Chapter 04 - A Room Without Windows

Dominic moved faster than an injured man should have been able to move.

One moment he sat with his damaged brace half-disassembled, the next his hand closed around the arm of the chair and he was upright enough to make every guard in the room surge toward him.

Pain flashed across his face.

He ignored it.

“What did you say?”

Dr. Harris tried to disappear inside his own skin.

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything else.”

“You said Rafael wanted the child alive.”

The doctor’s eyes jumped to Ellie, then away.

“I heard a name. That’s all. I heard your aunt arguing on the phone. She said the girl had her father’s hands.”

My knees weakened.

Dominic saw it and gave one sharp command.

“Chair.”

Someone brought one. I did not sit. Sitting felt like surrender. Instead I lifted Ellie into my arms even though she was too big for that now, even though her shoes knocked against my knees, even though my back protested.

She wrapped herself around me like a baby.

“Mommy, did I do bad?”

“No.”

My voice broke.

“No, sweetheart. You did good.”

Dominic’s eyes moved to us. Something in his expression shifted, not softer exactly, but less distant.

Then the door opened and an older woman entered.

She had silver hair cut in a sleek bob, a cream suit, red lipstick, and the kind of posture money teaches when it has had generations to practice. She looked around at the guards, the disassembled brace, the doctor being held by both arms, and then at Dominic.

“My God,” she said. “What melodrama have you created now?”

Serafina Romano.

No one introduced her. They didn’t need to.

Dominic sat back slowly, but nothing about him relaxed.

“Aunt.”

Her eyes flicked toward Ellie.

“And who is this?”

I turned my body slightly, shielding my daughter as if a rich woman’s gaze could bruise.

Dominic noticed. So did Serafina.

“The child who found what your doctor missed,” Dominic said.

Serafina gave Dr. Harris a look of such cold disappointment that he sagged between the guards.

“Harris,” she said, “you always were fragile.”

Dominic’s mouth hardened.

“So it was you.”

“Do not be simplistic. I requested medical compliance. You refused therapy, refused board review, refused every effort to keep this family from looking weak while Rafael’s ghost—or whoever is wearing his name—circles us.”

“You turned my brace into a trap.”

“I did no such thing.”

“No. You hired a coward and let him tell himself he was making adjustments.”

Serafina’s expression sharpened.

“Be careful.”

Dominic leaned back in the chair, white suit immaculate, damaged brace open around his leg like the jaws of some failed machine.

“I am always careful. That is why I am still alive.”

“And yet a maid’s child knows more about your medical equipment than your physician.”

“My physician had incentive to be stupid.”

The doctor made a small sound. No one cared.

I finally found my voice.

“We need to leave.”

Every face turned toward me.

I hated the attention, but fear had sharpened into something hot and usable.

“My daughter is not part of whatever this is. My husband is dead. We have nothing you want.”

Serafina smiled faintly.

“Are you certain?”

Dominic’s gaze cut to her.

“Do not speak to her.”

The old woman laughed without amusement.

“Oh, Dominic. You always mistake possession for protection.”

“I said do not.”

The room went quiet.

Something passed between them that belonged to old wars, family tables, funerals, inheritance. I did not understand it. I only understood that Dominic Romano, feared by men with guns, could still be wounded by a woman who had known him as a boy.

Serafina stepped closer to me.

“Daniel Voss left something unfinished. Your daughter recognized his work because he taught her what he knew. If Rafael’s people believe she can find what he hid, they will not stop at your apartment.”

“What did Daniel hide?”

“I imagine that is the question everyone is suddenly asking.”

Dominic nodded to the guards.

“Escort my aunt to the blue salon.”

Serafina’s smile disappeared.

“You would detain me in my brother’s house?”

“My house.”

“For now.”

The words struck deeper than they should have.

Dominic said nothing as they led her away.

Only when the room emptied of everyone except his two most trusted guards, me, Ellie, and the ruined brace did he let the pain show. His face lost color. One hand closed over his thigh.

“You need a doctor,” I said before I could stop myself.

“I just dismissed him.”

“You need a better one.”

That almost earned me a smile. Almost.

He turned to the guard on his right.

“Find Dr. Kline. Bring her through the lower entrance. No network access until I clear it.”

Then he looked at me.

“You and Ellie will stay in the interior suite tonight. No windows. Two exits. My men outside.”

“No.”

“Mara—”

“No locked rooms. No hidden cameras. No men outside my daughter’s door without my permission.”

Dominic studied me for a long second.

Then he nodded.

“You choose the room. I choose the guards. Cameras off inside. On in the hallway. You keep your phone. You can call anyone you trust.”

“I don’t trust anyone in this house.”

“That may keep you alive.”

Ellie lifted her head from my shoulder.

“Can I have Bunny?”

Dominic looked at the nearest guard.

“Bring the rabbit.”

“Yes, boss.”

“And the child’s things from the apartment.”

“They were scattered.”

“Then gather them.”

The guard left.

For a while, none of us spoke. Rain began striking the high windows. The city below kept moving, unaware that one little girl’s observation had cracked something open inside a fortress.

Then Ellie looked at Dominic’s brace again.

“There’s another wrong piece,” she whispered.

Dominic went still.

She pointed toward the inner hinge, the one closest to his knee.

“That one isn’t backwards.”

Her voice dropped.

“It’s not yours.”

And Dominic’s face told me that, somehow, this was worse.