Chapter 5 - The Piano Room
The words did exactly what they were meant to do.
For half a second, Dominic forgot the room, the gunfire, the men on the stairs, even the brother he had spent two years mourning.
He saw only Lily.
Then training took over.
He pulled his phone out and called Teresa.
She answered immediately.
Behind her voice he heard a cartoon playing.
Then Lily laughing.
“Put her on,” Dominic said.
A moment later:
“Mr. Dominic?”
His lungs worked again.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. Miss Teresa made pancakes shaped like Italy, but one looked like a sock.”
Dominic looked at Anna.
“She’s safe.”
Anna sagged against the wall.
The attacker had lied.
Michael found an old storm tunnel beneath the lodge.
They escaped while Carlo’s men drove the attackers away.
In one abandoned vehicle, they found a Bellamy Foundation parking permit.
Victor was no longer pretending.
By ten that morning, they reached Evanston.
Noah’s grandmother’s music store had been closed for years.
CARTER & SON MUSIC still hung above the narrow storefront.
Inside, dust covered old instruments.
Anna moved through the shop slowly, touching familiar counters and remembering the woman she had been before Noah disappeared.
The basement staircase groaned.
At the bottom stood six upright pianos and a wall of antique cabinets.
One cabinet had a tiny red heart painted inside its keyhole.
Anna’s hand shook.
The brass key turned smoothly.
Inside was not money.
Not a weapon.
There was a cheap digital recorder wrapped in plastic, a black flash drive, and a photograph of Lily at two years old sitting on Noah’s shoulders.
Anna covered her mouth.
She pressed the recorder’s button.
Static filled the basement.
Then Noah’s voice spoke.
“Anna, if you’re hearing this, I was right to be scared.”
Anna stopped breathing.
Three years vanished.
“I’m sorry,” Noah continued. “I should have told you sooner. I thought keeping you out of it would keep you safe.”
He explained that Bellamy Foundation vehicles had been used to move money, stolen pharmaceuticals, and illegal cash through Moretti businesses without Dominic’s knowledge.
Victor had created the system years earlier.
Michael discovered accounting discrepancies.
Noah, as a driver, noticed routes that did not match manifests.
They compared notes.
Then they realized Victor was building his own criminal network beneath the Moretti name.
“He’s not stealing from Dominic anymore,” Noah said. “He’s building something to replace him.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
Noah continued.
“If something happens to Michael, assume Victor moved first. If something happens to me, don’t trust a body unless Anna sees my face.”
Anna pressed a fist against her lips.
Then came the detail they needed.
“Victor has help inside Saint Vincent Neurological Center in Wisconsin. Dr. Aaron Preston. Michael thinks Victor keeps people there when he needs them to disappear without killing them.”
Anna looked at Michael.
“The clinic in your photograph.”
He nodded.
Noah’s voice softened.
“Anna, if I don’t come home, tell Lily I loved being her dad more than I ever loved being anything else.”
Anna broke.
She folded forward, grief coming out of her in one terrible silent wave.
Dominic stepped toward her, then stopped.
He did not know whether he had the right.
Anna reached blindly.
Her fingers found his sleeve.
That was permission enough.
Dominic stood beside her while she cried.
When the recording ended, Michael picked up the flash drive.
“This should contain the financial trail.”
Dominic did not take it.
“Give it to Anna.”
Michael looked surprised.
Anna did too.
“Noah trusted her with it,” Dominic said.
For the first time since the ballroom, Anna looked at him without suspicion.
Not trust yet.
But the beginning of it.
Upstairs, Carlo called them.
Victor had reported a theft to police.
Not the flash drive.
He claimed Anna Carter had stolen two hundred thousand dollars from the Bellamy fundraiser.
Security footage had already been sent to authorities showing Anna entering the finance office alone.
“I never went in there,” she said.
“Edited,” Dominic replied.
Carlo looked worse.
“There’s more. An anonymous tip says Dominic kidnapped Anna and her daughter after the gala.”
Anna laughed once in disbelief.
“He turned us into the criminals.”
Michael stared out the dusty window.
“No. He turned Dominic into the distraction.”
“What does that mean?” Anna asked.
Michael held up Noah’s recorder.
“It means Victor doesn’t care anymore if Dominic knows the truth.”
Dominic understood.
“He’s moving Noah.”
Anna’s face went white.
Dominic took out his phone.
“Carlo, get me Evelyn Grant.”
Anna frowned.
“Who?”
“The federal prosecutor who has spent six years trying to put me in prison.”
Michael stared at him.
“You’re calling the government?”
“Yes.”
“Half the things on that drive could bury us too.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Dominic looked toward Anna.
“Because a six-year-old asked to borrow me for five minutes.”
May you like
He took a slow breath.
“And I think I’ve finally figured out what she borrowed me for.”
