Chapter 6
Dominic’s face stayed still.
Inside, something old reopened.
“What did Elena write?”
Vivienne’s breathing shortened.
“She said she loved you.”
Dominic's hand moved once.
Then stopped.
“She also said she was afraid of what you became when you thought someone betrayed you.”
No one spoke.
Even Marcus looked away.
Vivienne continued.
“She had watched you punish men for lying.”
Her voice shook.
“She thought if she brought you Marcus’s records while she was also talking about leaving, you'd think everything was part of one betrayal.”
Dominic remembered the final months.
Elena asking him to move meetings out of the house.
Elena refusing to bring Aria downstairs when capos visited.
Elena saying the family’s money had begun to dictate every room they lived in.
Dominic had heard criticism.
Not fear.
That distinction hurt.
“She was going to leave me.”
Vivienne hesitated.
“Temporarily.”
Dominic’s eyes lifted.
Marcus looked toward his sister.
He had not expected that answer.
Vivienne swallowed.
“She wanted you to choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Whether the house was going to be a home or headquarters.”
Dominic looked toward the estate.
The engagement party had been held in the same backyard where capos regularly gathered.
Elena had hated that.
He remembered dismissing it.
Vivienne’s voice softened.
“She said she would take Aria to her sister for a month.”
Dominic's fingers tightened around the wedding ring.
“She wanted you to come.”
The words hit him harder than everything else.
Marcus stepped in.
“She was manipulating you.”
Vivienne turned.
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
“She was desperate.”
Marcus’s eyes hardened.
“You weren't saying that eighteen months ago.”
Dominic looked between them.
“Why?”
Vivienne closed her eyes.
Because after Elena died, Marcus gave her a different version.
He told Vivienne the letter proved Elena planned to abandon Dominic permanently.
He told her delivering it would destroy a grieving widower.
He told her the financial evidence could bring investigations that would damage the Ravello family too.
Vivienne wanted to believe him.
Because telling the truth meant destroying her brother.
So she burned the letter.
But not everything.
Dominic saw something in her face.
“What did you keep?”
Her eyes opened.
Marcus whispered:
“No.”
Vivienne ignored him.
“I photographed it.”
Dominic’s breath stopped.
“Where?”
“An old phone.”
“Do you still have it?”
“Yes.”
Marcus moved.
Two bodyguards stepped in.
He froze.
Vivienne looked at her brother.
For the first time, loyalty to him seemed smaller than fear of what she had become.
She gave Dominic the phone.
The photograph of Elena’s letter was still there.
Most of it matched Vivienne’s account.
Then Dominic reached the final paragraph.
Elena wrote:
If I cannot give this to Dominic myself, Vivienne promised she will.
And beneath it:
The ring is not hers. It belongs to Aria when she is old enough.
Dominic looked at Vivienne’s necklace.
May you like
She had not merely hidden evidence.
She had worn proof of the promise she broke.
