Chapter 2 - Thirteen Missing Minutes
By midnight, the Moretti estate no longer felt like a mansion.
It felt like a locked box full of suspects.
Nobody left without being questioned.
The kitchen staff were moved into the breakfast room. Security guards surrendered their phones. Every employee who had worked Ethan’s birthday party had their movements reconstructed.
I should have taken Lily to our apartment over the garage and locked the door.
Instead, Dominic ordered us moved into the main residence.
“I don’t need special protection,” I told him.
“You are not getting special protection.”
He was standing outside Ethan’s bedroom while Dr. Harris monitored the boy.
“Then what would you call two armed men outside my door?”
“Minimum protection.”
“My daughter accidentally saw something.”
“That makes her the only eyewitness.”
The word eyewitness made my stomach tighten.
“She’s three.”
“Exactly.”
“Dominic—”
He turned toward me.
For six years, I had called him Mr. Moretti.
Using his first name felt strange.
But nearly losing a child changed formalities quickly.
“Someone willing to kill my son will not hesitate because Lily is three.”
I hated him for saying it.
Mostly because he was right.
Behind us, Ethan’s bedroom door opened.
The boy appeared wearing blue pajamas.
“Dad?”
Dominic immediately softened.
“You should be sleeping.”
“I wanted Lily.”
Lily wriggled out of my arms.
“I’m here!”
Ethan smiled.
For a child who had almost been poisoned, he seemed remarkably calm.
Children often understood danger only after adults had finished being terrified for them.
Lily ran toward him.
“I broke your cake.”
“I saw.”
“Sorry.”
“You saved me.”
She looked relieved.
“Can I break tomorrow’s too?”
“No.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Ethan reached for Lily’s hand.
“I have dinosaurs.”
That settled everything.
Within minutes, they were sitting on Ethan’s rug surrounded by plastic dinosaurs while Dominic and I watched from the doorway.
“She treats him normally,” Dominic said.
“He is normal.”
“You know what I mean.”
I did.
Most adults acted differently around Ethan because of his last name.
Employees became nervous.
Guests became excessively polite.
Other children were often coached by their parents before visiting.
Lily did not care that Ethan’s father frightened half of New York.
She cared that Ethan had better dinosaur toys than she did.
Dominic’s security chief approached us.
His name was Paolo Ricci.
He had worked for the Morettis longer than I had.
Broad shoulders. Gray beginning at the temples. Calm voice.
I had always liked him.
“We recovered part of the deleted footage.”
Dominic stepped into the hall.
“Show me.”
Paolo held out a tablet.
The image showed the corridor outside the cold room.
Time stamp: 5:41 p.m.
A server passed.
5:42.
A chef entered carrying trays.
Then static.
At 5:43, the screen jumped to 5:56.
Thirteen minutes gone.
“But we found another camera,” Paolo said.
He switched angles.
The footage came from the service elevator.
At 5:44, the doors opened.
A man stepped out.
Baseball cap.
Dark jacket.
Face turned away.
The left hand remained inside his pocket.
Dominic leaned closer.
“Freeze it.”
Paolo did.
A small portion of the man’s wrist was visible.
Scar tissue.
Burned skin.
Dominic whispered, “Victor.”
“Who is Victor?” I asked.
Neither man answered immediately.
Finally Dominic said, “My cousin.”
I stared at him.
“A guest?”
“He was supposed to be.”
“Supposed to be?”
“He never appeared in the ballroom.”
Paolo looked uncomfortable.
“Security logged his vehicle entering at four eighteen.”
“And leaving?”
“Never recorded.”
The hairs on my arms rose.
“Then he’s still here?”
“We searched his assigned room.”
“Empty?”
Paolo nodded.
Dominic looked toward Ethan’s doorway.
“What would your cousin gain by killing your son?”
Silence.
When Dominic finally spoke, his voice was controlled.
“My father divided certain family holdings before he died. Ethan inherits a voting interest when he turns eighteen.”
“And if Ethan dies?”
“His interest returns to the family trust.”
“Controlled by?”
Dominic looked at me.
“Victor.”
The truth settled heavily between us.
Money.
Power.
Inheritance.
The oldest reasons in the world.
“Why now?”
“Because next month, I’m restructuring the company.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Victor loses access to assets he believes belong to him.”
Paolo said, “We still need proof.”
“I know.”
Dominic’s voice became colder.
“Find him.”
Paolo left.
I returned to the children.
Ethan was explaining something complicated about a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Lily was ignoring the explanation and making two dinosaurs kiss.
Ethan looked offended.
“They fight.”
“They love.”
“They eat each other.”
“Love first.”
I nearly laughed.
Then I noticed something in Lily’s hand.
A small gold object.
“Sweetheart, what is that?”
She held it up.
A cufflink.
Heavy.
Gold.
Engraved with a black letter V.
My pulse jumped.
“Where did you get that?”
“Floor.”
“What floor?”
“The cake room.”
Dominic appeared behind me.
He stared at the cufflink.
“Victor’s.”
The evidence was becoming impossible to dismiss.
Then Paolo’s voice came through Dominic’s radio.
“Boss, Victor’s car is gone.”
Dominic grabbed the device.
“You said there was no exit record.”
“There wasn’t. Someone opened the west service gate manually.”
“Who?”
“We’re pulling logs.”
I looked at Dominic.
Someone inside the estate had helped Victor escape.
Again.
Lily tugged my sleeve.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“The cake man smelled funny.”
Dominic crouched.
“How?”
“Like Grandpa Henry.”
My father had died before Lily was born, so she didn’t mean him.
I realized what she meant.
At the hotel where I occasionally took weekend cleaning work, one older manager wore overpowering cedar cologne.
“Like perfume?”
She nodded.
“Man perfume.”
Dominic exchanged a glance with Paolo.
“Victor wears cedar cologne.”
Another piece.
Then a young security officer hurried down the hallway.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“What?”
“We checked the west gate override.”
“Whose code?”
The officer hesitated.
“Your code.”
Dominic stared.
“My personal code?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible.”
Paolo's expression changed.
“Only two people know it.”
“Me and you.”
The hallway went silent.
Dominic looked slowly at the man he had trusted for sixteen years.
Paolo looked back at him.
May you like
And suddenly the threat was no longer somewhere outside the estate.
It was standing directly between us.
