Chapter 6 - seven years of ash
Dominic stared at the ledger page.
The deposit was dated Thursday of that week. The amount: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
"Who has the authorization codes?" Dominic demanded.
"Only two people ever had them," Vivienne said, her voice dropping into a chilling calm. "Julian... and the woman he disappeared with."
The room went dead silent.
"What did you just say?" Dominic took a step closer, the temperature in the room seeming to plummet.
"You really believed he drowned alone in that car, didn't you?" Vivienne scoffed, a bitter hatred twisting her features. "You thought your golden-boy brother was a martyr for the family name! Julian was running away. He had a mistress. A girl from the south side named Clara. He packed three million dollars in bearer bonds and was heading for the Canadian border when the car hit the river."
"They pulled his body from the water," Dominic said between clenched teeth.
"They pulled *a* body from the water," Vivienne corrected, leaning forward. "Bloated, unrecognizable, identified only by the dental records your father’s crooked coroner signed off on! And Clara? Her body was never found. Not a trace."
Dominic's breathing turned heavy. His entire understanding of his brother's death was splintering into pieces.
He didn't say another word to Vivienne. He walked out of the room, slammed the heavy oak door, and locked it from the outside.
He walked down the long corridor to Eleanor’s private sitting room.
The room was lit only by the embers of a dying fireplace. Eleanor was seated in a leather wingback chair, an old photo album resting open on her lap. In her hands was a silver-framed photograph of Julian at age twenty-five, smiling broadly with his arm thrown around Dominic’s shoulder.
Dominic stood in front of her. "Did Julian die in that river, Ma?"
Eleanor didn't look up from the photo. Her thumb traced the silver edge of the frame.
"Your brother loved this family, Dominic. But he was weak. He couldn't carry the weight of the name the way you do."
"Did he die in that river?" Dominic repeated, his voice shaking with raw emotion.
Eleanor slowly lifted her gaze. Her eyes were rimmed with red, but her expression was unreadable.
"If Julian were alive, Dominic, do you think he would let his own mother be thrown into a dark pit like a dog?"
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"I don't know," Dominic replied bluntly. "Because apparently, I didn't know my brother at all."
Eleanor closed the album with a soft thud. "Go to St. Jude’s cemetery. The mausoleum. Look behind the marble plaque on Vito's vault. If you want the truth about Julian's debts, it isn't in a ledger. It's buried with your father."
