Chapter 6 - THE ACCUSATION IN THE SUNLIGHT
Dominic held Lucia’s shoulders firmly, his heart pounding in his ears. He leaned closer, his dark eyes searching every millimeter of her tear-streaked face.
"Take your time, sweetheart," Dominic urged softly, his own eyes welling with unbidden tears. "Tell Daddy. What do you want to say?"
Lucia stared directly into her father's eyes. Her small chest expanded with one final, ragged breath, her small fingers digging into the black wool of his coat until her knuckles were stark white.
Her voice, when it finally broke through the fourteen-month silence, was weak, raspy, and broken—the voice of a traumatized four-year-old child forcing out three terrifying words.
"Daddy... killed... Mommy."
The words struck the room like an explosive detonation.
Dominic went completely, utterly still. The warmth in his eyes froze into absolute stone. His hands remained resting on her small shoulders, but his body locked as if he had been struck by a physical round from a heavy caliber rifle.
Behind him, Clara’s expression shifted instantly from fear to pure, horrifying realization. She gasped softly, taking a involuntary half-step back toward the wall.
Rosa Bennett gasped loudly, both hands slapping over her mouth as a look of unadulterated terror crossed her face.
Valentina and Mia sat on the floor, staring silently at their sister, the heavy weight of their mother's memory crashing down onto the room like a dark shroud.
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Dominic slowly, deliberately released his grip on Lucia’s shoulders. His hands hovered in the air for a fraction of a second before he lowered them to his sides. His face shifted rapidly through a terrifying sequence of emotions—from complete disbelief, to profound, agonizing grief, and finally to a cold, razor-sharp dread.
He stared into his daughter's dark eyes, realizing with a sickening drop in his stomach that her words were not a child's confused accusation—they were a memory. She had seen something in the shadows fourteen months ago, a secret surrounding Isabella's murder that the entire New York underworld had been hunting for over a year.
