Chapter 5 - The Signature
“Tell me he’s wrong.”
Sadi’s voice was so quiet that Dominic had to step closer to hear it.
He stopped when she moved back.
“What transfer?” Elena asked.
Dominic stared at the equipment bag.
“Four years ago, Matteo moved several properties into a new holding company. I signed the authorization.”
“The gym?”
“I don’t remember every address.”
“My father died in one of those buildings.”
“I know that now.”
She slapped him.
The sound startled everyone in the corridor.
An investigator stepped forward.
Sadi lowered her hand immediately.
Dominic did not touch his face.
“I’m sorry,” she said, to the investigator rather than to him. “That won’t happen again.”
Elena guided her into an empty office.
Only when the door closed did Sadi begin shaking.
She hated the slap.
Hated that anger had taken her somewhere her father had taught her never to go.
Hated that Dominic had stood still and accepted it, as though accepting pain could settle a debt.
“You do not owe him trust,” Elena said.
“I know.”
“You also don’t need to decide his guilt yourself.”
Sadi sat down.
Through the glass, she could see him speaking with his attorney.
He looked neither wounded nor indignant.
Just cornered by facts he could no longer delegate.
By evening, his legal team produced the transfer records.
His signature was real.
The authorization concerned property control, not a fire.
That did not absolve him of everything attached to the businesses.
It did establish what the document actually said.
Sadi read it twice.
Then she asked the question nobody could answer.
“Did he ever wonder what happened in those places?”
Elena folded her hands.
“That’s a question for him.”
Dominic answered in the parking lot, beneath a security camera and within sight of both attorneys.
“Not enough.”
“Why?”
“Because money arrived. Problems disappeared. I told myself being less cruel than the men before me meant I was different.”
“Were you?”
“Sometimes.”
His honesty hurt worse than charm would have.
“And sometimes,” he continued, “I paid other people to keep the consequences outside my office.”
Sadi looked at his expensive watch.
“The boy in the cage was a consequence.”
“Yes.”
“Nathan’s sister was a consequence.”
“Yes.”
“My brother.”
His voice broke slightly.
“Yes.”
She waited for him to say he had not known.
He didn’t.
“Then help get Eli out,” she said. “After that, whatever happens to you belongs to the truth.”
Dominic nodded.
No bargain.
No demand for forgiveness.
That night, Sadi stayed in a secure hotel arranged through Elena while the threat was assessed.
At the hotel, she found herself checking the lock repeatedly. After the fourth time, she sat on the carpet and counted the objects she could see. A lamp. A chair. A scuffed suitcase. Her shoes. The exercise was something a counselor had taught her after the fire, when ordinary hallways sometimes felt like traps. It did not make her fearless. It reminded her that fear could be present without making every decision. By the time she stood again, her breathing had slowed enough to call her mother without pretending to be cheerful.
She called her mother.
Ruth Calder was folding laundry in the rehabilitation residence, taking extraordinary care with a towel.
“Did you eat?” her mother asked.
The old question nearly undid her.
“Yes.”
“You sound tired.”
“Mom, there may be news about Eli.”
The towel stopped moving.
Sadi explained only what investigators had cleared her to share.
Alive.
Possibly located.
Not safe yet.
Ruth sat down slowly.
For four years, hope had been something people encouraged her to surrender.
Now it returned looking almost unbearable.
“Don’t promise,” she whispered.
“I won’t.”
“Your father always said promises should be small enough to carry.”
Sadi closed her eyes.
“Then I promise I’ll keep answering my phone.”
After the call, she found a message from Dominic through Elena.
Not flowers.
Not jewelry.
A written list of every property Matteo controlled, including the accounting office by the river.
At the bottom was a single sentence.
You don’t have to forgive me for this to be worth doing.
Sadi read it once.
May you like
Then she forwarded it to the investigators.
For now, usefulness was the only kindness she could accept.
