Chapter 1 - The Echo of His Name
The air in the restaurant suddenly felt too thin to breathe.
Dominic Moretti leaned back in the leather booth.
His dark eyes studied me with terrifying precision.
“Mark,” he repeated quietly.
“Your late husband was named Mark Davis.”
I grabbed Lily’s small hand so tightly she whimpered.
I had never mentioned Mark to the matchmaking service.
My profile only said I was a widow.
“How do you know that name?” I asked.
My voice trembled despite my best efforts to sound brave.
Dominic did not smile.
He slowly reached into the inner pocket of his tailored suit.
I braced myself for a weapon.
Instead, he pulled out a worn silver pocket watch.
I gasped loudly.
It was Mark’s watch.
The one he supposedly had on him when his car plunged off the bridge three years ago.
The police had told me the watch was lost in the river.
“Where did you get that?” I whispered.
Dominic placed it gently on the table next to Lily’s half-empty hot chocolate.
“He left it as collateral,” Dominic said smoothly.
“Your husband owed me something very important, Sarah.”
My mind spun in circles.
Mark was a high school math teacher.
He graded papers and baked terrible cookies on weekends.
He had no connection to the criminal underworld.
“You have the wrong man,” I insisted.
I stood up and pulled Lily from the booth.
“We are leaving.”
Dominic did not move a muscle to stop me.
He just took a slow sip of his cold coffee.
“You can walk out that door, Sarah,” he said.
“But the men waiting in the black SUV outside are not mine.”
I froze in my tracks.
“They are the people Mark stole from,” Dominic continued.
“And they think you have the ledger.”
I looked toward the restaurant windows.
Through the glass, I saw two men in dark coats staring directly at Lily and me.
May you like
Then Dominic said the one thing that shattered my reality entirely.
“If you want to keep your daughter alive, you need to sit back down and tell me where Mark is hiding.”
