Chapter 3 - The Promise Grace Was Forced to Keep
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Grace sat with Maisie on one of the ballroom sofas.
Dominic remained standing.
Vivienne refused to sit at all.
“Start at the beginning.”
Grace nodded.
“Eight years ago, Elena called me from Saint Matthew’s Hospital.”
Dominic knew the hospital.
Private.
Expensive.
The Castellano family had donated an entire cardiac wing there.
“She had just delivered Maisie.”
“Where was I?”
Grace looked at him.
“Boston.”
Dominic remembered.
His father had suffered a stroke.
Dominic had spent almost three weeks there.
He and Elena had argued before he left.
Nothing serious.
He thought.
Then she vanished.
“When I came back, her apartment was empty.”
Grace nodded.
“I know.”
“You know?”
“Elena had already left.”
“Why?”
Grace glanced toward Vivienne.
Dominic followed her eyes.
Vivienne folded her arms.
“This is ridiculous.”
Grace continued.
“Elena said someone came to the hospital the day after Maisie was born.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Who?”
“She wouldn’t tell me at first.”
Maisie squeezed Grace’s hand.
Dominic saw the child trying to understand a world of adult lies.
He lowered his voice.
“You don’t have to say anything in front of Maisie that will hurt her.”
Grace looked at the girl.
Maisie surprised everyone.
“I want to know.”
Dominic crouched.
“You sure?”
“No.”
Her honesty almost broke him.
“But everyone keeps knowing things about me except me.”
Dominic nodded.
“You’re right.”
Grace took a breath.
“Elena said Vivienne came to her room.”
Vivienne laughed.
“I visited a sick woman. Arrest me.”
Grace ignored her.
“She told Elena that Dominic’s father had found out about the baby.”
Dominic frowned.
“My father never knew.”
“That’s what Elena eventually realized.”
Grace continued.
Vivienne allegedly told Elena that the Castellano family would never accept her.
That if she tried to establish paternity, lawyers would take Maisie.
That Dominic had already agreed.
Dominic’s voice hardened.
“I agreed to nothing.”
“I know.”
Grace looked ashamed.
“But Elena didn’t.”
Vivienne scoffed.
“Elena was unstable.”
Dominic turned sharply.
“Careful.”
Grace reached beneath her collar and removed a tiny key.
“Elena didn’t trust everything Vivienne said.”
Dominic stared at it.
“So she kept proof.”
Grace nodded.
“She kept copies of everything.”
“Where?”
“In a red metal box.”
Vivienne’s eyes shifted.
Dominic noticed.
“Where is it?”
Grace swallowed.
“I don’t know anymore.”
Vivienne smiled.
Of course she did.
Then Grace added—
“But Maisie does.”
Everyone turned toward the child.
Maisie looked confused.
“I do?”
Grace touched the old locket.
“Your mother left you a clue.”
Dominic opened it again.
Behind the photograph was a scratched inscription so faint he had missed it.
WHEN THE LIONS FACE THE SEA.
Dominic stared at the words.
Then slowly turned toward the enormous stone terrace beyond the ballroom.
Two carved Castellano lions stood at the far end.
Both facing the Atlantic.
Vivienne suddenly headed for the doors.
Dominic blocked her.
“Going somewhere?”
Her face tightened.
Because whatever Elena had hidden beneath those stone lions was still somewhere inside the estate.
May you like
👉 Elena had left behind more than a photograph—and Vivienne’s sudden panic told Dominic that the missing red box could destroy the story she had protected for eight years.
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