Dominic’s smile disappeared.

For several seconds, nobody in the study moved.

Lily stood in the doorway, her tiny fingers gripping the edge of her oversized black jacket. Her red bow had slipped sideways, and the plastic earpiece was hanging around her neck.

But she didn’t take her eyes off Dominic.

Vincent slowly placed the recovered gold watch on his desk.

“Everyone out.”

His voice was quiet.

That was what made it frightening.

The four security men immediately moved toward the door. Rosa remained beside Lily, one arm wrapped protectively around her daughter.

Dominic didn’t move.

“Boss, surely you don’t believe this nonsense.”

Vincent lifted his eyes.

“I said everyone.”

Dominic’s jaw тιԍнтened.

“Vincent, I’ve served you for ten years. I’ve taken bullets for you. I’ve protected this family when nobody else would.”

“Then you shouldn’t have a problem answering a few questions.”

Dominic glanced at Lily.

“She’s four years old. She doesn’t understand what she’s saying.”

Lily immediately shook her head.

“I’m not a baby.”

Dominic gave a humorless chuckle.

“Of course not, sweetheart.”

He crouched slightly, trying to soften his expression.

“Now, why don’t you tell Mr. Moretti that you made a mistake?”

Lily stepped behind her mother.

“I didn’t make a mistake.”

Vincent noticed the movement.

He also noticed something else.

Every time Dominic moved his right hand, Lily flinched.

“Don’t talk to her,” Vincent ordered.

Dominic slowly straightened.

For the first time in ten years, he looked uncomfortable in Vincent’s presence.

“Tell me what you saw, Lily.”

Vincent lowered himself into the chair so that he was closer to her height.

Lily looked at her mother.

Rosa nodded gently.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. Tell the truth.”

The little girl took a breath.

“Yesterday, Mommy was carrying clean towels upstairs. I was playing with my coloring book outside your office.”

Vincent listened without interrupting.

“Mr. Dominic came in. He thought nobody was there.”

Dominic shook his head.

“That’s ridiculous.”

Vincent raised one finger.

Dominic fell silent.

Lily continued.

“He opened your drawer. He took the shiny watch out. Then he looked at the hallway.”

She paused.

“He put it in his pocket.”

Vincent’s expression hardened.

“And then?”

“He went downstairs.”

“Did you tell anyone?”

Lily nodded.

“I told Mama Gina.”

Rosa looked startled.

“You did?”

“Yes, Mommy. But Mama Gina said I should stay quiet because Mr. Dominic was a very important man.”

Dominic’s face changed.

“That is enough!”

Lily jumped.

Vincent stood.

“One more word, Dominic, and you’ll answer to me.”

The room fell silent again.

Vincent turned back to Lily.

“Did you see anything else?”

The little girl hesitated.

Then she whispered something that made Vincent’s blood run cold.

“Mr. Dominic also said Mommy would be blamed.”

Rosa covered her mouth.

Vincent slowly turned toward his security chief.

“What exactly did you say?”

Dominic laughed nervously.

“Boss, children hear things and misunderstand them. This is becoming absurd.”

But Lily wasn’t finished.

“He was talking on the phone.”

She pointed toward Dominic.

“He said, ‘Once the maid is gone, nobody will know what happened to the little girl.'”

Rosa immediately pulled Lily against her chest.

Vincent’s face became unreadable.

“What little girl?”

Lily pointed at herself.

“Me.”

For the first time, Vincent felt something other than anger.

Fear.

Not for himself.

For the little girl standing in front of him.

Ten minutes later, Mama Gina was brought into the study.

The elderly housekeeper looked terrified when she saw Rosa crying and Dominic standing beside the window.

“Mr. Moretti?”

Vincent gestured toward a chair.

“Sit down, Gina.”

She sat.

“Did Lily tell you she saw Dominic in my office yesterday?”

Gina’s eyes immediately moved toward Dominic.

That single glance told Vincent more than her first answer.

“I… I didn’t think it was important, sir.”

“Try again.”

Gina twisted her hands.

“She told me she saw Mr. Dominic carrying something gold. I thought perhaps he was moving your belongings.”

Dominic stepped forward.

“Careful, Gina.”

Vincent’s eyes snapped toward him.

“Let her speak.”

Gina swallowed.

“Later that afternoon, I heard Mr. Dominic speaking on the telephone near the pantry. He said the maid would take the blame, and that once the investigation was finished, there would be no reason for the child to remain in this house.”

Rosa began crying harder.

Vincent’s hands slowly curled into fists.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was afraid, sir.”

“Of him?”

Gina nodded.

Dominic suddenly laughed.

“This is unbelievable. Are we seriously conducting an investigation based on the imagination of a child and the gossip of two employees?”

Vincent didn’t answer.

Instead, he turned to his head of security.

“Bring me the surveillance footage from yesterday. Every camera. Every hallway. Every entrance.”

Dominic’s expression тιԍнтened.

“There’s a problem with the system.”

Vincent looked at him.

“What problem?”

“Several cameras went offline yesterday afternoon. Maintenance was supposed to fix them.”

“Who authorized the maintenance?”

Dominic hesitated.

Then Vincent understood.

“Your access code?”

Dominic said nothing.

Vincent picked up the telephone.

“Nobody leaves this estate.”

Twenty minutes later, the security team gathered in the control room.

The footage from the main hallway was available.

The footage from the kitchen was available.

The footage from the east staircase was available.

But the camera outside Vincent’s study had mysteriously stopped recording at 2:17 p.m.

The exact time Dominic claimed he had never entered the room.

“Convenient,” Vincent muttered.

One of the technicians leaned toward his computer.

“Sir, there’s something else.”

He opened a maintenance log.

“The camera wasn’t damaged. Someone remotely disabled it.”

“Can you identify who?”

The technician examined the access records.

Then his face went pale.

“Yes, sir.”

Vincent stepped closer.

“Who?”

The technician swallowed.

“Chief Cole’s credentials.”

Nobody spoke.

Dominic stood at the back of the room, his expression hardening.

“This proves nothing. I have administrative access. That’s part of my job.”

Vincent turned.

“Then explain why you needed to disable the camera.”

Dominic spread his hands.

“I was protecting your privacy.”

“By stealing my wife’s watch?”

“I didn’t steal anything!”

His voice echoed through the control room.

Vincent stared at him for a long moment.

Then he said something that made every guard straighten.

“Take his weapon.”

Two men approached Dominic.

For the first time, Dominic looked genuinely frightened.

“Vincent, don’t do this.”

One guard reached for his holster.

Dominic suddenly stepped backward.

“You’re making a terrible mistake.”

Vincent didn’t blink.

“Perhaps. But I’m going to find out.”

Dominic’s weapon was removed.

He was escorted into a secured guest room while the investigation continued.

But Vincent wasn’t satisfied.

Not even close.

Back in the kitchen, Rosa sat with Lily on her lap.

The little girl had finally removed her plastic earpiece.

She was holding a cup of warm milk with both hands.

Vincent entered quietly.

Rosa immediately stood.

“Mr. Moretti, I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet.”

His eyes moved toward Lily.

“Come here, little bodyguard.”

Lily climbed down from her mother’s lap and approached him.

“Am I fired?”

Vincent blinked.

“What?”

“Because I told you about Mr. Dominic.”

For a moment, the feared mafia boss couldn’t find an answer.

Then he crouched in front of her.

“No, sweetheart. You’re not fired.”

“Good.”

She nodded seriously.

“Because I still have to protect you.”

Vincent almost smiled.

But then Lily reached into the pocket of her little jacket.

“I have something else.”

She pulled out a folded piece of paper.

It was one of her drawings.

Vincent unfolded it carefully.

The picture showed a little girl holding hands with a tall man.

Behind them was a large house.

But there was something strange.

A third person stood near the house, colored entirely in black.

The figure had a yellow circle on one hand.

Vincent recognized it immediately.

Dominic’s gold lion ring.

“Who is this?” he asked.

“Mr. Dominic.”

“And why did you draw him there?”

Lily looked down.

“Because he came to see me last week.”

Vincent’s expression changed.

“What?”

Rosa turned sharply.

“Lily, what are you talking about?”

The little girl continued in a small voice.

“He came to the kitchen when Mommy was washing dishes. He gave me a chocolate.”

Rosa’s face drained of color.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because he said it was a secret.”

Vincent felt a chill move through him.

“What did he ask you?”

Lily looked directly into his eyes.

“He asked me if I knew where you kept the pretty lady’s pictures.”

Vincent went completely still.

The pretty lady.

Isabella.

His deceased wife.

“Did you tell him?”

Lily shook her head.

“No. I said the pictures were upstairs.”

Vincent glanced at Rosa.

“Where are Isabella’s pH๏τographs?”

“In the locked room beside your bedroom,” Rosa answered. “The room you never let anyone enter.”

Vincent stood immediately.

He had kept that room untouched for six years.

Nobody entered it.

Not even the housekeepers.

He turned toward the door.

“Stay here with Rosa. Two guards will remain outside.”

Lily grabbed his sleeve.

“Mr. Vincent?”

He looked down.

“Yes?”

“Don’t go alone.”

He almost dismissed the warning.

Then he noticed the fear in her eyes.

“Why?”

Lily whispered:

“Because Mr. Dominic said the bad people would come when you found the secret.”

The locked room was exactly as Vincent remembered it.

Isabella’s perfume still rested on the dressing table.

Her favorite books remained stacked beside the bed.

A silk scarf hung over the back of a chair.

But something was wrong.

The small wooden jewelry box that Isabella had kept beside her pH๏τographs was open.

Vincent approached slowly.

Inside was a single pH๏τograph.

It showed Isabella standing outside the mansion, holding a newborn baby wrapped in a white blanket.

Vincent frowned.

He had never seen this pH๏τograph before.

On the back, written in Isabella’s handwriting, were six words:

Vincent, forgive me for hiding this.

His heart began pounding.

He turned the pH๏τograph over again.

There was another detail.

A small hospital bracelet had been placed beneath the picture.

The name printed on it was barely visible.

But the date was clear.

The date was six years ago.

The same year Isabella died.

Before Vincent could examine it further, his phone vibrated.

A message appeared from an unknown number.

YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE MAID ALONE.

A second message followed.

ASK YOUR LITTLE BODYGUARD WHAT SHE SAW IN THE GARAGE.

Vincent stared at the screen.

Then he called the control room.

“Lock down the garage. Immediately.”

A guard answered.

“Sir, there’s a problem.”

“What?”

“Chief Cole is missing.”

Vincent’s blood ran cold.

“Where is he?”

“We found the secured room empty. The rear service gate is open.”

Vincent looked at the pH๏τograph in his hand.

Then he heard a small voice behind him.

“Mr. Vincent?”

He spun around.

Lily stood in the doorway, with Rosa just behind her.

“Sweetheart, I told you to stay downstairs.”

She looked frightened.

But she was holding something тιԍнтly in her little fist.

“I remembered something.”

Vincent approached her.

“What is it?”

Lily opened her hand.

A small silver key lay in her palm.

“I found this under the car yesterday.”

Vincent recognized the key immediately.

It belonged to the old storage room beneath the garage.

A room that hadn’t been opened since Isabella’s funeral.

Lily looked up at him.

“Mr. Dominic dropped it when he was talking to the bad man.”

Vincent’s eyes narrowed.

“Did you hear what they said?”

Lily nodded.

Then she whispered the words that would change everything.

“Mr. Dominic said the baby wasn’t supposed to survive.”

Rosa gasped.

Vincent felt the pH๏τograph slip slightly between his fingers.

“What baby, Lily?”

The little girl pointed at the pH๏τograph.

“That baby.”

For several seconds, Vincent couldn’t breathe.

He looked at Isabella’s face.

At the newborn in her arms.

At the date on the hospital bracelet.

Then he heard footsteps approaching rapidly from the hallway.

A guard appeared at the door.

“Boss! We found something in the garage.”

Vincent turned.

“What?”

The guard swallowed.

“A hidden room. And there’s someone inside.”

“Who?”

The guard hesitated.

Then he delivered the words that made Vincent’s entire world collapse.

“Sir… it’s a woman.”

He paused.

“She looks exactly like Mrs. Isabella.”

TO BE CONTINUED…