“I do. But I don’t trust you can’t be hacked.”
He accesses an application on his phone. After showing me the household, he locates his office and suspends the recording for half an hour.
I look down at my hands, watching them tremble slightly. “I don’t know where to start.”
Dom reaches across the desk, taking my hands in his. “Piccola, I need you to trust me. Whatever happened, whatever you remember—I need to know.”
My eyes fill with tears. “You’ll hate me.”
“Never.” The conviction in his voice nearly breaks me. “Just tell me everything, then I know what I need to do.”
Our eyes lock as I take a deep breath. “I remember being at the club that night. I remember running out and being scared.” I pause, gathering courage.
"Go on," he urges.
“I thought it was you at first. But then I recalled hearing heels on the pavement. High heels, clicking rapidly.”
“Chasing you.”
I shake my head, a tear slipping down my cheek. “No, when I was on the floor. After the car hit me.”
Dom’s jaw tightens. “And then?”
“She got in her car. I thought she was going to call an ambulance and come back to me, but she drove off...” I trail off, the memory still fragmented but terrifying.
“She left you to die,” Dom says, his voice deadly calm. “And who was it?”
“You already know. It was Helena.”
“Your mom,” he says, but he does already know and was waiting for me to confirm it.
“Yes.” The word comes out as a sob. “The woman who brought me up tried to kill me.”
Dom stands, coming around the desk to pull me into his arms. I bury my face against his chest, breathing in his scent as his muscular arms encircle me.
“I didn’t want to believe it,” I whisper against his shirt. “Even with my memory in pieces, something felt wrong about her. And when my memories came back, I didn't want to believe it, at first.”
Dom strokes my hair. “You’re safe now, piccola. She can’t hurt you anymore.”
I pull back slightly, looking up at him. “When did you work it out?” I ask, my voice shaky.
“She was added to my list of suspects at the family dinner. I could tell you were honing in on a memory and you glanced at Helena’s shoes. Those were her footsteps you remembered, not Lucia’s.”
I nod slowly, my heart pounding against my ribs.
Dom’s brow furrows as he processes everything. “But why would she try to kill you? What did she have to gain?”
I swallow hard. My mouth suddenly dries. “The mayor was blackmailing her for information on you. He believed it would further his career to take you down. And apparently, I was collateral damage when she tried to use me against the mayor to gain an advantage against him. She thought that was her way of getting more money from youand used me against you both.” I swallow as tears sting my eyes.
I glance up to the ceiling and add, “She wanted to hurt you, too. She saw the way you looked at me. She told me I was supposed to die.”
“When did she tell you this?”
“Just before her life ended.” I pause, my fingers trembling slightly as I recall that night.
His mouth drops open.
I cannot stop.
