Chapter 5 - The Confession Dominic Wanted
Dominic Vescari had a gift for making threats sound like invitations.
He sat behind the priest's desk, immaculate in a tan overcoat, with a porcelain cup of tea in front of him.
A silver watch gleamed at his wrist.
"My family," he said when Matteo entered. "And our new baker friend."
I remained near the door.
The priest had vanished down the hall, leaving his church to a man who clearly considered it another room he owned.
"You followed us," Matteo said.
"I worried about Sofia."
"You sent men to break into Emily's shop."
Dominic spread his hands.
"If someone told you that, they dislike me."
I placed the old photograph on the desk but kept one finger over the young man's face.
Dominic's gaze darted to it before he could conceal his reaction.
"Recognize this?" I asked.
"Old pictures are sentimental things."
"This one was sentimental enough to send a surveillance team."
Dominic smiled thinly.
"Miss Carter, a bakery is a fragile enterprise. Codes, inspectors, leases. You wouldn't want unfortunate complications."
"Threatening my business in a church is a bold choice."
He looked almost pleased.
"I was told you were entertaining."
Matteo leaned across the desk.
"Keep your hands off Emily and Sofia."
"The girl requires stability," Dominic replied. "Not the company of a woman who once left military service under a cloud."
I felt my heart bump once.
That information had been buried in a sealed personnel dispute.
Dominic had somebody with access to my former life.
"I resigned after a case was compromised," I said.
"An interesting way to describe misconduct allegations."
I saw the move plainly.
He wasn't trying to convince me I was guilty.
He was trying to make Matteo doubt the witness who could connect him to an older crime.
"You've had time to fabricate a dossier," I said. "You didn't have time to invent a convincing apology for Sofia."
His smile vanished.
Sofia spoke from the doorway where Isabella waited beside her.
"I heard you at the river house."
Dominic looked toward her.
"Sweetheart, accidents distort memory."
"You told the man to shut Grandma up."
For the first time, Dominic forgot to perform kindness.
"Careful," he said.
Matteo stood so abruptly his chair struck the wall.
"You will never speak to her that way again."
Dominic sat back.
"There it is. The temper I warned your father about."
I heard the careful architecture of the trap.
Dominic wanted Matteo furious, violent, and unmanageable.
A public outburst could turn the family against him and make Sofia's memory seem coached.
I caught Matteo's sleeve.
"We leave," I said.
Dominic watched us move toward the hall.
"Emily," he called, "did Rose ever tell you why the bakery survived the fire?"
I stopped.
"She said she got lucky."
"Rose was never lucky. She was useful."
Matteo turned back, but I kept walking.
Outside, the church bells rang six.
My phone lit with a video from an unknown sender.
It showed the inside of Rose's Bread & Pastry, filmed only moments earlier.
A man was carrying boxes from my back room into a truck.
The caption read: YOU LEFT THE OVENS ON.
I hadn't.
I had shut off every gas valve before the escape.
But smoke was already curling along my bakery ceiling.
Dominic hadn't come to the church to negotiate.
May you like
He had come to keep us occupied while someone destroyed my grandmother's building.
