Chapter 5 - the blue envelope
The heavy door of the hospital breakroom was suddenly pushed open.
Dominic Moretti walked inside, his broad frame filling the doorway. He didn't wait for permission—the moment his security team flagged the suspicious delivery, he had driven across Manhattan in under ten minutes.
He saw Emma standing near the counter, pale, trembling, and holding the silver flash drive in her tight fist.
Dominic stepped close, his presence instantly radiating a protective heat. Without a word, he took the handwritten note from the table, scanning the threat in half a second. His dark jaw set into a rigid line of absolute, lethal fury.
"Where is the driver?" Dominic asked low into his ear piece.
"Marcus intercepted him in the garage," a voice replied through his ear piece. "He was just a local messenger paid fifty dollars in cash. He didn't know who sent it."
Dominic turned back to Emma. He reached out, his warm, large hand gently wrapping around her cold fingers, prying open her fist to take the silver flash drive.
"Emma," Dominic said softly, his tone gentler than she had ever heard it before. "Look at me."
Emma looked up into his dark, steady eyes, tears spilling over her rosy cheeks. "They mentioned Lily, Dominic. They know her name... they know where she is..."
"No one touches Lily," Dominic promised, his voice carrying the ironclad weight of a sovereign decree. "They sent this note because they are terrified. They know you are under my roof now, and they are trying to scare you into walking away from my protection."
"What is on that drive?" Emma asked, pointing her shaking finger at the silver metallic stick.
"We are going to find out right now," Dominic replied.
Twenty minutes later, back inside the secure penthouse suite on Fifth Avenue, Dominic inserted the flash drive into his encrypted terminal. Emma stood beside his chair, leaning over the glass desk, while Lily played quietly in the adjoining living room with a new set of art supplies Dominic had ordered for her.
The screen flickered to life, displaying a series of old financial ledgers and scanned documents stamped with federal seals.
Emma leaned closer, her eyes scanning the names on the screen. Among the long lists of routing numbers and offshore accounts, one blue document caught her attention—a scanned agreement dated four years ago, bearing her late husband's signature.
Beside Daniel's signature was another signature written in bold, dark ink: Dominic Moretti.
May you like
Emma froze. She looked down at Dominic, her voice dropping into a desperate whisper.
"You lied to me," Emma breathed out, stepping back from the desk. "You said Daniel was just an undercover officer who asked you to protect us... but this document says he was working directly for your family's financial firm!"
