Chapter 14 - THE NIGHT MARGARET BLEDDominic remembered very little about the drive to the hospital.
He remembered blood.
His mother’s blood on his hands.
Carrie holding pressure against Margaret’s shoulder in the back seat.
Daniel running red lights.
Margaret repeatedly asking:
“Grace?”
Carrie answered every time.
“Safe.”
Dominic heard himself say:
“Stay awake.”
Margaret almost smiled.
“You were terrible at listening as a boy.”
“Mom.”
“Always running.”
“Please stop talking.”
“You asked me to stay awake.”
That was Margaret.
Even with blood covering her blouse, she found a way to argue.
Then her eyes closed.
Dominic’s voice broke.
“Mom!”
Carrie touched Margaret’s neck.
“Pulse.”
The emergency room doors opened.
Doctors took her.
And suddenly Dominic stood in a hospital hallway again.
Different hospital.
Different crisis.
Same helplessness.
He hated hospitals because money became meaningless inside them.
You could buy specialists.
Private rooms.
Machines.
You could not buy certainty.
Carrie sat beside him.
Grace was safe with Maria and Walter at a secure location.
Sebastian arrived forty minutes later.
Dominic saw him and stood.
“Did you know?”
Sebastian stopped.
“About what?”
“The shooting.”
“No.”
“Evelyn?”
Sebastian’s face changed.
Dominic crossed the hallway.
“Did you tell anyone you came to my house?”
“No.”
“You expect me—”
Carrie stepped between them.
“Not here.”
Dominic’s breathing was hard.
Sebastian looked toward the operating rooms.
“Margaret?”
“Still in surgery.”
Something unexpected passed across Sebastian’s face.
Concern.
Dominic saw it.
“You hate her.”
“I spent forty years hating people I didn’t know.”
Sebastian sat.
“I’m getting tired.”
The sadness in that answer cooled Dominic’s anger.
Not erased.
Cooled.
A detective approached.
The shooter had fired from wooded property beyond the road.
Professional weapon.
Shell casings removed.
No obvious footage.
But one thing had been left behind.
A photograph pinned to a tree.
Anthony Marino standing beside Elena and Sebastian.
Across Anthony’s face, someone had drawn a black line.
Across Sebastian’s face, another.
Across Dominic’s—
Another.
Grace’s image had been taped beside them.
Untouched.
Carrie stared.
“This isn’t about killing Grace.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What?”
“If they wanted to threaten us, they’d mark her too.”
Sebastian understood.
“They need her alive.”
“For the trust,” Carrie said.
Dominic’s voice became cold.
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
At 2:17 a.m., the surgeon emerged.
The bullet had missed Margaret’s lung by less than an inch.
She would survive.
Dominic sat down so abruptly Carrie caught his shoulder.
He covered his face.
Sebastian stood several feet away.
Watching.
Carrie noticed.
Something in Sebastian’s expression looked almost envious.
Not of Margaret being injured.
Of Dominic having a mother worth waiting outside surgery for.
Hours later, Margaret woke.
Dominic entered first.
Carrie remained by the door.
Margaret looked at her son.
“You look terrible.”
His eyes filled.
“Apparently that’s hereditary.”
She smiled weakly.
Dominic sat beside her.
“Who shot you?”
“If I knew, I’d have mentioned it.”
“Mom.”
“I don’t know.”
“Why would Evelyn want you dead?”
Margaret’s smile disappeared.
“She might not.”
Dominic frowned.
Margaret looked toward Carrie.
“The bullet hit me because I stood up.”
Carrie remembered.
Margaret had reached for Dominic’s hand.
The bullet had entered where her chest would have been seconds earlier.
Carrie went cold.
“It was aimed at me.”
Dominic stood.
“No.”
Margaret nodded.
“The angle.”
Carrie whispered, “Why me?”
Sebastian appeared at the door.
“Because you control Grace’s vote.”
Dominic turned.
Sebastian continued.
“Grace owns the shares. But until she’s eighteen, someone exercises her voting rights.”
Carrie understood before he finished.
“The trustee.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“You.”
Dominic’s face transformed.
Every old instinct returned at once.
Power.
Violence.
Control.
He pulled out his phone.
Carrie knew that look.
She took the phone from him.
“No.”
“Carrie.”
“No.”
“Someone tried to put a bullet through you.”
“And you going back to the man you were won’t protect me.”
“I can end this.”
“How?”
He said nothing.
That was enough.
Carrie stepped closer.
“You want to protect me?”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t become the reason Grace loses her father.”
Dominic’s jaw worked.
He looked at Margaret.
At Sebastian.
Then back at Carrie.
Slowly, his hand opened.
Carrie gave him the phone back.
“Call Reyes.”
“Reyes?”
“Federal investigator who helped with Victor.”
“He retired.”
“Then ruin his retirement.”
Margaret laughed and immediately winced.
Hours later, former Special Agent Thomas Reyes agreed to consult privately.
His first conclusion was simple.
“Stop focusing on the trust money.”
Dominic frowned.
“Why?”
“Money is obvious.”
Reyes placed the Meridian ownership chart on the table.
“Power isn’t.”
The eighteen percent Grace would inherit gave her enough votes to decide an upcoming merger.
A merger worth seven billion dollars.
Carrie examined the documents.
“Who wants it?”
“Evelyn Cross supports it.”
“And Sebastian?”
Everyone looked at him.
Sebastian shook his head.
“It would give a foreign investment group controlling port access.”
Dominic stared.
“You oppose it?”
“Yes.”
“So do I.”
For the first time, the brothers agreed on something.
Reyes circled the date of the vote.
“Ten days.”
Two days before Grace’s birthday.
Carrie frowned.
“Then why wait for her trust?”
Reyes looked at her.
“They aren’t.”
He pulled out another document.
Anthony’s trust had a clause.
If Grace or her legal guardian died before activation, the shares transferred not to Dominic.
Not to Sebastian.
But directly back to Meridian Atlantic.
Controlled by Evelyn Cross.
Dominic stared at the page.
The room became silent.
Carrie whispered:
“So if that bullet had hit me…”
May you like
Reyes finished the thought.
“Evelyn wouldn’t need your vote.”
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