Chapter 3 - THE BOY WHO WAS LISTENING
For several seconds, Dominic didn't move.
Neither did I.
Marcus stood between us, one tiny hand pressed against his ear.
“There,” he whispered.
I crouched beside him.
“What hurts, baby?”
He shook his head.
“Not hurts.”
“Then what?”
He looked at Dominic.
“He's talking.”
Dominic's expression tightened.
“Who's talking?”
Marcus pointed toward the wall.
“Inside.”
I felt every hair on my arms rise.
Dominic immediately ordered the remaining guards to search the conservatory.
They checked the walls.
The furniture.
The ceiling.
Even the ventilation grilles.
Nothing.
One guard finally looked at Dominic.
“Sir, there's nothing here.”
Dominic turned toward me.
“Your son has been exposed to something.”
“Exposed to what?”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at the device Marcus had removed.
The thing was smaller than a fingernail.
Yet somehow it had controlled three years of his life.
“Take us somewhere private,” I said.
Dominic's eyes met mine.
“There is nowhere private in this house.”
That frightened me more than the guns.
He took my son and me through a hidden corridor behind the conservatory.
Marcus remained unusually quiet.
We entered a reinforced room beneath the mansion.
Dominic locked the door himself.
Then he removed his phone battery.
“No electronics,” he said.
I stared at him.
“You don't trust your own people?”
“I trusted them for three years.”
He looked at the floor.
“That was my mistake.”
Marcus sat on a leather sofa and began drawing.
Dominic watched him.
“What is he drawing?”
I glanced down.
A black rectangle.
A car.
Three people.
And something that looked like a circle with lines around it.
“Marcus draws what he remembers,” I said.
Dominic crouched beside him.
“Do you remember the car?”
Marcus nodded.
Dominic went still.
“What car?”
Marcus pointed at Dominic.
“Your car.”
Dominic's face changed.
He slowly reached for the drawing.
“When did you see this?”
Marcus frowned.
“Before.”
“Before what?”
“Before Mommy got the job.”
My stomach tightened.
Marcus had never been inside Dominic's car.
At least, not while I was with him.
Dominic studied the drawing.
Then he saw the third person.
A woman.
He looked at me.
“Who is she?”
“I don't know.”
Marcus suddenly said something that made Dominic freeze.
“She was crying.”
“Who was crying?”
“The lady.”
Dominic stared at the drawing.
Then he whispered a name.
“Claire.”
I had no idea who Claire was.
But Dominic did.
Three years earlier, Claire Vale had been his personal medical coordinator.
She had disappeared the night of the explosion.
Everyone believed she died.
Dominic had personally ordered the search for her body.
No body had ever been found.
He stood.
“Get me every file on Claire Vale.”
One of the guards hesitated.
Dominic noticed.
“Now.”
The guard left.
Five minutes later, he returned empty-handed.
“Sir, the archive has been compromised.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“By whom?”
The guard looked toward me.
“I don't know.”
Then Marcus spoke.
“Victor.”
Everyone turned.
Dominic crouched again.
“Why Victor?”
Marcus shrugged.
“He told the lady to be quiet.”
The room went silent.
Dominic stared at me.
“Your son may have seen something that happened three years ago.”
I held Marcus tighter.
“How?”
“I don't know.”
That was when Dominic's phone—despite having no battery—vibrated.
He slowly looked at it.
Impossible.
Then the screen lit up.
A single message appeared.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE BOY ALONE.
Dominic's face hardened.
He looked at me.
“Now they know he can see.”
A gunshot struck the steel door.
Marcus screamed.
Dominic pulled both of us behind the reinforced wall.
Another shot.
Then another.
Someone outside shouted.
Dominic's guards returned fire.
But Dominic wasn't watching the door.
May you like
He was looking at Marcus.
“Whatever your son remembers,” he said quietly, “someone is willing to kill to make sure he forgets.”
