Chapter 3 - The Missing Phone
By sunrise, Dominic had turned one floor of St. Vincent Medical Center into the safest place in Chicago.
He did it without shouting.
That frightened people more.
Two private guards stood outside Mara’s room. Another watched the elevators. Mateo coordinated with hospital security while Dominic sat beside Mara’s bed, staring at the rain crawling down the window.
Celeste had disappeared.
Her apartment was empty.
Her phone had been switched off.
The driver registered to her had not seen her since the previous afternoon.
More troubling was what Mateo discovered about Mara’s crash.
The black SUV that struck her car had been reported stolen forty-eight hours earlier.
Its driver vanished before emergency services arrived.
Dominic listened without interrupting.
Mara did too.
When Mateo finished, she whispered, “It was intentional.”
Dominic looked at her.
“We don't know that.”
“Yes, we do.”
He wanted to argue.
Not because he believed she was wrong.
Because accepting it meant accepting that Mara had spent eight months protecting their child from a danger Dominic had failed even to see.
She reached toward the bedside drawer.
“There’s another copy.”
“Of what?”
“The files from my phone.”
Dominic straightened.
“Where?”
Mara hesitated.
“With someone I trust.”
“Who?”
“I’m not telling you yet.”
The old Dominic would have bristled.
The man sitting beside her now understood he had not earned the answer.
“All right.”
Mara looked surprised.
He almost smiled.
“Don't look so shocked.”
“You’re Dominic Vascari. ‘All right’ has never been your favorite sentence.”
“It’s been an educational night.”
Despite everything, the corner of her mouth moved.
For half a second, she looked like the woman he remembered.
Then pain crossed her face.
Dominic stood.
“Nurse.”
“I’m okay.”
“You're terrible at lying.”
“And you’re suddenly an expert?”
“I've had practice since midnight.”
Her smile disappeared.
They both knew who he meant.
Dominic sat again.
“Mara, I need to ask something.”
She looked at him.
“When you left… did you believe I wanted you gone?”
Her eyes lowered.
“For a while.”
He absorbed it.
“Why?”
“Because the messages sounded like you.”
“That isn't possible.”
“They sounded like the version of you I was afraid existed.”
That hurt more.
Mara continued quietly.
“You were changing, Dominic.”
He said nothing.
“You came home later. You stopped telling me where you were going. Men I didn't know started waiting outside our house. You told me not to ask questions because knowing less kept me safe.”
“I thought it did.”
“It made me feel like a prisoner.”
Dominic looked at his hands.
She was right.
That did not make Celeste innocent.
But Celeste had exploited a fracture Dominic helped create.
“I’m sorry.”
Mara stared at him.
Perhaps she had expected explanations.
Defenses.
Dominic had plenty.
None mattered.
“I’m sorry I made it easy for you to believe those messages.”
Mara’s eyes softened.
Before she could answer, the door opened.
Mateo entered carrying a laptop.
“I found something.”
Dominic stood.
Mateo placed the computer on the table.
“The parking garage at Mara’s apartment had cameras.”
Mara frowned.
“They told me those cameras didn't work.”
“They didn’t.”
Mateo opened a file.
“Officially.”
Grainy footage appeared.
A timestamp from six months earlier.
Mara’s apartment building.
A man wearing a dark coat stood beside a parked sedan.
His face was hidden.
Another figure approached.
A woman.
Celeste.
Mara inhaled sharply.
The footage showed Celeste handing the man an envelope.
Then pointing toward the building.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Can we identify him?”
“Not from this angle.”
“Keep watching.”
The man turned slightly.
A ring flashed on his hand.
Large.
Silver.
Black stone.
Dominic froze.
Mateo noticed.
“You recognize it.”
Dominic did.
The ring belonged to members of an organization that had worked beside the Vascari family for decades.
Not enemies.
Allies.
Which made the betrayal worse.
Mara watched him.
“Who is he?”
Dominic closed the laptop.
“Someone close enough to know my house.”
“Dominic.”
“I’ll tell you when I’m certain.”
Her expression hardened.
He caught himself.
There it was again.
The old instinct.
Control information.
Control danger.
Control everyone.
Dominic reopened the laptop.
“The ring belongs to senior members of the Vascari organization.”
Mara stared at him.
“Your people?”
“Yes.”
“You told me Celeste was an outsider.”
“She was.”
“Then someone inside helped her.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Mateo’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“Where?”
He listened.
“We’re coming.”
He disconnected.
“What?” Dominic asked.
“The stolen SUV.”
“They found it?”
“Burned outside an abandoned warehouse.”
Dominic looked at Mara.
He hated leaving.
She saw it.
“Go.”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You need to find out who did this.”
“I have people.”
“People wearing those rings?”
That stopped him.
Mara held his gaze.
“If somebody inside your organization helped Celeste, how many of your people can you trust?”
Dominic looked at Mateo.
Mateo gave a humorless smile.
“One.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“Two.”
Mara shook her head.
“Go.”
He approached the bed.
For a moment he wanted to touch her.
He didn't.
“Two guards stay outside.”
“Fine.”
“Nobody enters except medical staff.”
“Dominic.”
“And if anything feels wrong—”
“Go.”
He nodded.
At the doorway, Mara called his name.
He turned.
“Our son.”
The words still felt impossible.
“What about him?”
“I was going to name him Luca.”
Dominic swallowed.
“Luca.”
“If that's okay.”
He looked at her.
For the first time in eight months, something warm reached his eyes.
“It's perfect.”
Then he left.
The warehouse stood beside the river.
Police had already removed the SUV, but Mateo’s contact had photographed everything before investigators arrived.
Inside the vehicle they found no phone.
But beneath the passenger seat, technicians recovered a partially melted parking receipt.
Dominic read the address.
His expression changed.
It was from the underground garage beneath Vascari Tower.
His own corporate headquarters.
Someone had parked the stolen SUV beneath his building the day before Mara’s crash.
Mateo stared at him.
“Who has access?”
“Executives. Security. Family.”
“And Celeste?”
Dominic thought.
“She had a temporary pass.”
“Who authorized it?”
Dominic already knew.
His uncle.
Salvatore Vascari.
The man who had raised Dominic after his father died.
The man who had taught him that family was the only thing in life that could not be purchased.
Dominic pulled out his phone.
Before he could call, an unknown number sent him a photograph.
Mara.
Sleeping in her hospital bed.
Taken minutes earlier.
Dominic’s blood turned cold.
A message appeared beneath it.
STOP LOOKING FOR THE PHONE.
Another followed.
OR NEXT TIME, SHE DOESN’T WAKE UP.
Dominic was already moving.
Then a third message arrived.
A photograph of the hospital corridor.
One of Dominic’s guards lay unconscious beside an empty chair.
May you like
And Mara’s door was open.
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