The Night Dominic Said I Was Wrong
Chapter 14 - The Night Dominic Said I Was Wrong
The apology Dominic owed Nora had nothing to do with the words Celeste used. It concerned the years he had allowed powerful people in his household to decide whose voice mattered.
He asked to speak with Nora in the library, with its doors open and a staff representative nearby. She had a lawyer; he was her employer; both facts mattered. Dominic didn't want an apology to become an obligation.
"When I hired Celeste to manage the estate, I told myself I was giving Leo stability," he began. "I was actually avoiding decisions that hurt. And when you asked for help, my office sent you back to the person you were afraid of."
Nora stood near the window. "I needed the job. She knew it. She knew about Claire."
"I know. I've made sure the scholarship is administered independently now. But it should never have been in her hands that way."
"No, it shouldn't."
Dominic nodded. "You deserve to know that the staff review includes my decisions. I can't promise I'll become better just because I say I want to."
Nora looked at him for a long moment. "Then keep doing the work. That's all anyone can ask."
He thanked her for helping Leo, but she resisted being made into an angel. She had days when she was impatient, days when the grief in that house exhausted her, days when she wanted to finish her degree and work somewhere ordinary. Dominic asked about those dreams. For the first time, he listened without immediately trying to finance or control them.
She told him about the children's library she'd once imagined building near her old neighborhood. There were few safe places for children to read after school. Her mother used to take Nora and Claire to a small branch library because the apartment was too crowded for homework.
"You still want to finish school?" Dominic asked.
"Yes, but I'll find my own way."
"I respect that."
Their conversation ended without grand declarations. Nora returned to the nursery, and Dominic returned to a meeting about clinic funding. Yet the air between them felt lighter because he had admitted fault without asking her to make it disappear.
Later, Leo found his father at the kitchen sink washing dishes. The boy stared. "Daddy, are we poor now?"
Dominic laughed. "No. Why?"
"Because you're doing dishes."
"I was always allowed. I just never bothered."
Leo pulled over a stool and helped rinse spoons. They talked about school, the blue moon, and whether dinosaurs would like cinnamon toast. It was ordinary, gloriously ordinary. Dominic found himself wishing Amelia could see them.
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A letter arrived for Leo in the mail that afternoon. There was no return address. Inside was a printed photograph of Amelia standing beside the clinic piano, with the words *SHE KNEW EVERYTHING* scrawled across the back. Dominic kept the envelope away from the child and turned it over to investigators. He refused to let the sender use his son's grief as a stage.
Daniel traced the postage to a neighborhood close to Peter's former office. That alone proved little. But the accompanying digital print order, obtained through lawful investigation, connected the photograph to a contractor who had worked for Celeste's publicity firm. The intimidation was no longer merely suspected. Someone had organized a message designed to frighten a grieving family.
