But the final letter in his surname had a sharp upward stroke that Dominic had stopped using years ago.
Someone had copied an old signature.
The request also listed the name of the person collecting the file.
Vanessa Sterling.
Dominic stared at the screen.
His fiancée had accessed a file belonging to the man whose granddaughter now slept beside his father’s wheelchair.
She had arranged a medication change that no one could verify.
And she had apparently known he would return home early enough to catch her.
His phone vibrated again.
A message arrived from Daniel.
Sir, I need to speak with you privately. Not about Vanessa. About your father.
Dominic looked across the corridor.
Daniel stood near the elevators, his face pale.
For the first time in fifteen years, his head of security looked afraid.
Dominic walked toward him.
“What haven’t you told me?”
Daniel glanced at Emily, then at the closed door to Antonio’s room.
“Sir, before you hear anything else, you need to know that the woman you plan to marry has been paying someone to watch your father.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Who?”
“Your mother.”
Dominic didn’t move.
“My mother died eighteen years ago.”
Daniel nodded.
“That is what the family was told.”
For a long moment, the only sound in the corridor was the soft hum of the hospital lights.
Dominic grabbed Daniel by the front of his jacket.
“If this is a joke, you won’t get another chance to explain yourself.”
“It isn’t.”
“Then start talking.”
Daniel glanced toward Antonio’s room.
“Not here.”
“You don’t decide where we talk.”
Dominic released him and pointed toward a vacant consultation room.
Inside, Daniel locked the door.
He looked older than he had an hour earlier.
“Your mother, Elena, was declared dead after a car accident outside Chicago. I was assigned to the security detail that night. I was twenty-eight, and your father told me to stay away from the investigation.”
“I attended her funeral.”
“You attended a closed-casket service.”
Dominic felt something inside him crack.
“Are you telling me my mother survived?”
“I don’t know if she survived. I know someone paid for medical records under a different name for several years after the accident. I found the payments last year. I should have told you.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because Vanessa found them first.”
Daniel explained that Vanessa had approached him eleven months earlier, claiming she had discovered evidence that Antonio’s medication was being mishandled by the staff. She wanted Daniel to monitor the housekeeper, review the medical records, and report any unusual behavior.
At first, he believed her.
Then Vanessa began asking about the old accident.
She wanted copies of the reports, the hospital transfer records, and the names of anyone who had worked on the case.
Daniel refused to provide them.
Two weeks later, someone broke into his apartment and left a photograph on his kitchen table.
It showed his teenage daughter leaving school.
Beneath it was a single sentence:
Protect the family that protects yours.
“I should have gone to you,” Daniel said. “Instead, I tried to handle it myself. Vanessa knew I was looking into the payments, and she used my fear to keep me quiet.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You knew about the medication.”
“I knew she had arranged for a bottle to be delivered. I didn’t know what was in it. When I saw her replace the original bottle tonight, I realized I had made a terrible mistake.”
“You watched my father suffer for nineteen nights.”
Daniel lowered his head.
“Yes, sir.”
Dominic wanted to hit him.
He also wanted to ask why every person who claimed to protect his family seemed to believe that silence was the same as loyalty.
Instead, he said, “You’re suspended. Your access is revoked. You will give an independent investigator every record you have, and you will not contact Vanessa or your daughter until we’ve secured both of them.”
Daniel nodded.
“I understand.”
“No. You don’t. If my father was deliberately endangered, I will find out who did it.”
When Dominic returned to Antonio’s room, Emily was sitting beside the bed.
His father was asleep.
She looked up at once.
“Is Daniel responsible?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think Vanessa is?”
“I think we have enough reason to investigate her. I don’t have enough evidence to decide what she did.”
Emily studied him.
“That’s the first honest answer anyone has given me tonight.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Then she asked, “What about your mother?”
He sat down.
“Apparently, she may not have died when I was told she did.”
Emily’s expression softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know what I feel.”
“Then you don’t have to decide tonight.”
The simplicity of her answer unsettled him more than any accusation.
