PART 2: THE SECRET BEHIND ELENA’S SPINE BRACE
Dominic went completely still.
“What?”
Elena swallowed.
“The scans showed fractures in two vertebrae, damage to the surrounding ligaments, and pressure on a nerve. They said I was lucky I could still walk.”
Dominic stared at her.
For six months, he had believed his wife was avoiding his touch because she no longer loved him.
For six months, he had listened to Luca Bellandi whisper that Elena was meeting another man.
For six months, he had slept in their enormous bed alone, convincing himself that anger was easier to endure than heartbreak.
And all that time, Elena had been fastening a steel-reinforced brace around her broken spine.
Alone.
Every morning.
Every night.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he whispered.
Elena looked at him.
“Would you have believed me?”
The question struck harder than any accusation.
“Elena—”
“Last December, when I asked you to come home because I wasn’t feeling well, you told me you were tired of my excuses.”
Dominic remembered.
He had been in Detroit with Luca.
Elena had called three times.
He had answered the fourth.
What is it now, Elena?
I need you.
You only seem to need me when I’m busy.
He remembered the silence that followed.
Then her quiet response.
I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.
And it hadn’t.
She had stopped calling.
Dominic lowered his eyes.
“God.”
Elena reached for her robe again.
“Please just give me the papers.”
He looked up sharply.
“What?”
“The divorce papers. I’ll sign them.”
Her voice was steady, but her hands weren’t.
“I won’t make this difficult for you.”
Dominic stared at her.
Then he did something Elena had never seen him do.
He sat on the floor.
Right there, among the scattered pages of their divorce.
And covered his face with both hands.
For nearly a minute, the room was silent.
Then Elena spoke.
“Dominic?”
He lowered his hands.
His eyes were red.
“Who took you to the hospital?”
She hesitated.
“My driver.”
“Which driver?”
“Antonio.”
Dominic frowned.
“Antonio left my employment in January.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Elena looked away.
“Because Luca dismissed him.”
Something cold moved through Dominic’s chest.
“Luca?”
She nodded.
“He said Antonio had violated security procedures by taking me outside the estate without authorization.”
Dominic stood slowly.
“Where were you going every Tuesday?”
“Physical therapy.”
He closed his eyes.
Of course.
Every Tuesday morning.
The hired car.
The exhaustion.
The way she sometimes returned barely able to climb the stairs.
He had imagined H๏τel rooms.
Secret lovers.
Betrayal.
And she had been learning how to walk without collapsing.
“Where?”
“St. Catherine’s Rehabilitation Center.”
Dominic reached for his phone.
Elena immediately stiffened.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“Why?”
“Because every time you become angry, someone else pays for it.”
He stared at her.
She continued quietly.
“I don’t want anyone hurt because of me.”
Something in her voice made him feel smaller than he had ever felt.
He placed the phone on the dresser.
“All right.”
Then he asked the question he should have asked six months earlier.
“Elena, what do you need right now?”
She blinked.
As if the words were unfamiliar.
Finally, she whispered, “I need help fastening the last strap.”
Dominic knelt beside her.
“Tell me how.”
She guided his hands.
“Pull it through the ring. Not too тιԍнт. Then secure the buckle.”
His fingers trembled.
He had signed contracts worth hundreds of millions without hesitation.
He had negotiated with men who would gladly have killed him.
But fastening a single medical strap around his wife’s injured body terrified him.
Because every red mark beneath the brace was proof of something he had failed to see.
When he finished, Elena exhaled slowly.
“Thank you.”
Two words.
Quiet.
Polite.
The way she might have thanked a stranger.
And Dominic realized that was exactly what he had become.
At 9:17 that morning, Dominic called Dr. Samuel Whitmore.
Not Luca.
Not his security team.
The orthopedic specialist whose name Elena reluctantly gave him.
He placed the call on speaker after Elena agreed.
“Dr. Whitmore, this is Dominic Rainer. My wife has told me about her spinal injury.”
There was a pause.
Then the doctor said, “Mr. Rainer, I can discuss her condition only with her permission.”
Elena nodded.
“You have it.”
The doctor explained that Elena had suffered unstable fractures requiring surgery, followed by months of rehabilitation and careful monitoring.
She had undergone a procedure in November to stabilize her spine.
She had spent weeks managing severe pain.
Her recovery was progressing, but she still faced limitations.
Dominic listened without interrupting.
Then he asked, “Why wasn’t I informed?”
The doctor hesitated.
“Your wife initially requested privacy.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
She lowered her eyes.
“But there was another complication,” Whitmore continued.
“What complication?”
“Someone contacted our office claiming to represent your family. He instructed our administrative staff that all correspondence concerning Mrs. Rainer’s treatment should be directed through him.”
Dominic’s jaw тιԍнтened.
“Who?”
“Mr. Luca Bellandi.”
The room went silent.
Dominic slowly turned toward Elena.
She looked frightened.
Not surprised.
Frightened.
“Elena,” he said carefully, “what aren’t you telling me?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Dominic, please don’t do this.”
“Do what?”
“Become the man everyone is afraid of.”
He swallowed.
“Then tell me what happened.”
She stared at the floor.
Finally, she whispered:
“Luca came to see me after my surgery.”
Dominic didn’t move.
“He told me you knew everything.”
“What?”
“He said you knew about my injury. That you were furious because I had endangered your reputation by refusing security that night.”
Dominic felt the blood drain from his face.
“He said that?”
Elena nodded.
“He told me you didn’t want a wife who needed constant care.”
“Elena—”
“He said you were already discussing divorce.”
Dominic stepped backward.
The papers scattered across the floor suddenly looked like evidence in a trial.
“That was November,” he whispered.
She nodded.
“And when I tried to call you, Luca told me you were unavailable.”
Dominic remembered the calls he had never received.
The messages Luca had summarized.
The pH๏τographs of Elena entering the rehabilitation center that Luca had described as evidence of an affair.
And suddenly, he understood.
Someone had spent six months dismantling his marriage.
Piece by piece.
Dominic picked up his phone.
This time, Elena didn’t stop him.
He called his private investigator, Gabriel Shaw.
“Gabriel. I need everything you have on the November ice storm accident.”
A pause.
“Sir?”
“The sedan that hit Elena. The driver. The insurance report. Every security recording.”
“Mr. Rainer, that case was closed.”
“Open it.”
Gabriel hesitated.
“There’s something you should know.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Speak.”
“I requested the original traffic-camera footage two months ago.”
“Why?”
“Because the police report didn’t match the damage to the vehicle.”
Dominic felt his pulse quicken.
“What did you find?”
“The sedan didn’t lose control on the ice.”
Silence.
Gabriel continued.
“It accelerated.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
She had gone completely pale.
“What are you saying?”
“The driver deliberately crossed the sidewalk.”
Dominic’s hand тιԍнтened around the phone.
“Who was driving?”
“We couldn’t identify him from the original footage. But yesterday, I received a copy from a private parking garage.”
“Send it.”
“Sir, there’s more.”
Dominic waited.
“The vehicle was registered to a company owned through three shell corporations.”
“Whose corporations?”
Gabriel took a breath.
“Luca Bellandi’s.”
Dominic didn’t speak.
For several seconds, he couldn’t.
Then he looked at Elena.
She was watching him with an expression he would remember for the rest of his life.
Not fear of Luca.
Fear of what Dominic might become when he learned the truth.
“Send me everything,” he said.
Then he ended the call.
At 10:04 a.m., Luca Bellandi entered Dominic’s private office.
He was forty-six, elegantly dressed, with silver at his temples and the easy confidence of a man who believed himself indispensable.
“Dominic.”
He smiled.
“I heard you came home early. How did Elena take the divorce?”
Dominic stood beside the window.
His back was turned.
“Sit down, Luca.”
Something in his tone made Luca hesitate.
Then he sat.
Dominic turned.
“How long have you worked for me?”
“Fourteen years.”
“And before that?”
“For your father.”
“Have I ever questioned your loyalty?”
Luca frowned.
“Of course not.”
Dominic placed a pH๏τograph on the desk.
It showed Elena entering St. Catherine’s Rehabilitation Center.
The same pH๏τograph Luca had shown him in January.
At the time, Luca had claimed she was meeting a wealthy businessman.
“Who is this?” Dominic asked.
Luca glanced at the pH๏τograph.
“Your wife.”
“And where is she?”
Luca hesitated.
“The place where she was meeting that man.”
Dominic placed a second pH๏τograph beside it.
This one showed the building’s entrance.
The sign was clearly visible.
ST. CATHERINE’S SPINAL REHABILITATION CENTER.
Luca’s smile disappeared.
Dominic spoke quietly.
“Try again.”
“Dominic, I can explain—”
“My wife was recovering from spinal surgery.”
Luca said nothing.
“She had two fractured vertebrae. She spent six months wearing a brace. And you told me she was having an affair.”
Luca stood.
“You’re misunderstanding the situation.”
“Sit.”
The single word silenced him.
Dominic placed a third pH๏τograph on the desk.
The damaged sedan.
Then a document.
The vehicle registration.
Then another.
A financial transfer.
Luca stared at the papers.
His face changed.
Dominic watched him carefully.
“You hired the driver.”
Luca swallowed.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“You arranged the accident.”
“No.”
“You intercepted my wife’s medical correspondence.”
“Dominic—”
“And you convinced her I wanted to abandon her because she was injured.”
Luca’s eyes moved toward the door.
Dominic noticed.
“Don’t bother.”
Two men stood outside.
But Dominic had given them one instruction.
Nobody was to touch Luca.
Not yet.
He wanted answers.
“Why?” Dominic asked.
Luca remained silent.
Dominic leaned forward.
“Fourteen years. You sat at my table. You knew my father. You held my wedding rings before the ceremony.”
His voice broke slightly.
“Elena trusted you.”
Luca looked away.
Then he laughed.
It was a small, bitter sound.
“You really don’t understand, do you?”
Dominic straightened.
“Explain it.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“Your father built an empire. You inherited it. And then you started changing everything.”
“What does that have to do with Elena?”
“She convinced you to close the old operations. To move the money into legitimate businesses. To stop doing business with men who made us rich.”
Dominic stared at him.
“She convinced me to become a better man.”
Luca sneered.
“She made you weak.”
Dominic’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“She made me human.”
Luca looked at the documents.
Then he said something that changed everything.
“The car wasn’t supposed to hit her.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“What?”
“It was supposed to hit you.”
Silence filled the office.
Luca continued.
“Your death would have triggered the succession agreement. I would have controlled the business until the board appointed a replacement.”
Dominic stared at him.
“And Elena?”
Luca looked down.
“She wasn’t supposed to be involved.”
For a moment, Dominic could hear nothing except the beating of his own heart.
His wife had nearly died saving him.
And the man responsible had spent six months convincing him to hate her.
At 11:26 a.m., Gabriel arrived with the final piece of evidence.
A recording.
It had been recovered from the damaged sedan’s internal camera.
The audio was distorted.
But the voices were clear.
One belonged to the driver.
The other belonged to Luca.
“He’s coming out now.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Make sure Rainer doesn’t walk away.”
Dominic listened without moving.
Then another voice appeared in the background.
A woman’s voice.
“Wait. His wife is with him.”
Luca answered:
“Then make sure she doesn’t survive to identify anyone.”
Dominic slowly raised his head.
“Play that again.”
Gabriel did.
The woman’s voice repeated.
“His wife is with him.”
Dominic looked at Luca.
“Who is she?”
Luca said nothing.
“Who is the woman?”
Luca’s face had turned gray.
Finally, he whispered:
“You don’t want to know.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Tell me.”
Luca looked him directly in the eyes.
“Your sister.”
Dominic froze.
His younger sister, Isabella Rainer, had been living in Switzerland for three years.
She had attended Elena’s wedding.
She had embraced Elena.
She had called her family.
And according to Luca, she had helped arrange the attack.
Dominic looked at Gabriel.
“Verify it.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Already working on it.”
Then Dominic’s phone rang.
Elena.
He answered immediately.
“Elena?”
Her voice was shaking.
“Dominic, where are you?”
“I’m at the office.”
“Please come home.”
He straightened.
“What’s wrong?”
A pause.
Then Elena whispered:
“Your sister is here.”
Dominic’s blood turned cold.
“Isabella?”
“Yes.”
“Elena, listen carefully. Don’t let her into your room.”
Silence.
“Elena?”
His wife’s breathing became uneven.
“Dominic…”
“What?”
“She’s already inside.”
Then a second voice came through the phone.
Soft.
Familiar.
Almost cheerful.
“Hello, big brother.”
Dominic gripped the desk.
“Isabella.”
She laughed.
“You finally figured it out.”
“Stay away from my wife.”
“Oh, Dominic.”
Her voice turned cold.
“You still don’t understand.”
A pause.
Then she said:
“Elena wasn’t injured because she saved you.”
Dominic felt the room spin.
“She was injured because she discovered something she wasn’t supposed to know.”
He stared at Luca.
Luca had gone completely pale.
Isabella continued.
“Ask your precious wife what she found in Father’s safe the night before the accident.”
Dominic couldn’t speak.
Then he heard Elena crying.
And Isabella whispered the words that would destroy everything Dominic believed about his family.
“Tell him, Elena. Tell my brother why his father really died.”
The call ended.
Dominic stood motionless.
His father had supposedly died of a heart attack twelve years earlier.
He had been buried beneath a marble monument overlooking Lake Erie.
But now his sister was suggesting that his death had been something else entirely.
And Elena had apparently discovered the truth.
Dominic looked at Luca.
“What happened to my father?”
Luca lowered his eyes.
Then he whispered:
“Dominic, your father didn’t die of a heart attack.”
The room went silent.
“He was murdered.”
Dominic’s hands began to shake.
“By whom?”
Luca looked toward the door.
Then back at Dominic.
“By the person who has been controlling your family for twelve years.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Who?”
Luca swallowed.
And the answer made Dominic’s entire world collapse.
“Your mother.”
At that exact moment, inside the Rainer mansion, Elena sat on the edge of her bed.
Isabella stood beside the window.
In her hand was a small black envelope.
“Six months,” Isabella said quietly. “You kept this secret for six months.”
Elena lifted her chin.
“I kept it because I wanted proof.”
Isabella smiled.
“And now?”
Elena reached beneath her pillow.
She pulled out a small recording device.
A red light blinked.
Isabella’s smile vanished.
Elena looked directly at her.
“Now I have it.”
Because while Dominic had spent six months believing his wife was betraying him, Elena had been gathering evidence against the people who had destroyed his family.
And the spine brace she wore wasn’t the only thing she had hidden.
Sewn into its inner lining was a tiny waterproof pouch.
Inside was a memory card containing the last recording Dominic’s father had ever made.
A recording that named his killer.
And exposed the true owner of the Rainer empire.
Elena pressed a ʙuттon on her phone.
The recording began.
An older man’s voice filled the bedroom.
“If my son Dominic ever hears this, tell him I am sorry.”
A pause.
“Everything I built was based on a lie.”
Isabella stepped backward.
Elena watched her carefully.
The voice continued.
“Dominic, the woman you call your mother is not your mother.”
And then came the final sentence.
“Your real mother is alive. And she has been living under another name for thirty-two years.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Because she already knew the name.
And when Dominic finally learned it, the truth would be more devastating than the divorce papers he had brought home that morning.
TO BE CONTINUED…
