Chapter 8 - The House by the Sea
The safe house stood on a rocky peninsula north of Gloucester.
It had once belonged to Dante’s mother. Weathered cedar shingles covered the exterior, and tall windows faced the Atlantic. There were no guards inside, only a security perimeter hidden among the trees.
Dr. Park removed the bullet from Dante’s shoulder in the dining room.
He refused anesthesia until Aria and Elena were examined.
“You were shot,” Aria said.
“You have a fractured rib.”
“It is healing.”
“So is the bullet wound,” Dante replied.
Dr. Park looked between them. “Neither of you is medically qualified to determine who should be treated first.”
Elena almost laughed.
The sound was small and uncertain, but it changed the room.
Aria had not heard her sister laugh in months.
Dante noticed too.
He sat down without further argument.
While Dr. Park worked, Lucia helped Elena shower and change. Nico secured the property and contacted trusted guards whose loyalty had been verified through years of personal service.
No one from the main compound was told their location.
Aria remained beside Dante.
“You don’t have to watch,” he said.
“I know.”
The doctor cut through his shirt.
The bullet had entered high in his shoulder. There was blood, but no damage to bone or major arteries.
Dante’s jaw tightened while Dr. Park cleaned the wound.
Aria watched his hand close around the edge of the table.
“You can admit that it hurts,” she said.
“I am aware that it hurts.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
“No,” he agreed.
Dr. Park administered a local anesthetic and removed the bullet. When she finished, Dante’s skin was pale beneath the bandage.
He tried to stand.
Aria placed her palm against his chest.
“Sit.”
Dante went completely still.
So did she.
It was the first time she had touched him voluntarily.
His heartbeat was strong beneath her hand.
Aria slowly withdrew.
“Please,” she whispered. “Just sit.”
He obeyed.
Later, Elena slept in the room beside Aria’s.
Before closing her eyes, she told them what had happened.
Victor had removed her from school and taken her to the Ipswich estate. Caleb had questioned her about Catherine’s key. When Elena insisted she knew nothing, he threatened to send her to a psychiatric hospital and tell the world she was unstable.
“He said that’s what they would do to Aria too,” Elena said.
Aria sat on the bed and held her sister’s hand.
“You’re safe now.”
Elena looked toward Dante, who stood in the doorway.
“Are we?”
Dante did not offer an easy promise.
“Tonight, yes.”
Elena studied him. “Did you marry my sister because of Father?”
“Yes.”
“Do you work with criminals?”
Dante paused.
“Yes.”
Lucia closed her eyes.
Aria expected Elena to become frightened.
Instead, her sister nodded.
“At least you don’t lie.”
After Elena fell asleep, Aria joined Dante on the back porch.
Rain had replaced the snow. Waves crashed against the rocks below the house. Dante wore a dark coat over his bandaged shoulder.
“You should be resting,” she said.
“So should you.”
Aria leaned against the railing.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then she handed him the letter from Catherine’s safe.
“There is more written on the back.”
Dante read the faded lines.
Margaret knows where the truth sleeps. Trust the woman who lost everything.
“Judge Margaret Hale,” he said.
“My mother knew her?”
“Lucia believes so.”
Aria looked toward the dark ocean.
“My father destroyed Judge Hale’s husband. He was a prosecutor investigating campaign finance fraud. Evidence disappeared. He was accused of misconduct and took his own life two years later.”
Dante folded the letter carefully.
“Catherine may have given her a copy of the records.”
“Then why keep the drive?”
“Insurance against the insurance.”
Aria almost smiled. “That sounds like my mother.”
The wind pushed her hair across her face.
Dante lifted his hand, then stopped before touching her.
“May I?”
She knew what he was asking.
Aria nodded.
He moved the strand of hair away from her eyes.
His fingers barely brushed her temple.
She did not flinch.
The realization affected them both.
Dante lowered his hand.
“Who is the traitor?” Aria asked.
“We do not know.”
“The men on the bridge wore your badges.”
“They were part of a unit managed by Dominic Vale.”
“Who is he?”
“My father’s former adviser. He helped me take control after my father died.”
“You trust him?”
“I did.”
The past tense was deliberate.
Aria looked back through the window. Elena slept upstairs. Lucia worked on the encrypted files. Nico spoke quietly into a secure phone.
“You saved her,” Aria said.
“We saved her.”
“I would not have reached her without you.”
“And I would not have found the lower road without you.”
She faced him.
In Victor’s house, praise had always been bait. Every compliment prepared the way for a demand.
Dante asked for nothing.
“What happens when the alliance ends?” she asked.
“It already ended.”
“The marriage was part of it.”
“Yes.”
“Will you want an annulment?”
Dante looked toward the ocean.
“If that is what you want.”
“What do you want?”
It was the first personal question she had asked him.
He took his time answering.
“I want you to stop looking at every door as if someone will lock it behind you.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the only one I can give without asking something from you that you are not ready to give.”
Aria’s throat tightened.
Before she could respond, Nico opened the porch door.
“We have a problem.”
He handed Dante a tablet.
Security footage from the compound showed someone entering the control room during the power failure.
The figure wore a hood, but the face appeared briefly when the person looked toward the camera.
Lucia Rossi.
Aria stared at the image.
“That’s impossible. She was with us.”
“Not at the time this was recorded,” Nico said. “The timestamp places it two hours before we left for the gala.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“Where is she?”
“Inside with the drive.”
They rushed into the house.
The laptop sat open on the dining table.
Lucia was gone.
So was the flash drive.
A back door stood open, rain blowing across the floor.
May you like
On the table, written in blood-red lipstick, were five words.
YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR SISTER.
