Dr.
Reynolds raised both hands.
“I’m not going anywhere until somebody controls that dog.”
Nobody answered.
Titan’s growl filled the doorway.
Dante glanced toward Adrian.
The boss had not moved.
A vein pulsed hard in Dante’s temple.
“Titan,” he said.
The dog’s eyes shifted toward him.
“Down.”
The growl deepened.
Dante muttered something under his breath.
Dr.
Reynolds looked at his watch.
“If he’s unconscious because of a cardiac event, a seizure, internal bleeding, or a head injury, every minute you stand here arguing with the dog matters.”
“I know.”
“Then do something.”
Dante’s expression changed.
For the first time since Elena had known him, he looked helpless.
Behind them, footsteps gathered.
More guards.
Mrs.
Bellini.
Vincent Moretti, Adrian’s younger brother, still pale from whatever illness had brought Dr.
Reynolds to the estate that morning.
Voices overlapped.
“What happened?”
“Is Adrian breathing?”
“Get the dog out.”
“Shoot it if you have to.”
That last sentence silenced everyone.
Titan heard it too.
His head turned.
The growl vanished.
That was worse.
The guard who had spoken took one step backward.
Dante stared at him.
“If anybody fires a weapon in this hallway, I’ll put them through the window myself.”
“It’s a dog.”
“It’s his dog.”
“And he’s dying behind it.”
Then a small voice floated through the tension.
“Titan?”
Elena’s blood went cold.
She turned.
Sophia stood behind the adults.
Her notebook was tucked against her chest.
A yellow crayon was still clutched in one hand.
“Sophia.”
The girl looked at her mother.
Elena rushed forward.
“I told you to stay in the closet.”
“I heard the dog.”
“This is not the time.”
“But he sounds scared.”
Several men exchanged looks.
One almost smiled.
Then Titan made a strange sound from inside the study.
Not a growl.
A low whine.
Sophia turned toward him.
Elena grabbed her shoulder.
“No.”
Sophia frowned.
“Mama.”
“No.”
“But he knows me.”
Elena stared at her.
“What?”
Sophia looked confused by the question.
“He knows me.”
Dante crouched slightly.
“What do you mean?”
Sophia pointed toward Titan.
“I give him crackers.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Of course she did.
Her daughter, apparently, had been secretly feeding crackers to the most dangerous animal in Massachusetts.
“When?”
“Sometimes.”
“That is not an answer.”
“After lunch.”
“How many times?”
Sophia began counting silently on her fingers.
Elena stopped her.
“We’ll discuss this later.”
Titan whined again.
Sophia looked past her mother.
“He doesn’t want people near Mr.
Adrian because he thinks they’ll hurt him.”
Dr.
Reynolds inhaled slowly.
“That’s probably exactly what he thinks.”
Sophia nodded.
“So tell him you won’t.”
Dante stared at the doctor.
The doctor stared back.
“I’m a physician, Russo.
Not a canine negotiator.”
Sophia squeezed between Elena and the wall.
Elena caught the back of her sweater.
“Sophia.”
The little girl stopped.
“Listen to me carefully.
You are not going into that room.”
“Why?”
“Because Titan is frightened.”
“So am I.”
“That’s different.”
Sophia considered this.
Then, with terrible five-year-old logic, she asked, “Why?”
Elena had no answer that a child would understand.
Dante did.
“Because when adults are scared, they make rules.”
Sophia studied him.
“And when dogs are scared?”
Dante glanced toward Titan.
“They make teeth.”
Sophia nodded solemnly.
Then she held up the yellow crayon.
“He likes yellow.”
Elena stared at her daughter.
“What?”
“The ball Mr.
Adrian throws him is yellow.”
That was true.
Elena had seen it in the garden.
Sophia looked into the study.
“Titan.”
The dog’s ears moved.
“Titan, it’s Sophie.”
Elena’s grip tightened on her sweater.
Titan took one step away from Adrian.
Every armed man in the hallway stiffened.
Sophia smiled.
“See?”
No one else seemed convinced.
She lowered herself to the carpet.
“Sophia Castillo,” Elena whispered.
Her daughter sat cross-legged.
Then she began to hum.
The same little wandering melody Elena had heard a thousand times while washing dishes, sorting laundry, waiting for buses, walking through supermarkets.
Titan stared at her.
The trembling in his shoulders eased.
Sophia put the yellow crayon on the floor.
Then she pushed it toward the doorway.
It rolled.
Not far.
Just enough to cross the threshold.
Titan looked down at it.
The entire hallway held its breath.
He stepped forward.
Elena felt Dante’s hand close around her arm, stopping her from moving.
Titan reached the crayon.
Sniffed it.
Then looked at Sophia.
She smiled again.
“Good boy.”
One of the guards whispered, “Holy Mother of God.”
Titan came another step.
Then another.
His enormous head lowered.
Sophia stretched out one tiny hand.
Elena almost screamed.
Titan pressed his nose into Sophia’s palm.
The growl was gone.
Sophia rubbed the top of his head.
“There.”
Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Nobody’s hurting him.”
Titan looked back at Adrian.
Then at Sophia.
She stood.
Titan moved aside.
Dr.
Reynolds reacted instantly.
“Now.”
Dante entered first.
Titan tensed.
Sophia placed a hand against the dog’s shoulder.
“It’s okay.”
Dr.
Reynolds passed them.
No growl.
No teeth.
He dropped to his knees beside Adrian and began checking his airway, pulse, pupils.
“Pulse is weak.
He’s breathing.”
Everyone exhaled.
“Mr.
Moretti?” the doctor said sharply.
No response.
He opened Adrian’s shirt collar.
“Dante, help me turn him.”
Titan’s muscles hardened.
Sophia whispered something into his ear.
The dog remained still.
Together they rolled Adrian onto his back.
A dark bruise had formed near his temple.
Dr.
Reynolds examined it.
“He hit his head.”
“From the fall?”
Dante asked.
“Possibly.”
Then the doctor’s eyes stopped.
He leaned closer to Adrian’s neck.
“What?”
Dr.
Reynolds did not answer.
He opened his bag and took out a small flashlight.
Then he examined Adrian’s mouth.
His expression changed.
“Get everyone out.”
Dante’s voice flattened.
“Why?”
“Everyone except you.”
Vincent stepped into the room.
“I’m his brother.”
“Then especially you.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“Excuse me?”
Dr.
Reynolds stood.
“If you want him alive, clear the room.”
Something in his tone ended the argument.
Dante started ordering people back.
Elena reached for Sophia.
Titan followed.
“Not the dog,” Dr.
Reynolds said.
Dante looked at him.
“You serious?”
“I’d rather not create another problem.”
Sophia stroked Titan once.
“Stay.”
The dog stayed.
Elena pulled her daughter into the hallway.
The doors closed.
For the next twelve minutes nobody spoke.
Mrs.
Bellini crossed herself four times.
Vincent paced.
The guards watched one another.
Sophia leaned against Elena’s legs.
Finally the study door opened.
Dr.
Reynolds stepped out.
“He’s stable for the moment.”
Vincent moved forward.
“What happened?”
The doctor glanced down the hall.
“I need a private word with you and Dante.”
“I’m family.”
“So is half this hallway according to your Christmas cards.
Private.”
Dante entered first.
Vincent followed.
Before the door shut, Elena saw Dr.
Reynolds remove something small and transparent from his pocket.
A plastic evidence sleeve.
Inside it was a tiny blue fragment.
Then the door closed.
Elena felt the hairs rise on her arms.
Sophia tugged her sleeve.
“Mama.”
“Yes?”
“Mr.
Adrian is sick because somebody gave him something bad.”
Elena looked down sharply.
“What did you say?”
Sophia pointed to the study.
“He said his coffee tasted funny.”
The hallway seemed to tilt.
“When did he say that?”
“This morning.”
“Who did he say it to?”
“Titan.”
Elena crouched.
“You heard him?”
Sophia nodded.
“I was drawing by the stairs.”
Elena swallowed.
“What exactly did Mr.
Adrian say?”
Sophia wrinkled her nose, concentrating.
“He said, ‘You smell it too, boy?’
Then he said, ‘That’s not my coffee.’”
Elena’s heartbeat accelerated.
“Did you see who brought it?”
Sophia shook her head.
Then stopped.
“Maybe.”
Elena gripped her shoulders.
“Sophia.”
“There was a lady.”
“What lady?”
“She had pretty shoes.”
That narrowed the suspects down to approximately every woman who ever entered the mansion.
“What color?”
“Red.”
Elena stood.
Mrs.
Bellini was watching her.
“What?”
Elena hesitated.
“I need Dante.”
Mrs.
Bellini’s face tightened.
“He’s busy.”
“This matters.”
Mrs.
Bellini studied her long enough to make Elena uncomfortable.
Then she knocked.
Dante opened the door.
“What?”
“Elena says she has something.”
He looked irritated.
Then he saw Elena’s face.
“What happened?”
Elena brought Sophia forward.
“Tell Mr.
Russo what you told me.”
Sophia repeated it.
The strange coffee.
Adrian speaking to Titan.
The woman with red shoes.
Dante’s expression became unreadable.
When Sophia finished, he crouched.
“Did you see the lady’s face?”
“No.”
“Hair?”
“Dark.”
“Tall?”
Sophia shrugged.
“Everybody is tall.”
Dante almost smiled.
“Did she say anything?”
Sophia thought.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“She said, ‘He’ll never know.’”
The silence that followed was brutal.
Behind Dante, Vincent appeared.
“Who said that?”
Sophia looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Vincent crouched too.
“You’ve seen her before?”
Sophia’s eyes moved to his face.
Then lower.
To his shoes.
Back to his face.
“No.”
Something changed in Titan.
The dog, still beside Adrian, lifted his head.
A low growl rolled from his throat.
Vincent froze.
Dante looked at him.
Titan rose.
“Easy,” Dr.
Reynolds warned.
Vincent backed toward the hallway.
Titan kept staring.
“Sophia,” Dante said quietly, “come here.”
She moved beside him.
Titan stopped advancing.
Vincent laughed once.
It sounded forced.
“What?
Now I’m being accused by a dog?”
“Nobody accused you of anything,” Dante said.
“You’re looking at me like you did.”
“I’m looking at you because Titan is.”
Vincent’s mouth tightened.
“I came here after Adrian collapsed.”
“So did everybody else.”
“I was downstairs with Reynolds.”
Dr.
Reynolds nodded.
“He was.”
Vincent spread his hands.
“There.
Are we finished?”
Dante did not answer.
Adrian groaned.
Everyone turned.
Titan immediately returned to his side.
Dr.
Reynolds knelt.
“Adrian?”
His eyelids moved.
Then opened.
For several seconds he stared without comprehension.
Then his gaze found Titan.
“Boy.”
The dog lowered his head to Adrian’s chest.
Adrian’s hand lifted weakly and touched his neck.
Then he saw Sophia.
His forehead creased.
“Why is there a child in my study?”
Sophia answered before Elena could.
“You fell down.”
Adrian blinked.
“So I gathered.”
“You scared Titan.”
Adrian looked at the dog.
“Did I?”
“He almost ate the doctor.”
Dr.
Reynolds sighed.
“He did not almost eat me.”
Sophia looked at him.
“He thought about it.”
Despite everything, Adrian smiled faintly.
Then his attention shifted to Dante.
The smile vanished.
“What happened?”
Dr.
Reynolds answered.
“You were drugged.”
Adrian went very still.
“With what?”
“I don’t know yet.
There appears to be residue in your mouth and on the inside of the coffee cup.
Your symptoms are consistent with a potent sedative, possibly combined with something else.”
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“Coffee?”
Dante nodded.
“Sophia overheard you say it tasted wrong.”
Adrian looked at the little girl.
“You heard that?”
“I hear lots of things.”
Elena covered her eyes.
Adrian’s mouth twitched.
“I’m beginning to believe it.”
He pushed himself upright.
Dr.
Reynolds stopped him.
“No.”
“I need—”
“You need to remain horizontal unless you want to collapse again.”
Adrian stared at him.
The doctor stared back.
After several seconds, Adrian leaned against the desk.
“What happened after I went down?”
Dante glanced at Sophia.
“She got Titan to let us near you.”
Adrian’s head turned slowly.
His eyes settled on Elena’s daughter.
For the first time, Elena saw genuine surprise on his face.
Not the calculated surprise of a man who used expressions the way other men used knives.
Real surprise.
“You?”
Sophia nodded.
“He likes crackers.”
Adrian looked at Titan.
“Traitor.”
Titan licked his hand.
Sophia giggled.
The sound felt foreign in that room.
Adrian looked at Elena.
“Your daughter saved my life.”
Elena swallowed.
“Dr.
Reynolds saved your life.”
“No.”
The doctor closed his bag.
“The child got me within touching distance.
Credit where it belongs.”
Elena hated the weight of everyone’s attention.
“She’s five.”
Adrian’s voice softened.
“I can see that.”
“And she doesn’t belong in any of this.”
Something unreadable crossed his face.
“No.”
He looked around his study.
“She doesn’t.”
Then his expression became cold.
“Which means whoever poisoned me brought this into my home while a child was walking through it.”
Dante closed the study door.
That click changed the temperature of the room.
Adrian looked at him.
“Lock the property.”
“Already done.”
“Phones?”
“Collected from staff and security.”
“Cameras?”
“Review underway.”
Adrian looked toward Vincent.
“You’re staying.”
Vincent stared at him.
“You think I poisoned you?”
“I think everyone is staying.”
“I’m your brother.”
“That hasn’t been persuasive evidence in our family.”
Vincent went pale.
Dr.
Reynolds cleared his throat.
“You need rest.”
“What I need is the name of whoever put something in my coffee.”
“You’ll have both.
In that order.”
Adrian’s eyes shifted to Sophia again.
“You saw the person?”
“Shoes.”
“Shoes?”
“Red ones.”
A flicker crossed his face.
Dante noticed it.
“So did I,” Elena thought.
Adrian asked carefully, “Bright red?”
Sophia nodded enthusiastically.
“Like strawberries.”
Nobody spoke.
Adrian looked toward Dante.
Dante’s jaw hardened.
Vincent frowned.
“What?”
Adrian ignored him.
“Where is Bianca?”
The room changed.
Elena knew the name.
Everybody did.
Bianca Rinaldi.
Adrian’s fiancée.
The woman whose engagement party had occupied the mansion for three days the previous spring.
Elegant.
Quiet.
Always dressed as if photographers might emerge from the walls.
And almost always wearing red-soled heels.
Dante reached for his radio.
“Find Miss Rinaldi.”
Static.
Then a guard answered.
“Sir?”
“Locate Bianca.”
A pause.
“She left twenty minutes ago.”
Dante’s eyes darkened.
“Who authorized that?”
“No one.
She said Mr.
Moretti sent her into the city.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
The room seemed to contract around him.
Vincent whispered, “Adrian.”
“Don’t.”
“She wouldn’t.”
Adrian opened his eyes.
“No?”
“No.”
“Interesting confidence.”
“You’re engaged to her.”
“I’m engaged to her father’s shipping contracts.”
That silenced the room.
Sophia tugged Elena’s hand.
“Mama.”
“Not now.”
“But the red shoes lady wasn’t Miss Bianca.”
Every adult turned.
Sophia blinked at them.
Adrian’s voice dropped.
“You know Bianca?”
“She gave me chocolate once.”
Elena remembered.
Two months earlier.
Bianca had passed through the kitchen and handed Sophia a foil-wrapped candy.
“Then who did you see?”
Sophia looked uncertain.
“I don’t know.”
Dante took out his phone and opened something.
He showed her photographs.
Household staff.
Guests.
Employees.
Sophia shook her head again and again.
“No.
No.
No.”
Then she stopped.
Her small finger touched the screen.
“That lady.”
Dante went still.
Adrian’s face drained of what little color remained.
Elena leaned closer.
The woman in the photograph was smiling at some charity dinner.
Dark hair.
Elegant face.
Red dress.
Adrian spoke first.
“That’s impossible.”
Sophia looked at him.
“Why?”
His eyes never left the photograph.
“Because she’s dead.”
Nobody moved.
Dante looked at Sophia.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Vincent stepped forward.
“Show me.”
Dante turned the screen.
Vincent’s reaction was immediate.
He took one step back.
“No.”
Elena looked between them.
“Who is she?”
Nobody answered.
Adrian finally did.
“My wife.”
The words seemed to belong to some other story.
Elena stared at him.
“I thought—”
“She died six years ago.”
Sophia frowned.
“No, she didn’t.”
Adrian’s gaze snapped to her.
“Sophia.”
“She was here.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
Adrian’s hand tightened around the edge of the desk.
“You saw her clearly?”
“She talked to me.”
Every face in the room changed.
Elena felt ice move through her chest.
“What did she say?”
Sophia looked at her mother as if the answer were obvious.
“She asked where Mr.
Adrian was.”
Dante whispered something that sounded like a prayer.
Adrian struggled to his feet.
Dr.
Reynolds tried to stop him.
This time he failed.
“Where?”
Sophia pointed toward the hallway.
“By the stairs.”
“What else did she say?”
Sophia’s confidence faded.
“She said not to tell anybody she came.”
“Why?”
“Because it was a surprise.”
Adrian stared at nothing.
Six years earlier, his wife, Isabella Moretti, had supposedly died in a car explosion outside Providence.
The funeral had been closed-casket.
The newspapers had called it a message from a rival family.
Three men had later disappeared.
People stopped asking questions.
Adrian looked at Dante.
“The body.”
Dante’s face had gone gray.
“What?”
“Did you ever see it?”
Dante hesitated.
Adrian’s voice sharpened.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Who identified her?”
Dante looked toward Vincent.
Adrian followed his gaze.
Vincent’s lips parted.
The silence answered before he did.
Adrian moved.
Fast.
Too fast for an injured man.
He crossed the room and slammed Vincent against the wall.
Titan surged upright.
Elena pulled Sophia against her chest.
“You identified her?”
Adrian’s voice was barely human.
Vincent grabbed his wrists.
“Listen to me.”
“You identified my wife’s body?”
“Yes.”
“You told me she was dead.”
“She was!”
“You saw her?”
Vincent stopped.
Adrian’s face changed.
It became terrifyingly calm.
“You didn’t.”
Vincent looked toward Dante.
Wrong choice.
Adrian drove him harder against the wall.
“Who paid you?”
“No one.”
“Who threatened you?”
“No one.”
“Then why?”
Vincent shut his eyes.
“Because Isabella asked me to.”
No one breathed.
Adrian let go.
Vincent sagged against the wall.
Six years of grief seemed to move across Adrian’s face all at once, too complicated to become any single emotion.
“You knew.”
Vincent shook his head.
“Not where she went.”
“You knew she was alive.”
“For three days.”
Adrian stared at him.
“She came to me before the explosion.
She said someone inside the family was going to kill her.
She refused to tell me who.
She wanted out.”
“And you helped her disappear.”
“I helped her survive.”
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
“I thought you were the danger.”
Adrian went still.
Vincent’s voice cracked.
“She told me you were.”
Dante watched both brothers.
Dr.
Reynolds stopped pretending this was a medical situation.
Elena wanted to leave.
Every instinct told her to take Sophia and run until the Moretti mansion became a distant shape in the rearview mirror.
Then Titan growled.
Not at Vincent.
At the hallway.
Every head turned.
A shadow moved beneath the study door.
Dante drew his weapon.
The other guards reacted instantly.
“Sophia,” Elena whispered, pulling her backward.
The door handle turned.
Slowly.
Dante raised the gun.
“Don’t.”
Adrian’s voice stopped him.
The door opened.
A woman stood outside.
Dark hair.
Pale skin.
A charcoal coat.
And red shoes.
Sophia pointed.
“That’s her.”
Nobody moved.
The woman looked exactly like the photograph.
Older.
Thinner.
But alive.
Adrian whispered one word.
“Isabella.”
Her gaze found him.
For a moment something like grief passed across her face.
Then she looked at the gun in Dante’s hand.
“You still keep terrible company.”
Adrian stepped forward.
Titan moved with him.
Isabella’s expression softened at the sight of the dog.
“You replaced Bruno?”
Adrian stared at her.
“Six years.”
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“You poisoned me?”
Her eyes narrowed.
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because someone used my name to get inside.”
Dante’s weapon remained raised.
“Convenient.”
Isabella looked at him.
“You still point before thinking, Dante.”
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
“So are several men in this house.”
Vincent swallowed.
“Isabella.”
Her gaze moved to him.
For the first time, she looked truly angry.
“You told him?”
Vincent laughed weakly.
“He figured it out when a five-year-old identified your photograph.”
Isabella noticed Sophia.
She looked almost amused.
“The little spy.”
Elena stepped between them.
“Don’t call her that.”
Isabella raised both hands.
“I meant no harm.”
Adrian’s voice cut through the room.
“Start talking.”
She looked at him.
Then reached into her coat.
Four weapons lifted.
“Slowly,” Dante warned.
Isabella removed a small black phone.
She placed it on Adrian’s desk.
“I came because I intercepted this two nights ago.”
Adrian stared at the device.
“What is it?”
“A burner belonging to a man who has spent six years trying to destroy you.”
“Name.”
“You won’t believe me.”
“Try.”
Isabella tapped the screen.
An audio recording began.
At first there was static.
Then a man’s voice.
Calm.
Familiar.
“Tomorrow morning.
Ten fifteen.
Moretti takes his coffee in the study.
The compound goes into lockdown after he drops, so make sure the western service gate remains open.”
Dante’s eyes hardened.
The voice continued.
“The girl is irrelevant.
The mother too.
No unnecessary casualties.”
Elena’s stomach turned.
Sophia pressed against her.
Another voice asked, “And Isabella?”
The man laughed.
“Let Adrian see her before he dies.”
The recording stopped.
Adrian looked around the room.
Nobody spoke.
He touched the phone.
“Play it again.”
Isabella did.
Ten fifteen.
Coffee.
Western gate.
The girl.
The mother.
The same voice.
This time Elena recognized it.
So did everyone else.
Dr.
Reynolds slowly turned toward the door.
Dante’s face became stone.
Vincent whispered, “No.”
Adrian said nothing.
Because the voice belonged to someone they all trusted.
Someone who had access to the house.
Someone who knew Adrian’s routines.
Someone who had stood in the hallway less than twenty minutes earlier.
Mrs.
Bellini.
Elena’s mind rejected it immediately.
Mrs.
Bellini had worked for the family for twenty-seven years.
She had practically raised Vincent.
She cooked Adrian’s birthday dinner every year.
She knew which shirts he hated and which headaches meant he had not eaten.
Impossible.
Then Sophia whispered, “Mama.”
Elena looked down.
Her daughter was staring toward the half-open study door.
“What?”
Sophia’s face had gone pale.
“That’s not the voice.”
Adrian heard her.
“What did you say?”
Sophia swallowed.
“That lady’s voice on the phone isn’t the same.”
Dante frowned.
“It was a man.”
Sophia shook her head.
“I know.”
Adrian crouched despite Dr.
Reynolds’s protest.
“You heard that man before?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Sophia looked toward the hallway.
“Talking to Mrs.
Bellini.”
Dante moved closer.
“When?”
“Before the crash.”
“What did he say?”
Sophia squeezed her notebook against her chest.
“He said everything had to look like an accident.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Who was he?”
Sophia’s eyes filled with frightened certainty.
Then she lifted one hand.
And pointed.
Not toward Vincent.
Not toward Dante.
Not toward the hallway.
Toward Dr.
Reynolds.
The physician stared at her.
Nobody moved.
Sophia whispered, “It was him.”
Dr.
Reynolds smiled.
Very slowly.
Then his hand slipped into his medical bag.
…If you want to know what happened next, please type “YES” and like for more.
Source: Stories of Destiny · Thanh Thanh
