Chapter 4 - Twenty-Six Years of LiesDominic immediately called back.
The number was dead.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Norah stood beside him.
“Who was that?”
“My mother.”
“She’s alive?”
“I heard her.”
“That wasn't what I asked.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Yes.”
Norah's eyes burned.
Her grandmother had been alive all these years.
And somebody had hidden her.
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“Then find her.”
Dominic said nothing.
Norah stepped closer.
“You're supposed to be the dangerous one, right?”
His jaw tightened.
“Don't.”
“You've got guns, guards, money, cars, men.”
“I said don't.”
“And yet you can't find your own mother.”
He looked at her.
She expected anger.
Instead, he looked exhausted.
“My mother disappeared because of me.”
Norah stopped.
“What?”
“I was twenty-seven.”
Dominic walked toward the window.
“Victor told me Rosa had stolen something from my father.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
“Why was it important?”
“Because it contained names.”
“Whose names?”
“Judges. Police. politicians. businessmen.”
Norah frowned.
“And?”
“And one more list.”
“What list?”
Dominic turned.
“People the family had killed.”
Norah's stomach tightened.
Victor had wanted the ledger.
Rosa had found it.
Then Rosa disappeared.
Norah suddenly understood.
“She knew.”
Dominic nodded.
“She knew everything.”
“And your father?”
“He wanted the ledger destroyed.”
“Then why did he keep those letters?”
Dominic looked toward Salvatore.
“That is what I intend to find out.”
They searched the study.
Behind books.
Inside drawers.
Under floorboards.
Nothing.
Until Elena appeared.
“I know where Victor keeps copies of everything.”
Dominic turned.
“You never told me.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of Victor?”
Elena nodded.
“Why?”
“He knows where my brother is.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“You told me your brother died.”
Elena swallowed.
“I lied.”
Norah watched her.
There was fear in Elena's eyes.
Not ordinary fear.
The kind people carried when someone had made a threat against the only person they loved.
Dominic's voice softened.
“Where is he?”
“In a place called Saint Agnes.”
“The psychiatric hospital?”
Elena nodded.
“He was a witness.”
“To what?”
Elena looked at Salvatore.
“To Rosa.”
Norah stepped closer.
“What did he see?”
“He saw her being taken.”
“By who?”
“Victor.”
Dominic stared at Elena.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Victor told me the next person who talked would disappear too.”
A crash sounded from upstairs.
Dominic instantly reached for his weapon.
“Stay here.”
He and Frank moved into the corridor.
Norah followed anyway.
At the end of the hall, the library door stood open.
Inside, one of the bookshelves had been pushed aside.
A hidden passage had been exposed.
Dominic stared.
“That wasn't there this morning.”
Norah noticed fresh dirt on the floor.
Someone had been inside recently.
They entered.
The passage descended beneath the mansion.
Stone steps.
Cold air.
An old electric bulb flickered overhead.
At the bottom was a steel door.
No handle.
Only a keypad.
Dominic studied it.
“What could the code be?”
Norah looked at Salvatore's old papers scattered in the nearby room.
Dates.
Numbers.
Names.
Then she noticed something.
Every document that mentioned Rosa contained the same date.
October 17, 2000.
She entered it.
The lock clicked.
The door opened.
Inside was a room preserved like a museum.
A child's crib.
A faded stuffed rabbit.
A tiny white dress.
Photographs.
And a wall covered in handwritten notes.
Norah walked forward.
She touched the crib.
Something about it felt familiar.
Then she saw the wall.
At the top, written in dark red ink, were four words:
SHE WAS NOT THE TARGET.
Underneath was a name.
NORAH GALLAGHER.
Norah stepped back.
Dominic stared.
“No.”
May you like
Then they saw the second line.
THE TARGET WAS DOMINIC.
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