Chapter 2 - The Last Call Elena Made
Dominic did not shout.
That frightened Eleanor more than shouting would have.
He stood in the sitting room with his daughter clinging to Clara and asked his mother the same question again.
“What did you know before Elena’s accident?”
Eleanor recovered quickly.
She always had.
“I knew she was upset.”
“That is not what you said.”
“I misspoke.”
“You said she should have listened to you before she got in the car.”
“She called me.”
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
“When?”
“The afternoon she died.”
His entire body went still.
“You told the police you hadn’t spoken to her that day.”
“I forgot.”
“No.”
One word.
Flat.
Certain.
“You don’t forget calls from a woman who dies three hours later.”
Eleanor’s chin lifted.
“You were grieving.”
“So you lied to protect me?”
“I protected this family.”
There it was.
The phrase Dominic had heard since childhood.
Protect the family.
It explained missing files.
Quiet settlements.
Men who stopped returning calls.
Questions nobody asked twice.
Dominic looked toward Sofia.
The child was watching.
He lowered his voice.
“Clara.”
“Yes?”
“Take her upstairs.”
Sofia grabbed Clara’s shirt.
“No.”
Dominic turned.
The fear on his daughter’s face hit him.
He crouched, careful to remain several feet away.
“You don’t want to go upstairs?”
She shook her head.
“Because of the snake?”
Another nod.
Dominic swallowed.
“Okay.”
He looked at Clara.
“Guest wing?”
Clara nodded.
“I’ll stay with her.”
“Thank you.”
The gratitude sounded unfamiliar in his mouth.
Clara carried Sofia away.
Dominic waited until the hallway was quiet.
Then he turned back to his mother.
“Start talking.”
Eleanor sat.
For the first time in years, she looked old.
“Elena called because she found something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Lie again and you leave this house with police.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You would have your own mother arrested?”
“If my own mother helped cause my wife’s death?”
That landed.
Eleanor looked away.
Dominic felt rage rise.
He pressed it down.
Facts first.
“Who was Elena afraid of?”
Eleanor said nothing.
“Mother.”
“She thought someone was using the foundation.”
“What foundation?”
“The Elena Moretti Children’s Fund.”
Dominic stared.
The foundation had been created after Sofia was born.
It funded pediatric trauma programs.
Elena chaired it until her death.
Afterward Eleanor became interim chair.
Dominic had barely looked at its operations.
He trusted his mother.
The thought made him sick.
“What did she find?”
“Payments.”
“What kind?”
“Consulting.”
“To whom?”
“I didn’t know then.”
“Now?”
Eleanor hesitated.
“Ronan Vale.”
Dominic knew the name.
Former security contractor.
Old associate of his father.
A man Dominic fired five years earlier because he refused to move into legitimate operations.
“What was Ronan doing with Elena’s foundation?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I don’t!”
Her voice finally broke.
Dominic stared.
Eleanor looked frightened.
Not of him.
Of the memory.
“Elena told me she had proof money was being washed through charity invoices. She said Ronan was using the foundation to pay people.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic laughed once.
Bitter.
Eleanor continued.
“She wanted to go to the police.”
“Good.”
“I told her to wait.”
“Why?”
“Because Ronan had people everywhere.”
“And?”
“She refused.”
Of course Elena refused.
Dominic almost smiled through pain.
She had never been good at obeying fear.
“What happened next?”
“She left.”
“For where?”
“To meet someone.”
“Who?”
“I never knew.”
Dominic stared.
“You let her leave knowing she was afraid.”
“She was an adult.”
“And then you told police you never spoke.”
Eleanor looked down.
“I panicked.”
“No. You protected the family.”
She flinched.
Dominic called his attorney.
Then Mara Chen.
Lieutenant Chen had investigated Elena’s crash.
She answered on the third ring.
“Moretti.”
“I need the case reopened.”
Silence.
“That’s not how requests work.”
“My mother lied during the original investigation.”
Longer silence.
“I’m coming.”
Eleanor stood.
“You cannot do this.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Watch me.”
Mara arrived within an hour.
Clara remained with Sofia in a downstairs guest room.
Dominic brought the child’s favorite blanket, stuffed rabbit, and nightlight himself.
Sofia watched him from the bed.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Are you mad at me?”
The question cut through him.
“No.”
“You look mad.”
“I’m mad because someone scared you.”
She thought.
“Grandma?”
“Yes.”
“Will she be mad at me?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Dominic sat on the floor rather than the bed.
“Because she won’t be around you until I know you’re safe.”
Sofia looked at Clara.
“Is Clara staying?”
Dominic looked too.
Clara waited.
He realized he had no right to assume.
“If she wants to.”
Sofia turned to Clara.
“Please?”
Clara smiled.
“I’m staying tonight.”
Sofia relaxed.
Dominic felt something painful and grateful at once.
His daughter trusted Clara more than him in that moment.
He could resent it.
Or learn from it.
He chose the second.
In the library, Mara interviewed Eleanor.
The old case file arrived electronically.
Elena’s crash had occurred on a mountain road outside Idyllwild.
Single vehicle.
Brake failure suspected but never proven.
No alcohol.
No drugs.
No other car identified.
Dominic remembered every detail.
He had memorized them like grief was an exam.
Mara looked at Eleanor.
“Why did you conceal the call?”
Eleanor answered.
“Fear.”
“Of Ronan Vale?”
“Yes.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“After the crash.”
Dominic’s head snapped up.
“What?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“He came to see me two days later.”
“What did he say?”
“That accidents happen when families forget who keeps them safe.”
Dominic felt cold.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“For two years.”
“I was protecting Sofia.”
He stood.
“No.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“You were protecting yourself.”
Mara raised a hand.
“Dominic.”
He stepped back.
Barely.
Mara asked, “Do you have any proof Ronan contacted you?”
Eleanor shook her head.
Then stopped.
“Maybe.”
Everyone went still.
“What?”
“Elena left me a voicemail.”
Dominic stared.
“You told police there was no voicemail.”
“I deleted it.”
His vision blurred.
Mara leaned forward.
“Deleted from your phone?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night she died.”
“Why?”
“I was terrified.”
“Cloud backup?”
Eleanor frowned.
“I don’t know.”
Mara looked at Dominic.
“Old carrier records may exist. Device backups maybe.”
Dominic’s heart began pounding.
Elena’s voice.
Maybe still somewhere.
They found the old phone in a safe upstairs.
Eleanor never threw anything away.
A forensic technician arrived.
Two hours.
Three.
At 2:17 a.m., they recovered deleted audio fragments.
The recording crackled.
Then Elena’s voice filled the library.
Dominic gripped the table.
“Eleanor, it’s me.”
Static.
“I was right. Ronan isn’t working alone.”
More static.
Then:
“He said Dominic will never believe me because the person helping him is family.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
Eleanor began crying.
The recording continued.
“If anything happens, check Sofia’s trust.”
Then the audio cut.
Mara replayed it.
Once.
Twice.
Sofia’s trust.
Dominic looked at his mother.
Eleanor looked genuinely confused.
“What trust?”
Dominic knew.
Elena created one when Sofia was born.
It held shares in Moretti Development.
At age twenty-five, Sofia would control twelve percent of the company.
Unless certain emergency provisions triggered earlier.
Dominic had never read them closely.
His attorneys handled it.
He called them.
At 2:41 a.m., Leah Stone sent the document.
Dominic opened the emergency succession clause.
If Dominic died or became legally incapacitated before Sofia turned eighteen, voting control passed temporarily to the trust protector.
The trust protector was Eleanor Moretti.
But a handwritten amendment had been filed six weeks before Elena died.
Eleanor had been removed.
A new trust protector had been named.
Ronan Vale.
Dominic stared at the signature.
It looked like Elena’s.
Mara leaned closer.
“Did she sign this?”
Dominic knew his wife’s handwriting.
“No.”
May you like
The amendment was forged.
And suddenly Elena’s death had a financial motive.
