Chapter 5 - Vanessa Knocks at Midnight
At 12:43 a.m., someone began pounding on Sofia's door.
Dominic reached it first.
“Who?”
“Vanessa.”
Khloe sat upright on the couch.
Dominic looked through the camera.
Vanessa stood outside barefoot, mascara streaked across her face, wearing jeans and an oversized coat.
“Please.”
Her voice shook through the intercom.
“He knows I found it.”
Khloe opened the door before Dominic could stop her.
Vanessa stumbled inside.
Dominic immediately checked the hallway.
Nobody.
“What happened?”
Khloe asked.
Vanessa looked at her.
All the arrogance from the gala was gone.
“Derek is going to kill me.”
Khloe's face hardened.
“That's a dramatic sentence from someone who called me hormonal three weeks ago.”
Vanessa flinched.
“I deserved that.”
“You deserve considerably more.”
“I know.”
Vanessa reached into her coat.
Dominic's hand moved instinctively.
“Slowly.”
She produced a flash drive.
“This is why I'm here.”
Khloe didn't take it.
“What is it?”
“Everything.”
Vanessa began crying.
Not elegantly.
Not strategically.
She collapsed onto the chair.
“I thought Derek was leaving you.”
Khloe laughed bitterly.
“Of course he told you that.”
“He said your marriage was over. He said you refused a divorce because you wanted his money.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
That answer was painfully human.
Vanessa wiped her face.
“Then I found transfers. He used my computer for some of them. When I confronted him, he said they were tax strategies.”
Dominic took the drive.
“How much?”
“Twenty-three million.”
Khloe stared.
Dominic had found eighteen.
Vanessa continued.
“There's more. Emails. Insurance documents. Payments to someone named Curtis Vale.”
Khloe's heart stopped.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
Khloe did.
Curtis Vale owned the garage that serviced her car before the brake failure.
Dominic immediately called someone.
Vanessa looked at Khloe.
“I didn't know about that until tonight.”
“About what?”
“Your accident.”
Silence.
“Derek paid Curtis twelve thousand dollars three days before your crash.”
Khloe's hand covered her stomach.
Dominic crouched beside her.
“Breathe.”
She hated that he could see when she was frightened.
She loved it too.
“I could have died.”
“I know.”
“My baby—”
“Wasn't conceived yet.”
Khloe looked at him.
He was right.
Somehow that made the realization worse.
Derek had considered killing her before pregnancy.
What had stopped him?
Dominic's phone rang.
His security man spoke rapidly.
Dominic stood.
“We're moving.”
Sofia appeared from her bedroom.
“What happened?”
“A vehicle has been parked across the street for twenty minutes.”
Vanessa went white.
“He followed me.”
Lights suddenly died.
The apartment fell dark.
Khloe heard Sofia curse.
Dominic's voice became command.
“Back bedroom. Now.”
A crash came from downstairs.
Then the building alarm screamed.
Dominic's security team moved into the hallway.
Khloe grabbed Vanessa's wrist.
“Move.”
They reached the bedroom as another crash echoed below.
Sofia locked the door.
Vanessa shook uncontrollably.
“I brought them here.”
“Yes,” Khloe said.
Vanessa stared at her.
“Why aren't you screaming at me?”
“Because screaming isn't going to help.”
Khloe opened the closet.
“Fire escape?”
Sofia pointed toward the window.
“There.”
Then smoke began slipping beneath the door.
“They started a fire.”
Vanessa sobbed.
Khloe's fear sharpened into action.
“Wet towels.”
“What?”
“Bathroom. Now.”
They stuffed wet towels beneath the bedroom door.
Dominic appeared moments later.
“Fire department is coming. Stairwell is blocked.”
“The escape?”
“Clear.”
He helped Sofia through first.
Vanessa followed.
Khloe approached the window.
Then pain seized her abdomen.
She doubled over.
“Not now.”
Dominic caught her.
“Contraction?”
“I don't know.”
Another came.
Dominic lifted her.
“I can climb.”
“You can barely stand.”
“Dominic—”
“Argue with me outside.”
Despite everything, she almost smiled.
He carried her onto the fire escape.
Smoke billowed above them.
Sirens approached.
Halfway down, Khloe looked across the alley.
A man stood beside a black SUV.
Watching.
She recognized him.
“Dominic.”
He followed her gaze.
The man ran.
Dominic's security pursued.
But Khloe had already recognized the face.
Curtis Vale.
The mechanic.
At the hospital, doctors stopped the contractions.
Again.
Dominic sat beside her afterward.
Khloe stared at the ceiling.
“I keep ending up in hospitals because of Derek.”
“Not anymore.”
She turned.
“You can't promise that.”
“No.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“But I can promise you won't face him alone.”
Khloe studied his exhausted face.
“Why do you care this much?”
He was silent for a long moment.
Then he removed something from his wallet.
An old photograph.
A woman stood beside a teenage Dominic and a much younger Sofia.
“My mother, Elena.”
Khloe looked at him.
“She was married to a man who controlled everything. Money. Friends. Doors.”
Dominic's voice lowered.
“She tried leaving three times.”
“What happened?”
“The fourth time, she never got the chance.”
Khloe understood.
“Oh, Dominic.”
“I was seventeen.”
His jaw tightened.
“I spent years believing power meant making people afraid of me.”
He looked at her.
“Then I watched you ask whether a bedroom door could lock from inside.”
Khloe's eyes filled.
Dominic continued.
“And I remembered what power should have been.”
“What?”
“The ability to open the door.”
For the first time, Khloe reached for him.
She took his hand.
Neither spoke.
Then Vanessa appeared at the doorway.
Her face was white.
“Khloe?”
“What?”
“The police found Curtis.”
Khloe sat up.
May you like
Vanessa swallowed.
“He's dead.”
