Chapter 6 - VANESSA'S LAST BARGAIN
Dominic enlarged the photograph.
The woman beside Vanessa looked almost identical to Clara, except for a faint scar beneath her chin and a small gold ring on her right hand.
Clara touched her own chin instinctively.
“I've never seen her before.”
Adrian studied the image.
“Neither have I. But the ring is familiar.”
“From where?” Dominic asked.
“Our mother's jewelry box. I saw it once when I was a child.”
Clara looked at him.
“Could it belong to Catherine?”
“Possibly.”
Dominic called Samuel Whitmore and asked him to trace the photograph's location. Within minutes, the attorney identified the hotel.
Vanessa had checked in under a false name three hours earlier.
Dominic wanted to leave immediately, but Clara stopped him.
“If Vanessa is meeting my sister, she may be trying to trade information.”
“Or she may be holding her hostage.”
“Then we need to know which before we charge in.”
Adrian nodded.
“We watch first.”
They arrived at the hotel shortly before dusk. Dominic and Adrian entered through the underground garage while Clara remained in a secured vehicle with Eleanor on the phone.
A camera near the service elevator showed Vanessa entering a conference suite with a woman wearing a dark coat.
The woman carried a small leather case.
Dominic recognized it from the photograph.
“That's the ring case,” Adrian whispered.
They approached the suite.
Through the slightly open door, they heard Vanessa speaking.
“You promised I'd be protected.”
The other woman answered, “You were supposed to destroy the evidence, not announce its existence in front of Dominic.”
“I didn't know the maid had already sent the page to Whitmore!”
“Her name is Elizabeth.”
“Whatever her name is, she's ruined everything.”
Dominic pushed open the door.
Vanessa spun around.
The other woman reached for her bag, but Adrian blocked the exit.
“Don't,” he warned.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Vanessa looked at Dominic with desperate relief.
“You have to help me. These people have been threatening me for months.”
“You transferred nearly five million dollars and lied about Arthur's disappearance.”
“I was following instructions.”
“Whose?”
Vanessa looked at the woman beside her.
The woman remained silent.
Dominic stepped closer.
“Tell me who paid you.”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Your father.”
The room seemed to shrink around them.
“My father has been dead for eight years.”
“That's what you believe.”
Adrian pulled the leather case from the table.
Inside lay several documents, a passport, and a photograph of a man standing beside a yacht.
The man had Dominic's father's face.
The date on the photograph was six months earlier.
Dominic stared at it.
“Where was this taken?”
Vanessa's voice trembled.
“Greece. I never met him in person. Everything came through intermediaries.”
“Then why did you take the money?”
“Because he promised to make me part of the family. He said Dominic would eventually lose control of the organization, and I would be the only person he could trust.”
Dominic laughed without humor.
“You planned to marry me while helping someone destroy me?”
“I loved you.”
“You loved the future you imagined.”
Vanessa's expression hardened.
“You think you're different? You frighten people into obeying you. You make decisions for everyone around you. You just call it protection.”
The accusation struck a nerve.
Dominic didn't deny it.
Instead, he asked the woman beside her, “Who are you?”
She looked at Clara, who had entered the room with Eleanor.
“My name is Catherine.”
Clara stared at her.
“Are you my sister?”
Catherine's expression softened.
“I think so.”
She produced a folded hospital record. It contained the same hospital number as Clara's birth certificate and a second entry showing that both babies had been delivered alive.
“I've spent years searching for the other girl,” Catherine said. “I found the adoption records two months ago. Then someone offered me money to stop looking.”
“Who?”
“Vanessa.”
Vanessa shook her head violently.
“I was trying to protect you!”
Catherine gave a bitter laugh.
“You threatened my adoptive father. You sent photographs of his house. You told me that if I contacted the Morettis, he would disappear.”
Dominic turned toward Vanessa.
“You threatened an innocent man?”
“I was told it was necessary!”
“By whom?”
Vanessa's eyes flicked toward the door.
Adrian moved to block it.
“Answer him.”
She began to cry.
“I never knew the man's real identity. He used a voice filter and a different phone every time. But he sent me a recording.”
She removed her phone and played it.
A man's voice filled the room.
“Once the accountant is silenced, the brothers will turn against each other. The girls will be brought home. And the money will return to its rightful owner.”
Dominic felt the blood drain from his face.
He knew that voice.
Not because he had heard it recently.
Because he had heard it in childhood, through the walls of his father's study.
Adrian whispered, “Dad.”
Before anyone could respond, the hotel's fire alarm sounded.
Sprinklers activated in the corridor.
The lights flickered.
Someone had triggered an emergency evacuation.
Dominic grabbed the documents while Adrian moved Catherine and Clara toward the exit. Vanessa followed, but a security guard appeared at the end of the hallway.
He raised a weapon.
“Leave the case,” he ordered.
Adrian shoved Catherine behind him.
Dominic recognized the guard.
Marcus Hale.
His missing security chief smiled.
“Sorry, boss. Family business.”
He aimed at Dominic.
Then Vanessa stepped between them.
The gunshot struck her in the shoulder.
She collapsed against Dominic, blood spreading across her dress.
Marcus fled down the emergency stairs.
Dominic caught Vanessa before she hit the floor.
Her eyes searched his face.
“Don't let him take the girls,” she whispered.
Then she gripped Dominic's wrist with surprising strength.
“Because the woman who hired me isn't Catherine.”
Her eyes rolled shut.
May you like
“She looks exactly like Clara.”
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