Chapter 3 - THE DEAD WOMAN’S VOICEDominic reached Mia before the first gunshot.
He pulled her behind the marble column as glass exploded from the western windows.
“Down!”
Marcus dragged Claire behind a sofa.
Nathan disappeared toward the corridor.
That registered immediately.
Not away from the danger.
Toward Dominic’s office.
“Daniel!” Dominic shouted.
The guard appeared from the kitchen carrying Harper against his chest.
She was crying.
“Safe room. Now.”
“No!” Harper reached toward Mia. “Mommy!”
Mia tried to run to her.
Dominic caught her around the waist.
“She’s safer with Daniel.”
Another shot punched through the front doors.
Dominic’s men returned fire.
The attack lasted ninety seconds.
Then silence.
No assault followed.
No men stormed the house.
The shooters had never intended to enter.
They had wanted chaos.
Dominic understood why when Marcus returned from the office.
“The security server is gone.”
Dominic looked toward the hallway.
“Nathan?”
“Gone.”
Claire whispered, “What?”
Dominic went outside.
One vehicle was missing from the service garage.
Nathan Cross had fled the home he had protected for seventeen years.
Dominic felt no anger at first.
Only an enormous, unnatural emptiness.
Then Marcus approached.
“We found this.”
He held out a phone.
Nathan’s phone.
Left deliberately on Dominic’s desk.
“Track the car.”
“Already trying.”
Dominic returned to Mia.
She had Harper in her arms again.
Claire stood nearby, visibly shaken.
“Dominic,” Claire said, “you can’t possibly think Nathan—”
“I’m done thinking.”
He looked at Mia.
“Where’s the card?”
She opened her hand.
Still there.
For the first time that day, Dominic felt relief.
Two hours later, they inserted it into an isolated laptop in the library.
There were three files.
Two photographs.
One audio recording.
Dominic opened the first photograph.
His blood turned cold.
It showed Nathan meeting with Anthony Mercer, a rival financier who had spent years trying to penetrate Vale shipping operations.
The timestamp was eight years old.
The second photograph was worse.
Nathan stood beside Claire’s father, Senator Richard Bennett.
The photograph had been taken ten years earlier.
A year before Dominic’s wife died.
Claire stepped toward the screen.
“My father knew Nathan?”
Dominic looked at her.
“You tell me.”
“I’ve never seen this.”
Mia watched Claire carefully.
“Play the recording,” she whispered.
Dominic clicked.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman spoke.
Dominic stopped moving.
Evelyn.
His dead wife.
“If you’re hearing this, I was right to be afraid.”
Claire’s hand covered her mouth.
Dominic stared at the computer.
Eight years disappeared.
He could see Evelyn at breakfast, barefoot in his kitchen, stealing strawberries from his plate.
He could hear her laughing.
He could smell the vanilla perfume she wore.
Then her recorded voice continued.
“Nathan Cross is moving money through the Mercer accounts. I don’t know why yet. Dominic trusts him too much to hear this from me without proof.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Mia quietly moved Harper toward the window.
The recording continued.
“I found payments connected to Richard Bennett. There are also names inside our organization. If something happens to me, the accident wasn’t an accident.”
Dominic’s eyes opened.
Claire whispered, “No.”
Evelyn’s voice broke slightly.
“And Dom, if you hear this—please understand I tried to tell you.”
The recording ended.
No one spoke.
Dominic sat completely motionless.
Eight years ago, Evelyn had died when a truck struck her vehicle on a wet road near Yonkers.
Nathan had been in the passenger seat.
Nathan survived.
He had dragged Dominic’s unconscious body from the second vehicle after Dominic arrived minutes later and was struck by an explosion.
For eight years, Dominic had believed Nathan saved him.
Now another possibility existed.
Maybe Nathan had simply needed Dominic alive.
Claire backed away.
“My father couldn’t have been involved.”
Dominic turned.
“Why?”
“Because he loved Evelyn.”
“So did Nathan.”
“That proves nothing.”
“No. The recording proves Evelyn believed something.”
Dominic was careful even now.
Belief was not evidence.
He had survived because he understood that distinction.
Marcus entered.
“We found Nathan’s car.”
“Where?”
“Abandoned near the river.”
“And Nathan?”
“Gone.”
Dominic looked at the computer.
“Find every transaction Evelyn mentioned.”
Marcus nodded.
Claire crossed her arms.
“What about me?”
Dominic met her eyes.
“What about you?”
“You think I locked Mia downstairs.”
“Mia says you brought her there.”
“And I say I didn’t.”
“Then one of you is lying.”
Claire flinched.
Mia spoke quietly.
“She isn’t.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What?”
“She isn’t lying about locking me inside.”
Claire stared at Mia.
Mia pressed her fingers against her temple.
“I remember more now.”
Dominic waited.
“Claire brought me downstairs. That part is true. She opened the cellar because she said you wanted the wine counted.”
Claire shook her head.
“I don’t remember—”
“You got a phone call.”
Mia continued.
“You stepped into the corridor.”
Her breathing quickened.
“Then Nathan came from behind the rack.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“He hit you?”
“Yes.”
“Did Claire see him?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire’s face had become pale.
Mia looked at her.
“When I woke up the first time, I heard you arguing.”
“With Nathan?”
“Yes.”
“What did I say?”
Mia closed her eyes.
“You said, ‘That wasn’t the plan.’”
Claire stopped breathing.
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“What plan?”
“I don’t know.”
Mia looked between them.
“Then Nathan said something.”
“What?”
“He said, ‘Your father waited eight years for this. Don’t lose your nerve now.’”
Claire sank into a chair.
Dominic watched her.
“Tell me.”
She shook her head.
“Claire.”
“My father asked me to marry you.”
Silence.
Harper was playing with a wooden chess piece by the window.
She did not understand the sentence.
Dominic did.
Claire’s eyes filled.
“He said our families needed an alliance. He said marrying you would stabilize everything after the Mercer conflict.”
“And you agreed.”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Claire looked at him.
“I didn’t expect to care about you.”
Dominic’s face showed nothing.
It hurt Claire more than anger would have.
“My father wanted access to your financial network,” she admitted. “Not passwords. Nothing like that. He wanted to know which companies were vulnerable, which executives were loyal.”
“You gave him information.”
“Some.”
Mia looked down.
Dominic asked, “Did you know about Evelyn?”
“No.”
“Did you know Nathan worked for him?”
“No.”
“Did you help Nathan lure Mia downstairs?”
Claire began crying.
“Yes.”
Mia’s face tightened.
Claire turned toward her.
“But I swear I didn’t know he would hurt you. He told me he needed to retrieve something from the cellar without Dominic knowing. I thought it was financial evidence.”
“You left me with him.”
“I came back.”
“After he hit me.”
“I tried to stop him.”
“You left again.”
“He threatened my father.”
Mia stared at her.
“My daughter spent three days thinking I abandoned her.”
Claire had no answer.
Dominic rose.
“The wedding is canceled.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Dominic—”
“You’re leaving.”
“My father—”
“Can explain himself when I find him.”
Dominic looked toward Marcus.
“Take Miss Bennett to the east guest house. Two guards. She doesn’t leave.”
Claire stood.
“You’re imprisoning me?”
“I’m protecting a witness until I know who’s trying to kill everyone who touches that card.”
The distinction did little to comfort her.
Marcus escorted her away.
Dominic remained beside the laptop.
Mia approached quietly.
“You trusted him.”
Dominic laughed once without humor.
“More than anyone.”
“I’m sorry.”
He looked at her bruised wrists.
“You spent three days under my house because of my mistakes.”
“Those weren’t your ropes.”
“No.”
Dominic’s eyes returned to Evelyn’s frozen image on the screen.
“But maybe I handed the rope to the man who tied them.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dominic answered.
Nathan’s voice came through.
“Did you hear her recording?”
Dominic’s hand tightened.
“Where are you?”
Nathan ignored him.
“Evelyn hid more than one thing, Dom.”
“What do you want?”
“The memory card.”
“You’re not getting it.”
Nathan sighed.
“Then ask Mia what else she found behind the wall.”
Dominic turned toward her.
Mia went pale.
Nathan laughed softly.
“She hasn’t told you everything, has she?”
The call ended.
Dominic stared at Mia.
“What else was in the wall?”
Mia’s hand slowly closed around her silver pendant.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“A birth certificate.”
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