Chapter 6 - The Truth Dominic Never ExpectedDominic didn't go to Philadelphia immediately.
That told me more about him than if he had.
He verified everything first.
Michael Vale had been twenty-one when he disappeared.
Dominic had been twenty-five.
Their father told the family Michael had died overseas after becoming involved with dangerous people.
There had been a funeral.
Closed casket.
A grave.
Everything except a body Dominic had actually seen.
By sunrise, Dominic's investigators found Michael.
Alive.
Fifty-one years old.
Owner of a small woodworking business outside Philadelphia.
Married.
Two children.
Dominic stared at the photograph on the screen for a long time.
“Go,” I said.
He looked at me.
“The board meeting—”
“Can wait.”
“Claire.”
“You've spent days helping me find my family truth.”
I closed his laptop.
“Go find yours.”
He left that afternoon.
I stayed in Baltimore with attorneys preparing to block my father's sale.
For the first time, I had to operate without Dominic nearby.
I didn't realize how accustomed I had become to his presence until it disappeared.
That annoyed me.
So did the fact that I missed him.
At 4:30, my father finally called.
I answered.
“Come home.”
“No.”
“We need to discuss this privately.”
“My attorneys can speak with yours.”
“I'm your father.”
“And I'm apparently a shareholder you defrauded.”
Silence.
Then his voice softened.
It was the voice he used when cruelty stopped working.
“Claire, your mother would hate this.”
I almost admired the audacity.
“Don't.”
“She loved this family.”
“She was divorcing you.”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
That was when I knew Richard had told the truth.
“Who told you that?”
“Goodbye, Dad.”
“Claire—”
I ended the call.
At 6:05, Garrison Maritime suspended the acquisition.
At 6:17, two lenders demanded explanations.
At 7:02, three board members requested Charles's temporary removal.
At 8:40, my father arrived at Dominic's building.
Security wouldn't let him upstairs.
So he waited in the lobby.
I shouldn't have gone down.
I did anyway.
Charles looked older.
Not broken.
I wasn't foolish enough to confuse those things.
“Are you happy?” he asked.
“No.”
“You're destroying your mother's company.”
“I've spent nine years saving it.”
“For yourself.”
I stared at him.
“Is that what you need to believe?”
“You always resented your sisters.”
“No. You needed me to resent them because then nobody would notice the real problem was you.”
His jaw tightened.
“I gave you a job.”
“You stole my shares.”
“I protected them.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I protected this family!”
His voice echoed through the lobby.
Security moved closer.
I raised one hand.
They stopped.
Charles lowered his voice.
“You don't understand what your mother left behind.”
“Then explain it.”
He looked toward the doors.
“Anne was reckless.”
“My mother?”
“She wanted principles. Principles don't make payroll.”
“Apparently I did.”
That hit him.
He looked at me with something I had spent years trying to earn.
Recognition.
Too late.
“You are exactly like her,” he said.
For once, it sounded like an insult he couldn't make stick.
“Thank you.”
His face hardened.
“If you continue this, your sisters lose everything.”
“No. You lose control.”
“They'll hate you.”
“Then they'll hate me.”
I turned away.
“Claire.”
I stopped.
His next sentence was almost gentle.
“Dominic Vale isn't helping you because he cares about you.”
I looked back.
“He wants the terminal.”
“Maybe.”
“He'll use you.”
“Maybe.”
“You trust him?”
I considered it.
“No.”
My father smiled.
Then I added, “But I trust myself now.”
His smile disappeared.
That was the first time I understood how powerful that sentence was.
Dominic returned after midnight.
I found him alone on the rooftop terrace.
“How did it go?”
He stared over Baltimore.
“He thought I knew.”
“Michael?”
“He thought our father told me.”
I stood beside him.
Michael had disappeared because Antonio Vale had discovered Charles's early financial manipulation. Charles learned Michael had gambling debts and used them to threaten the Vale family. Antonio sent Michael away to protect him and told Dominic he was dead because Michael believed severing all ties was the only way to keep everyone safe.
It was complicated.
Cowardly.
Human.
Nothing like the clean tragedies families tell themselves.
“Did you forgive him?” I asked.
“No.”
I nodded.
“Did he ask?”
“No.”
Another silence.
Then Dominic looked at me.
“He hugged me.”
Something in his voice nearly broke me.
“What did you do?”
“I stood there like an idiot.”
I smiled.
“And then?”
“I hugged him back.”
I touched his hand.
Only that.
Dominic looked down at our fingers.
Then at me.
“Claire.”
“Yes?”
“If I kiss you right now, you'll wonder whether I'm doing it because you're vulnerable.”
“Probably.”
“And I'll wonder the same thing about myself.”
“Probably.”
His thumb moved once against mine.
“So I'm not going to.”
I had never wanted a man to kiss me more.
“That is extremely irritating.”
He laughed.
A real laugh.
The sound transformed his face.
Then his phone rang.
He checked the screen.
The warmth disappeared.
“What?”
I watched him listen.
Then his eyes found mine.
“When?”
He ended the call.
“My people just checked your mother's trust account.”
“What about it?”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“It's empty.”
My heart stopped.
“Eighteen million dollars doesn't disappear.”
“No.”
“Who withdrew it?”
He held my gaze.
“According to the authorization?”
I already knew.
“Me.”
May you like
Dominic nodded.
“According to the bank, you emptied your own trust four years ago.”
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