Chapter 5 - The Husband Who Was No Longer Allowed Inside
Dominic reached the maternity floor in twenty-three minutes.
He did not remember parking.
He did not remember passing security.
He remembered only the receptionist saying, “Sir, you cannot go back there.”
“My wife is Caroline Marino.”
The nurse checked the computer.
“I understand.”
“I need to see her.”
“She has requested limited visitors.”
Dominic stared at her.
“I am her husband.”
The nurse’s professional expression did not change.
“She did not list you.”
The words struck harder than Dominic expected.
Margaret appeared from the hallway.
“Lower your voice.”
“How is she?”
“The baby is stable.”
“And Carrie?”
“Scared.”
Dominic looked toward the secured doors.
“I’m going in.”
Margaret blocked him.
“No.”
“Mother.”
“No.”
“I need to see her.”
Margaret’s face hardened.
“And what exactly are you going to say?”
Dominic opened his mouth.
Nothing came.
He had negotiated billion-dollar acquisitions with less difficulty than answering that question.
Margaret waited.
Finally, he said, “I made a mistake.”
“A mistake is forgetting dinner reservations.”
“Fine. I was wrong.”
“You moved your mistress into your pregnant wife’s bedroom.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened when a nurse glanced toward them.
“Keep your voice down.”
“No.”
“Mother.”
“No, Dominic. You have spent your life making everyone else lower their voices so you never have to hear what you’ve done.”
He stared at her.
Margaret’s eyes were wet.
“That woman in there lost two babies.”
His face changed.
“I know.”
“She sat beside you through your father’s cancer. She protected this family when reporters were digging through our garbage. She ran your foundation while refusing a salary large enough to attract gossip. She remembered the names of every employee’s children.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Margaret stepped closer.
“Because yesterday you looked at that woman—carrying the daughter you once begged God to give you—and told her to sleep in another room so your mistress could take hers.”
Dominic looked away.
Margaret lowered her voice.
“If anything happens to Carrie or that baby, you will remember that sentence until the day you die.”
He closed his eyes.
For the first time, Dominic Marino looked afraid.
Not angry.
Not threatened.
Afraid.
“Can you ask her?”
Margaret’s expression softened by a fraction.
“Ask her what?”
“If I can see her.”
“I will ask.”
She disappeared behind the doors.
Dominic sat in the waiting room.
He had not sat in a hospital waiting room since his father died.
Minutes passed.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
His phone buzzed repeatedly.
Board members.
Lawyers.
Gino.
He ignored them all.
Finally Margaret returned.
“She said no.”
Dominic stared at the floor.
“Did she say anything else?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“She said she needs peace.”
He gave a bitter laugh.
“Of course.”
Margaret sat opposite him.
“Go home.”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“I’ll stay here.”
“She does not need you outside the door making a statement.”
“I’m not making a statement.”
“Then why are you staying?”
He looked at her.
“Because last time she was in a hospital pregnant, I promised I would never let her face it alone again.”
Margaret’s expression shifted.
“And yet you did.”
“I know.”
Two words.
Quiet.
Unprotected.
Perhaps the first honest words he had spoken since Carrie left.
Margaret studied her son.
“You cannot repair this by frightening everyone into giving you what you want.”
“I know.”
“You cannot buy her another house.”
“I know.”
“You cannot fire Vanessa and expect that to erase what you did.”
His face hardened at Vanessa’s name.
“I intend to do considerably more than fire Vanessa.”
Margaret noticed.
“What did she steal?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Carrie found out something too.”
Dominic looked at her.
Margaret hesitated.
It was not her secret.
“She should tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“When she chooses.”
Dominic leaned back.
There it was again.
A door closing.
A conversation from which he was excluded.
A world continuing without his permission.
His phone rang.
Gino.
This time he answered.
“What?”
“We found Vanessa.”
Dominic stood.
“Where?”
“JFK.”
“Stop her.”
“Federal agents already did.”
Dominic went silent.
“Why?”
“She was carrying two passports.”
Gino continued.
“And documents from your father’s safe.”
“What documents?”
“Copies of old shipping ledgers. Offshore account records. Photographs. Some handwritten notes.”
“Anything else?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“A sealed letter.”
“To whom?”
Gino exhaled.
“To Caroline.”
Dominic’s entire body went still.
“What does it say?”
“We didn’t open it.”
“Good.”
“And Dominic?”
“Yes?”
“There’s something you should know before you speak to federal investigators.”
He walked farther from Margaret.
“Tell me.”
“Vanessa has been meeting Richard Langford for at least eighteen months.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Every dinner.
Every secret message.
Every time Vanessa claimed she needed him.
Every time Carrie questioned her.
He remembered telling his wife she was paranoid.
Gino continued.
“We found surveillance photographs. Vanessa wasn’t being followed by Ethan Cole.”
“Who was following her?”
“Your people.”
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
“Not mine.”
“Then whose?”
“Salvatore’s.”
Dominic went cold.
“My father has been dead five years.”
“Yes.”
“But before he died, he hired a private investigator to monitor the Langfords.”
Dominic looked toward the maternity doors.
“And the reports?”
“Some were addressed to Carrie.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“Why Carrie?”
“We don’t know.”
He ended the call slowly.
Margaret was watching him.
“What?”
Dominic looked toward the place where his wife lay protecting their unborn daughter.
“My father left Carrie a letter.”
Margaret stood.
“Where?”
“Federal agents have it.”
His voice sounded distant.
“And apparently he had been investigating Vanessa’s family before he died.”
Margaret’s face changed.
Dominic continued.
“Reports were addressed to Carrie.”
Margaret whispered, “Salvatore knew.”
Dominic looked at his mother.
“Knew what?”
She shook her head.
“Not what.”
Then she looked toward Carrie’s room.
“Who.”
Inside, Carrie lay awake beneath fluorescent light listening to her daughter’s heartbeat.
A nurse entered holding a phone.
“Mrs. Marino?”
“Yes?”
“There are two federal agents downstairs asking to speak with you tomorrow.”
Carrie closed her eyes.
“About Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
“And there’s something else.”
The nurse looked uncertain.
“They say they recovered a personal letter belonging to you.”
Carrie frowned.
“From whom?”
The nurse checked the note.
“Salvatore Marino.”
Carrie stared at her.
Her father-in-law had been dead for five years.
May you like
And somehow, even from the grave, Salvatore Marino was about to change everything.
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