Chapter 3 - The Mistress Had Never Loved Him
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
Dominic stood in the bedroom with Rebecca still on the phone.
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“About what?”
“Northstar.”
Vanessa’s expression remained calm.
Dominic ended the call.
He walked toward her.
“Six point four million dollars.”
“You’re overreacting.”
The phrase struck him.
Carrie.
You’re being dramatic.
For the first time, Dominic heard how contemptuous those words sounded when they were directed at him.
“Where is the money?”
Vanessa walked toward the dressing table.
“Dominic, companies move money constantly.”
“Not through shell corporations I didn’t authorize.”
“You approved the invoices.”
“I approved your invoices because I trusted you.”
Vanessa turned.
“And whose fault is that?”
Dominic stared at her.
Vanessa smiled coldly.
“You really thought this was a love story?”
His face changed.
She laughed.
“Oh, please.”
She removed one diamond earring.
“You were married.”
“I know.”
“You had a pregnant wife.”
“I know.”
“You still brought me here.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Vanessa placed the earring on the table.
“You didn’t choose me because I tricked you. You chose me because you liked how I made you feel.”
“Vanessa.”
“Powerful. Desired. Unquestioned.”
She stepped closer.
“Carrie knew you too well.”
Dominic flinched.
“She remembered the boy before the suits. Before the drivers. Before people started lowering their voices when you entered rooms.”
Vanessa smiled.
“I never asked you to be better.”
The truth of that sentence was brutal.
Carrie had asked questions.
Why was he missing dinner?
Why did he never visit his mother?
Why had he stopped calling Walter by his first name?
Why was he approving expansion plans without reviewing the risk?
Dominic had called it criticism.
Vanessa called everything he did brilliant.
He had preferred applause.
“What did you do with the money?”
Vanessa’s expression hardened.
“You’ll need your lawyers to answer that.”
Dominic stepped toward the door.
“You’re leaving.”
She laughed.
“From my bedroom?”
His face became stone.
“Do not call it that.”
Vanessa smiled.
Now she understood exactly where to cut him.
“Why? Did Caroline leave something behind?”
Dominic did not answer.
Vanessa walked closer.
“She left you.”
Still nothing.
“And you didn’t chase her.”
Dominic’s hands curled.
Vanessa whispered, “That’s the part you can’t forgive yourself for, isn’t it?”
Security escorted Vanessa from the estate twenty minutes later.
She left wearing sunglasses despite the darkness.
Dominic stood alone in the foyer.
For the first time in his adult life, there was no one left to blame.
Three days later, Carrie woke at 2:14 a.m. with pain beneath her ribs.
She sat up.
The room tilted.
Her vision blurred.
She reached for the blood pressure monitor.
The reading terrified her.
Carrie called Dr. Bennett.
“Go to the hospital.”
Carrie’s heart stopped.
“Now?”
“Now.”
Margaret drove.
Carrie sat in the passenger seat holding her belly.
“Stay with me, baby.”
Margaret gripped the steering wheel.
“She will.”
At the hospital, nurses moved quickly.
Blood tests.
Monitoring.
Questions.
Dr. Bennett arrived before dawn.
“Caroline, you have preeclampsia.”
Carrie stared at her.
“How bad?”
“We’re going to manage it carefully.”
“Is my daughter okay?”
“Right now, yes.”
Right now.
Two terrifying words.
Carrie was admitted.
Margaret called Dominic.
He was in Manhattan when his mother’s name appeared.
“What happened?”
“Caroline is in the hospital.”
Dominic stood so quickly his chair rolled backward.
“What?”
“Preeclampsia.”
His face drained.
“What hospital?”
Margaret told him.
He reached the maternity floor forty minutes later.
Margaret was waiting outside Carrie’s room.
Dominic walked toward the door.
Margaret blocked him.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Mother.”
“She does not need stress.”
“I’m her husband.”
Margaret looked at his bare face.
“No. You are the father of her child.”
The distinction devastated him.
“Let me see her.”
“I will ask.”
Carrie heard the conversation through the door.
Her heart monitor accelerated.
A nurse noticed.
“Are you okay?”
Carrie closed her eyes.
“Please tell them I don’t want visitors.”
Margaret returned to the hallway.
“She said no.”
Dominic stared at the door.
He could see Carrie’s shadow through the narrow glass.
His wife.
His daughter.
Ten feet away.
He was not allowed inside.
And the worst part was that no security guard, lawyer, rival, or enemy had put him there.
He had.
Dominic sat in the hallway.
He stayed for nine hours.
Carrie never asked for him.
At 3:00 p.m., Walter arrived with a bag containing Carrie’s charger and clothes.
He saw Dominic.
Neither man spoke.
Walter entered Carrie’s room.
Dominic remained outside.
Later, Daniel came.
Then Maria.
Then Rebecca.
Then Grace.
People who had once entered Dominic’s house because they worked for him now walked past him to care for the woman he had failed.
At 7:20 p.m., Dr. Bennett emerged.
Dominic stood.
“How is she?”
“Stable.”
“And the baby?”
“Stable.”
He exhaled.
Dr. Bennett studied him.
“Mr. Marino, stress is not abstract in her condition.”
Dominic looked toward the door.
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
The doctor walked away.
Dominic sat again.
At 9:00, Carrie finally asked Margaret whether he was still outside.
“Yes.”
Carrie looked toward the window.
“Tell him to go home.”
Margaret hesitated.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Margaret delivered the message.
Dominic stood.
He looked at the closed door one final time.
“Tell her…”
He stopped.
What could he say?
Sorry?
Too small.
I love you?
Too selfish.
Come home?
Cruel.
Finally, Dominic said, “Tell her I’ll do whatever she needs.”
Margaret looked at him sadly.
“She needed you eight days ago.”
Dominic left.
The following morning, federal investigators arrived at Marino Holdings.
Not because of Dominic’s affair.
Because Northstar Logistics had triggered banking alerts.
The missing money was larger than expected.
May you like
$11.2 million.
And Vanessa Langford had disappeared.
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