Chapter 5 - THE PHOTOGRAPH IN DOMINIC’S SAFE
Dominic had met my father sixteen times.
Not once.
Sixteen.
The last meeting occurred two days before Dad died.
I was furious.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn't know whether Daniel trusted me at the end.”
“You could have told me.”
“Yes.”
“Stop agreeing with me!”
Dominic almost smiled.
I didn't.
He opened his safe.
Inside was a photograph.
Dad and Dominic sitting in a diner.
Dad looked exhausted.
Dominic looked angry.
On the back, Dad had written:
IF I FAIL, TRUST THE SON, NOT THE UNCLE.
My anger vanished.
“Elias.”
Dominic nodded.
Dad had discovered Elias Russo occupied one of the Twelve Chairs.
Victor Hale worked for him.
Dad contacted Dominic because Carlo had once tried to destroy the alliance.
“What did Dad want you to do?”
“Get him and your family out of New York.”
“Why didn't you?”
“He disappeared from our meeting.”
“What?”
“He said he needed forty-eight hours.”
Dominic looked at me.
“Two days later your mother called an ambulance.”
Dad died at home.
I remembered that morning.
His coffee cup shattered on the kitchen floor.
His hand against his chest.
Me screaming.
Mom calling 911.
But now another memory surfaced.
A visitor.
The night before.
A silver cane beside the door.
I had been doing homework.
Dad told me to go upstairs.
“Elias uses a cane,” Dominic said.
My stomach turned.
“Silver?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
The journal had not brought danger into our lives.
Danger had been inside our apartment eighteen months earlier.
And I had seen it.
May you like
I just hadn't known what I was seeing.
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