Chapter 9 - What Eric Heard before the Bone Broke
Eric agreed to speak through a federal negotiator.
He demanded immunity.
Andrea offered nothing.
He called anyway.
Domenic contacted him at seven twelve on the night of the assault.
I arrived home from the diner at seven thirty.
The call lasted eleven minutes.
Domenic told him the truth about our birth and ordered him to retrieve the key before Vincent reached me.
“Why tell you then?” I asked.
“Because I said I was leaving.”
“Leaving me?”
“Leaving all of it.”
I did not believe him.
“You had divorce papers and a life insurance policy.”
“I prepared options.”
“You prepared to profit from my death.”
“I never planned to kill you.”
“You collected sedatives in my name.”
“For when you became impossible.”
The same language abusers always use.
The victim becomes the condition requiring force.
“What did you feel when Domenic told you?”
Eric breathed heavily.
“Everything I had became disgusting.”
“Then why did you touch me?”
“I asked where the key was.”
“You twisted my arm.”
“You lied.”
“I did not know.”
“You always knew something was wrong.”
He wanted to turn his horror into my responsibility.
“Did you marry me knowing Frank Carter was your biological father?”
“No.”
“Did you marry me because Domenic paid you to search?”
“Yes.”
The honesty arrived too late to be useful.
“Why did you stay?”
“At first, the assignment. Later, I thought I loved you.”
“You called love the period between attacks.”
“You do not understand what he made me.”
“I understand what you did.”
Eric’s voice hardened.
“Vincent knew there were two infants.”
Vincent denied it.
Frank’s file suggested Lucia hid the boy’s survival from most of the family.
Domenic may have been the only person controlling the complete truth.
Eric provided a location for exchange.
He wanted transport out of the country and protection from Domenic.
In return, he would surrender and testify.
Andrea instructed him to come to a federal building.
He refused.
“I know how many badges Domenic owns.”
He was not wrong.
Captain Gaines’s involvement proved that.
A controlled meeting was arranged inside an empty ferry terminal with federal tactical teams hidden nearby.
Eric arrived carrying no visible weapon.
He looked thinner.
A healing cut crossed his forehead.
For the first time, I saw parts of my own face in his.
The recognition felt like another violation.
I watched through a remote camera from a secure room.
Andrea spoke through a concealed earpiece.
Eric placed a drive on the floor.
It contained Domenic’s current accounts, police contacts, and escape routes.
“Where is Domenic?” the negotiator asked.
“Moving between New Jersey and Montreal.”
“Will you testify?”
“If Lena is placed outside Vincent’s reach.”
The condition was strange.
“Why?”
“Because Vincent wants the ledger more than he wants her safe.”
Vincent had already admitted the evidence could harm him.
That did not prove he intended to control me.
Eric continued.
“Frank’s red file has a second recording.”
Agents had found only one cassette.
Eric said the second remained inside the blue cash box he removed from the diner.
He hid it before the Brooklyn search.
“What does it say?”
“Frank names the person who ordered the car that killed him.”
My heart stopped.
“Who?”
Eric looked directly toward the camera, knowing I watched.
“Vincent.”
Vincent’s attorney called the claim false.
Andrea did not allow him near the operation.
Eric demanded that I hear the cassette before giving any evidence to Moretti.
“I am giving it to federal prosecutors,” I said through the negotiator.
“You think they are clean?”
“No. I think records can be copied.”
That answer seemed to surprise him.
A gunshot shattered the terminal window.
Eric dropped.
Tactical agents moved.
A second shot struck the concrete near his shoulder.
The shooter fired from a building across the river channel.
Agents pulled Eric behind cover.
He was alive, wounded in the side.
The drive remained on the floor.
A remote device hidden inside it activated.
Smoke filled the terminal.
The drive began burning from within.
Eric had brought a self destroying copy.
Whether he intended to surrender real evidence remained uncertain.
Agents evacuated him to a secure hospital.
The sniper escaped.
Ballistics linked the weapon to a Moretti controlled security company.
Vincent denied ordering the shooting.
Domenic used the same company through older contracts.
Both had access.
Federal technicians recovered fragments from Eric’s drive.
One file survived.
Audio of Domenic speaking with Captain Gaines.
Another voice joined them.
Calm.
Low.
Vincent Moretti.
The recording date was three months before I called him.
Vincent said:
May you like
Keep Eric close to Lena until the Carter key appears.
Continue to the next part: A recovered recording suggests Vincent may have known Eric remained inside Lena’s life long before the bathroom call.
