.”

My voice fell to a whisper.

“Promise what?”

He looked directly at me.

“That I would never open that door unless her sister came home.”

My breath caught.

From somewhere upstairs, another floorboard creaked.

Then we heard three deliberate knocks.

Not from the front entrance. Not from somewhere outside.

Directly above us.

From inside the east wing.

Three knocks.

Silence.

Then three more.

Dominic’s face went pale.

Matteo murmured something I couldn’t make out.

I turned toward him.

“What?”

He looked at me.

“Elena used to knock like that when we were children.”

Everything became silent.

Dominic stared upward.

“Elena was an only child.”

Matteo shut his eyes.

“No.”

When he opened them, grief filled his expression.

“No, Dominic.”

His gaze shifted toward me.

“She wasn’t.”

My heart pounded against my chest.

Before any of us could respond, the old intercom sitting on Dominic’s desk suddenly crackled.

Static filled the study.

Dominic stepped toward the device.

“That system has been disconnected for years.”

The static kept going.

Then a woman’s voice emerged through the speaker.

Faint. Distorted. Yet unmistakably human.

“Isabella?”

I forgot how to breathe.

Dominic tightened his grip around the blue key.

The woman’s voice came through once more.

“Isabella, if you can hear me…”

A wave of static covered whatever followed.

Then—

“Please don’t let Dominic come upstairs.”

Dominic became completely motionless.

All the color disappeared from Matteo’s face.

And standing beside me, Leo whispered the words that sent a chill through the entire room.

“That’s my mom.”