Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHINGDominic couldn't speak.
His mother.
Eleanor.
The woman whose portrait hung in the center of the mansion.
The woman everyone remembered as gentle.
The woman who had cried when Adrian supposedly died.
The woman who had supported Dominic after the accident.
Her name was now sitting inside a murder conspiracy.
He looked at Adrian.
“Tell me the truth.”
Adrian didn't answer.
“Now.”
Adrian finally nodded.
“Our mother knew everything.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
“She knew about the trust.”
“No.”
“She knew about Lily.”
“No.”
“She knew about Ethan.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Stop.”
Adrian looked at him.
“She also knew our father was alive.”
Dominic felt something break inside him.
“How?”
“She helped him disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because she was afraid.”
“Of Samuel?”
Adrian shook his head.
“Of someone else.”
Dominic stared.
“Who?”
Adrian looked toward the children.
“Your mother was afraid of Lily.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Why would she be afraid of a three-year-old girl?”
“Because Lily's birth exposed the truth.”
“What truth?”
Adrian took a breath.
“Our mother was not my biological mother.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
Adrian continued.
“Neither of us was.”
Dominic couldn't understand.
“Then who was?”
Adrian looked at him.
“The woman in the photograph.”
Lydia.
Dominic remembered the name.
The woman connected to the research.
The woman who had disappeared.
The woman whose face appeared beside Grace.
“Lydia was our mother?”
Adrian nodded.
“Our father took us from her.”
Dominic stared.
“Why?”
“Because she knew about the trust.”
“And Eleanor?”
“She raised us.”
Dominic sat down.
Everything he knew about his childhood was collapsing.
Eleanor had not been his mother.
Victor had not been the father he believed.
And the family business had been built on stolen identities.
Lily sat quietly beside Ethan.
She didn't understand the adult conversation.
But she understood fear.
Ethan held her hand.
“It's okay.”
She nodded.
Dominic watched them.
Then he noticed something around Lily's neck.
A small silver pendant.
He recognized the symbol.
The same symbol was carved into the vault.
“Lily.”
She looked up.
“Where did you get that?”
“My daddy.”
“Can I see it?”
She removed it.
Dominic turned it over.
A tiny compartment opened.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
He unfolded it.
There was a map.
A location marked outside the city.
And beneath it:
Lydia is alive.
Dominic looked at Adrian.
“You said she was dead.”
Adrian shook his head.
“I thought she was.”
Dominic's heart raced.
“If Lydia is alive…”
He looked toward Lily.
“She can tell us everything.”
They traveled to the location before sunrise.
It was an old farmhouse surrounded by trees.
Dominic approached first.
A woman stepped onto the porch.
She looked older.
Her hair was gray.
But her eyes were unmistakable.
Lily ran forward.
“Mommy!”
The woman dropped to her knees.
“Lily.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
Lydia wrapped her arms around the child.
She was crying.
Adrian stood frozen.
“Mom?”
Lydia looked at him.
Then at Dominic.
“My boys.”
Dominic couldn't move.
For the first time in his life, he saw the woman who had given birth to him.
She reached for him.
He finally stepped forward.
She touched his face.
“I waited so long.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Why did you leave?”
“I didn't.”
“Then why?”
“Because they took you.”
“Who?”
“Your father.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because he wanted the trust.”
Lydia looked toward Lily.
“She was born with the original inheritance rights.”
Dominic nodded.
“I know.”
Lydia shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“You don't know the worst part.”
“What?”
“Ethan isn't simply your heir.”
Dominic froze.
Lydia continued:
“He was never supposed to inherit the public trust.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“Then what does he inherit?”
Lydia whispered:
“The original Moretti estate.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“And Lily?”
“Lily inherits the research.”
Dominic stared.
The two children had been born into two different halves of the family legacy.
The fortune.
And the technology.
Whoever controlled both…
would control everything.
Lydia took Dominic's hand.
“That's why they wanted the children.”
“Samuel?”
“No.”
Dominic froze.
“Then who?”
Lydia looked toward the road.
“Samuel is only a servant.”
Dominic's heart sank.
“Whose servant?”
Lydia whispered the name.
“Your father.”
Dominic stared.
Victor was alive.
He had been behind Samuel.
Behind the disappearances.
Behind the attacks.
Behind the manipulation.
Then Lydia said one final sentence.
“Victor is coming for Lily tonight.”
Dominic looked at the child.
“Why?”
Lydia's eyes filled with tears.
“Because he knows what Lily's inheritance really contains.”
“What?”
Lydia looked toward the horizon.
“The location of the Moretti fortune.”
Dominic tightened his grip.
“Where?”
Lydia whispered:
“Inside the old family cemetery.”
Dominic froze.
The cemetery where he had buried his father.
The cemetery where he had buried the man he believed was Victor.
The cemetery that might contain the greatest secret of the Moretti family.
Then a car appeared at the end of the road.
Lydia's face went pale.
“Too late.”
Dominic reached for his weapon.
Adrian moved beside him.
The car stopped.
The rear door opened.
A man stepped out.
Older.
Gray-haired.
But unmistakably familiar.
Dominic stared at him.
His father.
Victor Moretti.
Alive.
Victor looked directly at Dominic.
Then at Lily.
May you like
And smiled.
“It's time you learned what your family really owns.”
