Chapter 2
Juliet Valenti had been the only person Dominic ever loved who refused to be impressed by fear.
She was a civil attorney from a clean family in Milwaukee.
Not naïve.
Not fragile.
She knew who Dominic was before she married him.
She thought he was changing.
He thought wanting to change counted.
For two years, they lived inside that misunderstanding.
Juliet pushed him to separate legitimate companies from criminal money.
Dominic made partial moves.
Closed one cash route.
Sold one gambling-connected bar.
Fired two men who crossed lines he could no longer excuse.
Then kept the rest.
Juliet became pregnant.
That changed her faster than it changed him.
She stopped asking whether he wanted to become clean.
She asked what kind of house their child would sleep in.
Dominic said:
“Our child will be protected.”
Juliet answered:
“Protected from whom? The world or you?”
That fight lasted three days.
Then came the pregnancy complication.
Juliet went on bed rest late in the second trimester.
Dominic was away often.
Business.
Enemies.
Lawyers.
Funerals.
Lucinda stepped into the house as helpful family.
She was not Dominic’s fiancée then.
She was a widowed relation by marriage, elegant, useful, socially polished, and trusted with household arrangements.
She scheduled nurses.
Managed staff.
Answered calls.
Kept Juliet calm, supposedly.
Then Juliet gave birth early.
Dominic was told there was one baby.
A daughter.
Maisie.
Seven pounds after stabilization.
Healthy enough.
Juliet exhausted.
No one said twins.
No one said Iris.
Four months later, Juliet disappeared after leaving the mansion with a small overnight bag.
Lucinda told Dominic:
“She said she couldn’t live this way.”
Dominic searched.
His men searched first.
Police searched after.
That ruined more than it helped.
Juliet’s car was found near a rural road two days later.
No Juliet.
No clear crime scene.
Three weeks after that, a woman’s body was recovered after a separate car crash two counties away.
Badly injured.
Misidentified at first.
Eventually confirmed as Juliet through dental records.
The official finding was accidental death.
No evidence proved otherwise.
Dominic buried her.
Lucinda stood beside him.
She whispered:
“At least she didn’t take Maisie from you.”
May you like
Dominic believed that sentence was comfort.
Now he understood it might have been confession.
