Chapter 8 - The Shadow of the PastFor forty-eight hours after the confrontation in the hallway, Clara refused to leave her room. She locked the heavy oak doors from the inside, ignoring the trays of fresh food Teresa left outside.
She spent her time searching through the small laptop Dominic had left in the suite, trying to find any trace of the name Anthony Moretti.
What she discovered chilled her to the bone.
Old news articles from sixteen years ago painted a brutal picture of a bloody mafia war that had consumed New York City. The Moretti family had been systematically dismantled in a series of coordinated strikes over three months. The final blow had occurred at a estate in upstate New York, where Anthony Moretti was gunned down in his own home.
The news articles named the primary suspect in the hit: A rising young enforcer named Dominic Rossi.
Clara collapsed against the desk, her breath ragged, her stomach churning with pure horror.
The man who had stood outside her ICU bed... The man who had placed a gold band on her swollen finger... The man who claimed to be her protector... Was the man who had murdered her father.
A soft knock sounded at her door.
"Clara," Dominic’s voice came through the thick wood. "Open the door."
Clara didn't answer. She walked over to the nightstand, her hand reaching into the top drawer where she had seen a silver letter opener left behind by the maid. Her fingers wrapped tightly around the cold handle.
The heavy lock on the door clicked.
Dominic pushed the door open, using a master key. He wore a black suit, his coat unbuttoned, looking exhausted and grim.
He took one step into the room and stopped, his eyes dropping to the silver blade clutched tightly in her hand.
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"Are you going to use that?" he asked quietly.
"You killed him," Clara whispered, her voice shaking with an unbearable mixture of grief and fury. "You killed my father."
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