Chapter 5 - The ConfrontationThe folder slipped from my hands, scattering papers across the dark mahogany floor.
"You shouldn't be in here, Clara."
A deep, quiet baritone spoke from the doorway.
I spun around, my back hitting the edge of the desk, my breathing ragged as pain flared up in my side.
Dominic stood in the doorway, wearing his dark wool overcoat, rain droplets glistening on his broad shoulders. His gray eyes were locked onto the papers scattered across the carpet, his expression completely unreadable.
"What is this, Dominic?!" I demanded, tears of wild, frantic shock spilling down my cheeks. "You told me you didn't know me! You told me I was just a waitress who happened to be at the hotel!"
Dominic walked slowly into the room, closing the heavy oak doors behind him with a quiet, echoing click. He didn't yell. He didn't reach for a gun. He simply stood six feet away, looking at me with a heavy, profound sadness.
"I didn't lie about why I married you, Clara," Dominic said softly. "I married you to protect you from Costa's hitmen."
"Then why do you have tax records of my father from five years ago?!" I shrieked, my voice cracking. "Why were you tracking my mother’s medical treatment in Cleveland three months before I ever saw your face?!"
Dominic took a slow, deep breath, stepping closer, reaching down to pick up a photograph of my father from the floor.
"Your father, Thomas Carter, wasn't just a high school accountant, Clara," Dominic revealed, every word dropped into the quiet room like a heavy block of ice. "Ten years ago, he worked as the chief financial auditor for my father, Vincent Rossi."
My jaw dropped. "My... my dad worked for the mafia?!"
"Your father discovered that my father's secondary partner—Victor Costa—was embezzling tens of millions of dollars from the syndicate’s pension funds and setting up my father to take the federal indictment," Dominic explained cleanly. "Before Thomas could present the final proof to my father, Costa had your father’s car run off the road."
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Tears blurred my vision as the dark, missing pieces of my childhood suddenly fell into place. "My dad's accident... it wasn't a drunk driver..."
"No," Dominic whispered, his gray eyes burning with cold fury. "It was Costa. And before your father died in that hospital, he hid the master ledger containing Costa's offshore accounts inside a trust fund set up in your mother's name. I spent three years searching for that ledger... and three months ago, my team finally tracked your family down to protect you before Costa realized who you were."
