Chapter 4 - A WARNING IN THE RAIN
Dominic showed me the photograph without saying a word.
My body went cold.
“Where did they take this?”
“Outside her preschool.”
“Who sent it?”
“An unknown number.”
I reached for my phone. “I'm calling the school.”
“Already done. My security team is on the way.”
“I don't want your men around her.”
“Claire, someone has photographed our daughter.”
“Our daughter?” I repeated.
He flinched.
“I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said it like that.”
I was too frightened to argue.
We drove to the preschool together. Dominic sat in the back of the SUV beside me, his hands clasped so tightly his knuckles had gone pale.
Sophie was safe in the director's office. When she saw me, she ran into my arms.
“Mommy!”
I held her so tightly she giggled.
Then she noticed Dominic.
“Mr. Hug!”
He crouched.
“Hello, Sophie.”
She held out a paper flower. “I made this.”
He accepted it as carefully as if it were made of glass.
“For me?”
She nodded.
“Thank you.”
The school director explained that a man had stood across the street for several minutes, taking photographs. He had left before staff could approach him.
Dominic's security chief, Adrian, showed him a still image from a nearby camera.
Dominic's expression changed.
“That's one of Raffaele's drivers.”
“Are you sure?” Adrian asked.
“I hired him.”
I looked between them.
“Your uncle sent someone to watch my daughter?”
Dominic's voice was low. “It appears so.”
“Why?”
He didn't answer.
On the drive back, Sophie fell asleep against me. Dominic watched her through the reflection in the window.
“I'll move you both to a secure house,” he said.
“No.”
“Claire—”
“I won't disappear into another place because your family is dangerous.”
“Then tell me what would make you feel safe.”
The question disarmed me.
I looked at Sophie.
“I want to choose the school route. I want to know every person who comes near her. I want a phone that works if I need help. And I want you to stop making decisions about us without asking.”
Dominic nodded.
“Agreed.”
“And no one takes her anywhere without me.”
“Agreed.”
“And if you ever use your money or power to threaten me—”
“I won't.”
“You don't get to interrupt.”
He fell silent.
“If you ever threaten me, I will leave. You won't find us.”
His gaze met mine.
“I understand.”
That night, he arranged a security detail that stayed at a distance and introduced each guard to me personally. He gave me a phone with emergency contacts already programmed, but he didn't ask me to surrender my old one.
For the first time, he was trying to make room for my choices.
At 11:40 p.m., I received a message from an unknown number.
You should have stayed gone. The child belongs to the family.
I showed Dominic.
He read it once.
Then he called Adrian.
“Find out who sent this. Quietly. And no one approaches Claire or Sophie without my authorization.”
He ended the call.
“Your uncle?” I asked.
“I don't know yet.”
“But you suspect him.”
Dominic looked toward the dark window.
“I've suspected him for eleven years.”
“Then why is he still in your life?”
“Because I was a boy when he took control of the family after Lucia died. I thought loyalty meant never questioning him.”
He turned back to me.
May you like
“I was wrong.”
============================================================================
