Chapter 11 - The Lake Zurich HorizonThe snow fell softly over the Alps, blanketing the quiet Swiss streets in a layer of immaculate white that felt a million miles away from the blood-stained marble of the Lake Forest mansion.
Dominic didn’t move into our apartment right away. Instead, he bought a modest stone chalet three blocks down the road—a place with big windows, a wood-burning fireplace, and no security cameras hidden in the eaves. For a man who had spent his entire adult life sleeping with a loaded Beretta under his pillow, learning how to exist without a perimeter wall was the hardest battle of all.
I continued my nursing studies at the local university, funded by an educational trust that Dominic insisted was a "legitimate business investment." Tyler was thriving, playing varsity soccer and dating a girl from his biology class who had no idea what Cicero or the Vale family name even meant.
Noah spent his afternoons at a small, international primary school where the teachers didn't look at him with fear or pity. They just saw a brilliant, quiet little boy who loved drawing constellations and horses.
Every evening around six o’clock, Dominic would walk up our cobblestone path, his heavy wool coat dusted with snow, carrying a brown paper bag filled with fresh pastries from the local bakery.
"You're spoiling him," I said one evening, watching Dominic help Noah assemble a complex wooden model airplane at the kitchen table.
Dominic looked up, a small, genuine smile softening the hard edges of his face. "I'm just making up for lost time, Clara. Four years of missed bedtime stories buys a lot of pastry."
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"You could stay for dinner tonight," I offered, my heart doing a nervous little flutter that I hadn't quite gotten used to. "I made enough beef stew for an army."
Dominic’s dark eyes locked onto mine, holding my gaze with an intensity that made the room feel suddenly smaller. "Only if you promise to sit down and let me do the dishes afterward."
