Chapter 5 - THE ROOM WITHOUT WINDOWSThe key fit a door Dominic had not opened in twelve years.
At the far end of the estate’s oldest wing stood a narrow oak door disguised within the library paneling.
Dominic’s father had called it the archive room.
After his death, Dominic sealed it.
Harper’s brass key turned smoothly.
“That’s impossible,” Marcus murmured.
Dominic pushed the door open.
Dust moved through the flashlight beam.
Shelves covered the walls.
Ledgers.
Photographs.
Old cassette tapes.
Bank records.
And in the center, beneath a canvas sheet, stood a desk.
Mia pulled the sheet away.
There was no dust beneath it.
Someone had been here recently.
Dominic found a photograph on the desk.
His father, Victor Vale.
Nathan Cross.
Richard Bennett.
Anthony Mercer.
And a younger man Dominic recognized after several seconds.
Adam Carter’s father.
Thomas Carter.
Mia stared at it.
“My father-in-law?”
“You knew him?”
“Barely. He died before Adam and I married.”
Dominic turned the photograph over.
Four words were handwritten on the back.
THE FOUNDERS OF LANTERN.
Everything changed.
Lantern had not begun with Nathan.
It had begun with their fathers.
Dominic’s father included.
Mia watched Dominic absorb it.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
His voice was flat.
Victor Vale had taught his son three things above all else.
Protect the family.
Never betray your word.
Never profit from children.
Apparently he had broken at least one of those rules himself.
They searched the archive for hours.
Lantern began as a covert arrangement between four powerful men who believed they could reduce violent conflict by controlling money behind the scenes.
They bought failing businesses.
Settled debts.
Paid informants.
Manipulated alliances.
At first, according to Victor’s journals, they told themselves they were preventing bloodshed.
Then profit changed the purpose.
Anthony Mercer wanted expansion.
Richard Bennett wanted political influence.
Nathan, still a young lieutenant, discovered the system and became indispensable.
Thomas Carter objected.
Victor eventually did too.
The alliance fractured.
Then people began dying.
Dominic found a sealed letter addressed to him.
The handwriting belonged to his father.
He opened it.
Dominic,
If you are reading this, then either I failed to end Lantern or someone I trusted continued it after my death.
I built something believing power could be controlled by honorable men.
I was wrong.
Power does not become honorable because honorable men touch it.
Dominic stopped.
His father had never spoken like that in life.
Mia read over his shoulder.
The letter continued.
Evelyn knows enough to expose the remaining structure. Trust her. Trust Thomas Carter’s records. Do not trust the man who survives every disaster.
Dominic stared at the sentence.
Nathan.
Always Nathan.
Victor died of a heart attack fourteen years earlier.
Or so Dominic had believed.
A noise came from the corridor.
Marcus drew his weapon.
Dominic switched off the lamp.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Approaching.
The door opened.
Claire stood there.
Marcus aimed at her.
“Don’t.”
Claire raised both hands.
“I came alone.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“You were told to stay in the guest house.”
“I know.”
“How did you get out?”
“Your guards still think I’m your fiancée.”
“Not anymore.”
Pain crossed her face.
She accepted it.
“My father is alive.”
Dominic froze.
“The shooting was staged.”
“By whom?”
“Him.”
Claire stepped inside.
“He wanted Nathan to believe he’d been killed before he could talk.”
“Where is Bennett?”
“I don’t know. He called from a blocked number.”
“What did he say?”
“That Lantern has a fifth founder.”
Dominic glanced at the photograph.
“There are four.”
“Not according to him.”
“Who?”
“He wouldn’t say over the phone.”
Claire reached into her coat.
Marcus’s weapon rose.
She stopped.
“It’s paper.”
Dominic nodded.
She removed an envelope.
“My father told me to give you this.”
Dominic opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Evelyn stood outside a Manhattan hotel.
Beside her was Nathan.
On the other side stood Dominic’s mother.
Isabella Vale.
Dominic stared at the image.
His mother had died when he was twenty.
At least that was what he had been told.
He turned the photograph over.
The date was seventeen years later.
Three months before Evelyn’s death.
Dominic’s blood went cold.
“This is fake.”
Claire shook her head.
“My father says it isn’t.”
Mia studied the woman.
“She looks like you.”
Dominic could barely hear her.
His mother had supposedly died of cancer in Switzerland.
He had attended a closed-casket funeral.
His father said the illness had destroyed her appearance and she had wanted Dominic to remember her as she had been.
He had been twenty.
Grieving.
He believed him.
“What does Bennett say happened?”
Claire swallowed.
“That your mother helped create Lantern.”
Dominic looked at her.
“And?”
“She’s alive.”
Silence consumed the room.
Even Marcus lowered his weapon slightly.
Dominic’s face became unreadable.
“Where?”
“My father doesn’t know.”
“Then how does he know she’s alive?”
“Because Nathan has been sending her money for twenty years.”
Mia looked at the shelves.
A hidden organization.
A murdered wife.
A murdered husband.
A mother who had returned from the dead.
And somewhere outside the estate, Nathan Cross was running.
Harper suddenly appeared in the doorway.
Mia spun around.
“Harper! I told you to stay with Mrs. Gable.”
“I woke up.”
She walked toward Dominic.
In her hand was a folded piece of paper.
“A man gave me this.”
Every adult in the room became still.
“What man?” Dominic asked.
“The man at my window.”
Mia went white.
Dominic took the paper.
Three words were written inside.
ASK MIA ABOUT ROME.
Dominic slowly lifted his eyes.
May you like
Mia looked terrified.
And this time, the terror was not about Nathan.
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