Chapter 3 - Damian Accused Tessa of Hiding Something, But Her Answer Broke His Carefully Built Walls
Damian waited.
He watched Tessa for the next three days.
Nothing suspicious.
She cleaned.
She fed Beatrice.
She talked.
She went home.
She returned.
No secret meetings.
No unknown visitors.
No unexplained money.
Still, Damian couldn't ignore the message.
Your father.
His father's death had always been described as an accident.
Twenty years earlier, Antonio Costa had been killed in a warehouse explosion.
Damian had been nineteen.
His mother had survived.
His father had not.
The official story was an electrical failure.
Damian had never believed it.
He had spent twenty years building an empire partly because he wanted power no one could take from him again.
Now someone claimed Tessa knew what happened.
So Damian confronted her.
He found her in the pantry.
“Where were you last night?”
She looked over her shoulder.
“Home.”
“Who did you talk to?”
“My landlord.”
“Anyone else?”
“My friend from the diner.”
“What friend?”
Tessa slowly turned.
“Are you interrogating me?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should at least offer coffee.”
Damian's face darkened.
She sighed.
“Okay. What did I do?”
“Who told you about my father?”
Tessa froze.
For the first time, Damian saw fear.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Don't lie.”
“I'm not.”
“You know something.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Damian stepped closer.
Tessa backed away.
“I don't want trouble.”
“You already have it.”
She looked at him.
“My sister worked at Saint Mary's Hospital.”
“So?”
“Your father was treated there before he died.”
Damian's eyes narrowed.
“How do you know?”
“Because I found his name in her files.”
“Why would your sister have his file?”
“She worked in records.”
“Did you see anything?”
Tessa hesitated.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I saw something strange.”
“Tell me.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because I promised someone.”
Damian's patience snapped.
“Promises don't protect people in my world.”
Tessa looked directly into his eyes.
“That's the problem with your world.”
Silence.
Then she walked away.
Damian could have stopped her.
He didn't.
That night, he found her crying in the east garden.
She was sitting alone beside the fountain.
Damian approached.
“Why are you crying?”
“My sister.”
He sat down beside her.
Neither spoke for a while.
Eventually Tessa said:
“She called me on the day she died.”
Damian looked at her.
“She couldn't breathe.”
Tessa wiped her eyes.
“She told me someone had asked her to remove a file.”
“What file?”
“I don't know.”
“Did she say a name?”
Tessa nodded.
“Costa.”
Damian's blood ran cold.
“Who?”
“She couldn't finish.”
“What else?”
“She said, ‘Tessa, don't trust him.’”
“Who was she talking about?”
“I don't know.”
“Did she leave anything?”
Tessa reached into her bag.
She pulled out a small key.
“My sister gave me this.”
Damian stared.
“What is it?”
“I don't know.”
“Why didn't you give it to the police?”
“Because when my sister died, I found three strangers waiting outside our apartment.”
Damian's expression changed.
“What did they say?”
“They asked about the key.”
“Did you tell them?”
“No.”
“Where have you kept it?”
“With me.”
Damian looked toward the mansion.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
He frowned.
“You trust me enough to sit beside me but not enough to give me a key?”
Tessa shook her head.
“I trust you to protect your mother.”
Damian stared.
“But I don't trust the man who controls everyone around her.”
It hurt.
More than it should have.
He stood.
“You think I'm dangerous.”
“I think you're capable of doing dangerous things.”
“Same difference.”
“No.”
She stood too.
“I think you are trying very hard not to become your father.”
Damian froze.
“How do you know anything about my father?”
“I don't.”
“Then stop pretending.”
Tessa stepped closer.
“You don't need to be him.”
She placed the key in his hand.
“I want to know the truth too.”
Damian closed his fingers around it.
The next morning, he took the key to Paul.
They discovered it belonged to an old safe deposit box.
The box was registered to Antonio Costa.
It had been opened once.
Twenty years ago.
Then never again.
Damian drove there himself.
Inside were documents.
Photographs.
A letter.
And one photograph that made his blood freeze.
His father stood beside three men.
One was his mother.
One was a younger Damian.
The third man was Beatrice's doctor.
Damian had trusted him for years.
Then he found the letter.
Antonio had written:
If anything happens to me, the person closest to this family is responsible.
Damian read it twice.
His phone rang.
Tessa.
“Damian.”
“What?”
“Mrs. Costa keeps asking for you.”
He looked at the letter.
“Tell her I'm coming.”
Tessa hesitated.
“She said something else.”
“What?”
“She said, ‘My son must not open the red door.’”
Damian looked toward the old photograph.
There was a red door behind them.
He hadn't noticed it before.
May you like
And now he knew exactly where it was.
Inside his own mansion.
Related Stories
