Chapter 9 - The Price of the Truth
Dominic moved before Claire could scream.
He pulled her behind him as emergency lights flickered red along the corridor.
A figure ran toward the stairwell.
Dominic started after them.
Claire caught his sleeve.
"Don't leave me."
He stopped instantly.
The words struck him harder than the alarm.
He turned back.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Detective Ellis emerged from the interview room with her weapon drawn.
"Everyone stay where you are!"
The building's emergency system activated.
A security officer shouted from the corridor.
"Electrical panel's been tampered with!"
Within minutes, backup officers secured the floor.
No one was injured.
But Grant Keller had vanished.
The interview-room door had been opened using a stolen security credential.
Dominic watched investigators collect evidence.
"Someone inside the department helped him."
Ellis looked grim.
"That's one possibility."
Claire sat on a bench.
Her hands were trembling.
Dominic knelt in front of her.
"Are you hurt?"
She shook her head.
He gently touched her cheek.
"Look at me."
She did.
"I'm here."
Claire swallowed.
"I know."
But something had changed.
The danger no longer came only from Harrow's organization.
It had entered police headquarters.
It knew their movements.
Their conversations.
Their fears.
That evening, Evelyn received a message from an unknown number.
It contained an address.
And a photograph of Miles Carter sitting beside Daniel Bennett.
Both men were alive.
Beneath the photograph was a sentence.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH.
Dominic read it.
"No."
Claire stepped forward.
"Dominic—"
"No one is going alone."
Evelyn agreed.
"Especially not you."
Dominic looked at her.
"You're coming too."
She nodded.
"And Detective Ellis."
At midnight, a small police team approached an old chapel outside Ravensport.
The building had been abandoned for years.
Its stained-glass windows were broken.
Its wooden doors hung crookedly.
Dominic entered with Claire and Evelyn while Ellis's officers secured the perimeter.
Inside, candles burned along the altar.
Miles stood beneath the cracked ceiling.
Beside him sat Daniel Bennett.
Claire stopped breathing.
"Dad?"
The older man slowly stood.
His face was thinner than in her memories.
His hair had turned almost completely white.
But his eyes were the same.
"Claire."
She crossed the chapel before anyone could stop her.
Daniel opened his arms.
She collapsed against him.
For eleven years, she had imagined this moment.
She had dreamed of hearing his voice.
Of asking why he had left.
Of telling him how much her mother had suffered.
Now she could barely speak.
"You're alive."
Daniel held her tightly.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart."
She pulled back.
"Why?"
His eyes filled.
"Because I thought disappearing would keep you safe."
Claire shook her head.
"Mom died thinking you were dead."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I know."
The grief on his face was unmistakable.
Dominic approached Miles.
"Explain."
Miles didn't look away.
"Eleven years ago, Daniel discovered that Northstar was laundering money through international shipping contracts."
"I know that."
"He also discovered someone was using the operation to finance murders and political corruption."
Dominic's expression hardened.
"My father?"
Miles shook his head.
"Richard was involved in the shipping fraud. But when he discovered the killings, he tried to stop them."
Dominic stared.
"That's not the man I knew."
"No," Miles said quietly. "It wasn't the man he wanted you to know."
Daniel approached.
"Your father helped me collect evidence."
Dominic looked at him.
"Then why did Northstar burn?"
"Because someone discovered what we were doing."
"Who?"
Daniel hesitated.
"The Architect."
Dominic's patience snapped.
"Everybody keeps saying that name. Tell me who it is."
Daniel looked toward Evelyn.
She stood very still.
Dominic followed his gaze.
"Evelyn?"
Her face had gone pale.
Daniel spoke.
"The Architect was someone inside the Vale organization who controlled the accounts, the shell companies, and the hidden payments."
Dominic took a step toward Evelyn.
"Tell me he's wrong."
She swallowed.
"I helped establish some of those structures."
Claire stared.
"You?"
Evelyn shook her head quickly.
"Not the murders. I didn't know about those."
Dominic's voice became dangerously quiet.
"What did you know?"
"Enough to realize your father was in trouble."
"Then why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Richard made me promise."
Dominic laughed bitterly.
"Everyone in my life seems to have made promises except to me."
Miles stepped forward.
"Dominic, Evelyn isn't the Architect."
"Then who is?"
Daniel reached into his coat.
He removed a sealed envelope.
"Your father left this with me."
Dominic stared at it.
"Why?"
"Because he believed you'd be the only person strong enough to finish what he started."
Dominic took the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
A younger Richard Vale stood beside Silas Harrow and Daniel Bennett.
The same photograph Claire's mother had owned.
Except this version was complete.
No face had been cut out.
Dominic looked at the fourth person.
And his entire world shifted.
The woman standing beside his father was Margaret Vale.
His mother.
Beneath the photograph, Richard had written:
MARGARET BUILT THE SYSTEM. I TRIED TO DESTROY IT.
Dominic slowly lowered the photograph.
May you like
Then Daniel whispered the words that made everything worse.
"Dominic, your mother didn't die six years ago."
