Dominic didn’t wait for morning.
He put Lily in the back seat of his car, ordered Marco to come with him, and drove straight to Emily Carter’s apartment in Brooklyn.
When Emily opened the door and saw Dominic standing there, every bit of color disappeared from her face.
“You weren’t supposed to come here.”
Dominic held up the termination letter.
“Someone forged my signature and fired you. Your daughter says you have letters meant for me.”
Emily stared at Lily.
“You went to him?”
Lily slowly nodded.
Emily closed her eyes.
Then she walked to her bedroom and pulled an old shoebox from beneath the bed.
Inside were dozens of sealed envelopes.
Every one was addressed to Dominic.
Some were seventeen years old.
Dominic opened the first.
It had been written by Emily’s mother only days before she died.
The letter claimed Dominic’s father had discovered someone secretly stealing millions from Moretti Group—and Emily’s mother had helped him collect the evidence.
But before he could expose the thief, Dominic’s father suddenly died.
Then Emily’s mother died months later.
Dominic’s hands started shaking.
He opened another letter.
This one contained bank records, copied contracts, and one handwritten warning:
“Do not trust the man Dominic calls his brother.”
Dominic slowly looked across the room at Marco.
Marco’s face went completely still.
“Dominic,” he said quietly, “you know me.”
Emily suddenly stepped between them.
“No. He doesn’t.”
Then she pulled one final envelope from the bottom of the box.
It was unopened.
The handwriting belonged to Dominic’s father.
On the front were four words:
FOR DOMINIC ONLY — URGENT.
Dominic tore it open.
Inside was a single photograph.
Marco standing beside Dominic’s father.
And on the back:
“If I die, Marco knows why.”
Dominic looked up.
But Marco was already gone.
Then Lily screamed from the hallway:
“Mom… someone’s at the door.”
Emily looked through the peephole—and immediately backed away.
Because the man standing outside had supposedly been dead for seventeen years.
Part 3 in comments.
