The Brother Who Came With Flowers
Chapter 04 - The Brother Who Came With Flowers
Dominic Ferrante arrived forty minutes later carrying white roses.
No one had told him to come.
That fact settled over the house before he even crossed the foyer.
He was thirty-five, seven years younger than Elias, with the same dark eyes and none of the scars. Where Elias filled a room by making it smaller, Dominic made people feel as though they had been invited into it.
He kissed Adelaide’s forehead.
“You look terrible, Ma.”
“So do you,” she said.
He laughed.
Marin watched from the corner.
Dominic had known her name before anyone introduced them.
“Miss Hollis. I heard what you did.”
“From whom?”
The question was simple.
His pause was not.
“Rafe called me.”
Across the room, Rafe’s jaw tightened.
“I told you the estate was breached,” he said. “I didn’t give details.”
Dominic smiled.
“Then I suppose the city talks faster than I thought.”
Elias stood by the fireplace, arms folded.
“You brought flowers.”
“I panicked.”
“No. You perform.”
Dominic’s smile faded.
Adelaide closed her eyes.
“Not in my bedroom.”
The brothers obeyed because they had spent their whole lives obeying that tone.
Marin checked Adelaide’s oxygen, adjusted the humidifier, and carried the chart to the small writing desk.
She could feel Dominic watching her.
Not with attraction.
Recognition.
It lasted only a second.
But Marin had become very good at noticing seconds.
Later, in the downstairs library, Elias confronted Rafe.
“Did you call him?”
“I told him there had been an incident. I did not tell him Marin fought anyone. I did not tell him the intruders reached Adelaide’s room.”
“Who else knew?”
“Vince.”
Vincent Moretti had served as Carlo Ferrante’s lawyer, then Elias’s adviser. At fifty-eight, he had the manners of a priest and the memory of a prosecutor.
He also knew every door in the estate.
Elias asked him to come.
Vince arrived in a camel coat, carrying no flowers.
That made Elias trust him slightly more.
For two hours they went through security logs.
The breach in the generator had been planted twenty-three days earlier during a scheduled maintenance visit. The company that serviced the equipment had sent two technicians.
One had been legitimate.
The second did not exist.
The forged employee badge used a photograph pulled from a state licensing database.
Someone with money had not only planned the attack.
Someone with institutional access had built a path into the house weeks in advance.
Marin stayed upstairs with Adelaide.
At dusk, the old woman asked for the obituaries.
Marin did not reach for the newspaper.
“Why did you hire me?”
Adelaide looked at her.
“You were qualified.”
“That isn’t the whole answer.”
“No.”
“Did you recognize my name?”
“Yes.”
Marin sat down.
The honesty was almost worse than another lie.
“You knew who my father was before I walked through the door.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing for fourteen months.”
“I was a coward.”
“You used me.”
“I hoped I could help you.”
“You paid me twenty-eight dollars an hour.”
A tired smile touched Adelaide’s mouth.
“You negotiated up from twenty-four.”
“That is not the point.”
“No.”
The smile vanished.
“I wanted to know you.”
Marin looked away.
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to borrow me because you feel guilty.”
“I know that too.”
There was something unbearable about an old woman accepting every accusation without defending herself.
Marin stood and moved to the window.
Rainwater still streaked the glass.
“When did you decide to contact the federal attorney?”
“Six weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“Because I learned Carlo’s old companies were active again.”
“Meridian?”
“Among others.”
“Who reactivated them?”
Adelaide looked toward the closed door.
“I thought it was Dominic.”
“You thought?”
“I found transfers from a hotel account he controls.”
“Then why not tell Elias?”
“Because Elias loves his brother in the most dangerous way a man can love someone.”
Marin turned.
“What way is that?”
“He still remembers the child.”
Adelaide looked tired suddenly.
“The boy who slept outside Elias’s room after their father beat him. The boy Elias taught to swim. The boy who cried at funerals.”
Her eyes hardened.
“He does not see the man unless forced.”
A soft knock interrupted them.
Dominic entered carrying soup.
“I bullied the kitchen into making something edible.”
Adelaide looked at Marin.
“See?”
Dominic set the tray down.
“See what?”
“Nothing.”
Marin watched him place the spoon on the right side of the bowl.
Adelaide was left-handed.
Anyone who cared for her knew that.
Dominic had spent less time in this room than he wanted people to think.
Marin moved the spoon.
Dominic noticed.
“So,” he said lightly, “you’re the famous nurse.”
“No.”
“Half the city is talking about you.”
“That sounds like half the city needs hobbies.”
He smiled.
“You’re not what I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
He glanced at her hands.
“Someone less calm.”
That was it again.
Not curiosity.
Recognition.
Marin’s skin went cold.
“Have we met?”
Dominic looked genuinely surprised.
“I don’t think so.”
“You’re sure?”
“Very.”
He kissed Adelaide’s cheek and left.
Marin waited until the door closed.
Then she crossed to the wardrobe.
Adelaide watched her.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding something.”
Marin opened the blue box and removed the Meridian photograph Jonah had left earlier.
It showed a line of relief trucks outside a warehouse.
Faces were small.
Most were turned away.
She held the photograph under the lamp.
Near the far edge, partly hidden behind a truck, stood a young man in sunglasses.
Dark hair.
White shirt.
A posture she had just seen in the doorway.
Marin’s pulse slowed instead of speeding.
She carried the photograph downstairs.
Elias was in the library with Vince and Rafe.
She placed it on the desk.
“Your brother said we’d never met.”
Elias stared at the image.
The photograph was dated seven years earlier.
Dominic would have been twenty-eight.
The same age Marin was now.
Vince took off his glasses.
“That could be anyone.”
“No,” Elias said.
His voice had gone flat.
He knew the way his brother stood.
The slight drop of the right shoulder from a motorcycle accident at seventeen.
It was Dominic.
Marin pointed to the truck behind him.
On its door was the crossed-circle mark.
Rafe swore under his breath.
Elias looked toward the ceiling, toward the room where Dominic had just kissed their mother.
Then his phone vibrated.
A text from Dominic.
MA WANTS ME TO TAKE HER TO MY HOUSE TONIGHT. I THINK SHE’LL BE SAFER HERE.
Elias read it twice.
Marin’s phone vibrated one second later.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
It contained no words.
Only a photograph.
Adelaide asleep in her bed.
Taken from inside the room less than five minutes earlier.
Under the image was a single sentence.
YOU SHOULD HAVE RUN WHEN SHE TOLD YOU TO.
May you like
Marin looked up.
Someone was still inside the house.
