Chapter 2 - MARA’S ROOM
Dominic did not open Mara’s room that night.
Not immediately.
That was what Lenora expected.
He could see it in the way she kept glancing toward the staircase.
So Dominic did something worse for her.
He waited.
Eli ate until he could no longer keep his eyes open.
Then Dominic carried him upstairs himself.
The boy had become lighter.
Dominic noticed it now.
That realization made his jaw tighten.
He had spent six weeks traveling between family properties after a violent dispute among older Bellini associates.
Eli stayed at the estate under Lenora’s supervision.
Dominic believed blood meant safety.
He had never questioned whether the danger could already be sitting at his table.
He laid Eli in his own bed.
Not the nursery.
His room.
Then he asked Ruthie, Eli’s nanny, to stay nearby.
She looked nervous.
Dominic noticed that too.
“Did you know they were withholding food?”
Ruthie’s eyes filled.
“I knew Mrs. Bellini was strict.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
She looked down.
“Yes.”
Dominic stared at her.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Your aunt took my phone twice.”
Silence.
“She said if I interfered, I’d never work for this family again.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“And Adrian?”
“He watched.”
“Did he hurt Eli?”
Ruthie hesitated.
“That depends what you call hurt.”
Dominic did not like the answer.
Neither did she.
She explained.
Adrian made Eli stand in corners.
Made him repeat family names.
Told him Bellini boys did not cry.
Whenever Eli asked for Dominic, Adrian said his father was busy with stronger people.
Dominic looked toward the sleeping child.
For the first time, he understood why Eli had stopped running toward him at the front door over the past month.
He thought it was a phase.
It had been training.
Dominic returned downstairs.
Lenora and Adrian remained in the dining room.
Everyone else had been dismissed.
The plates were untouched now.
Dominic sat at the head of the table.
“Tell me about Mara’s room.”
Lenora lifted her chin.
“She left things behind.”
“That is what dead people do.”
“You refused to deal with them.”
“I asked for time.”
“You took eighteen months.”
Dominic leaned back.
“Still not your room.”
Lenora said nothing.
Adrian looked toward her.
That tiny glance was enough.
Dominic saw it.
“What are you looking for?”
Adrian answered too quickly.
“Nothing.”
Dominic almost smiled.
There was always a moment when frightened people became children again.
He took the brass key from his pocket.
Then walked upstairs alone.
Mara’s room sat at the end of the east hall.
Dominic had not crossed the threshold since the funeral.
The green-thread key fit.
The lock turned.
He opened the door.
Nothing dramatic waited.
No hidden man.
No blood.
Only dust.
Mara’s reading chair.
Her pale curtains.
A half-finished book on the bedside table.
Her perfume had faded but not disappeared completely.
Dominic stood still.
Grief moved through him with old familiarity.
Then he saw the floor.
A small circle of worn carpet beside the bed.
Too clean.
Someone had been kneeling there repeatedly.
Eli.
Dominic’s chest tightened.
He moved farther inside.
The wardrobe doors were open.
Boxes had been disturbed.
A jewelry case sat empty.
Then he saw something pinned above Mara’s writing desk.
A photograph.
Dominic and Mara at their wedding.
Someone had drawn a black X across Dominic’s face.
Below it, in Lenora’s handwriting, were three words.
HE FAILED YOU.
Dominic stared.
Then he noticed the paper beneath it.
A child’s drawing.
Stick figures.
One small figure beside a woman in green.
Another man far away.
Above the man, a child had scribbled black lines.
Dominic took it down.
On the back Ruthie had written the date.
Two weeks earlier.
Dominic went cold.
Eli was not being taught to mourn his mother.
He was being taught to blame his father for her death.
Then he heard the floorboard creak behind him.
Adrian stood in the doorway.
Dominic turned.
“What did she tell him?”
Adrian’s face tightened.
“You should ask Lenora.”
“I’m asking you.”
Adrian looked toward the drawing.
Then away.
“She told Eli Mara died because you chose the family over her.”
Dominic stared.
“That’s not true.”
Adrian whispered:
“I know.”
The silence changed.
Dominic stepped closer.
“You know?”
Adrian nodded once.
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“How?”
Adrian looked toward Mara’s empty chair.
May you like
Then said:
“Because I was with her the night she died.”
