Chapter 2 - The Staircase Dominic Forgot
Dominic did not look at Amber.
His eyes remained fixed on Nadine’s hand inside Carver’s.
“My wife?” he repeated.
Carver stood beside the clinic bed.
“Yes.”
Nadine could feel Carver waiting for her to contradict him.
He had promised choice.
Even now, he was giving it.
Dominic saw that hesitation.
“You think this man is protecting you?”
Nadine adjusted Ada against her chest.
“I think he asked.”
The words landed harder than a scream.
Dominic’s expression tightened.
“I’m your husband.”
“Not for much longer.”
“You disappeared while carrying my child.”
“I escaped after finding you with my sister.”
Amber flinched.
Dominic finally turned toward her.
“What did you bring?”
Amber held up the phone.
“I found it at the estate.”
Nadine recognized it immediately.
Her old backup phone.
She had deliberately left it behind.
But it should have been wiped.
Dominic snatched it.
On the screen was an outgoing encrypted transfer.
The destination had no recognizable address.
Dominic looked at Nadine.
“What did you send?”
“Maybe nothing.”
“You’re lying.”
“Then apparently marriage taught me something.”
Carver’s lieutenant almost smiled.
Dominic stepped forward.
Carver moved once.
Not in front of Nadine.
Beside her.
That difference was small.
Nadine noticed.
“You have five seconds to leave,” Carver said.
“This is between my wife and me.”
“Nadine?”
Carver did not look away from Dominic.
But the question was hers.
Nadine answered.
“I want him gone.”
Carver nodded.
“You heard her.”
Dominic’s gaze moved to Ada.
For the first time, something cracked in his expression.
“My daughter.”
Nadine tightened her arms.
“Her name is Ada.”
“I have a right to see her.”
“You’ll discuss rights through attorneys.”
Dominic laughed softly.
“You think paperwork can keep me away?”
“No,” Nadine said. “Evidence can.”
Silence.
Dominic looked again at the phone.
That was the moment Nadine knew he was afraid.
Not angry.
Afraid.
He backed toward the doorway.
“This isn’t finished.”
“For once,” Nadine said, “that decision isn’t yours.”
Dominic left.
Amber remained.
“Nadine.”
“Go.”
“I need to explain.”
“You had seven weeks.”
Amber’s eyes filled.
“I was trying to help you.”
Nadine stared at her.
“By kissing my husband?”
Amber swallowed.
“There are things you don’t know.”
“Then I suppose you should have told me before putting your tongue in his mouth.”
Amber recoiled.
Carver looked away, giving the sisters the illusion of privacy.
Amber lowered her voice.
“Dominic was already watching you.”
Nadine froze.
“What?”
“He knew you were looking at the accounts.”
“That doesn’t explain you.”
“I needed him to trust me.”
Nadine felt something cold move through her.
“You expect me to believe you seduced my husband to protect me?”
“No.”
Amber’s tears spilled.
“I expect you to hate me.”
“That part is easy.”
“But you need to know why he locked you upstairs that night.”
“I know why.”
“No, you don’t.”
Amber glanced toward the corridor.
“He wasn’t trying to stop you from leaving.”
Nadine stared at her.
“He was trying to find your second phone before you did.”
Then Amber left.
Carver closed the door.
Nadine looked at him.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I believe people rarely travel hundreds of miles into hostile territory merely to confess an affair.”
Nadine looked down at Ada.
Her mind returned to Christmas Eve.
The servant stairs.
The bag.
The phone.
There had been something else.
A maintenance invoice.
A recurring payment.
She had dismissed it because the vendor name looked ordinary.
Bellweather Restoration.
Then she remembered the address.
The same address had appeared on a judicial consulting payment.
“Carver.”
“Yes?”
“I need a computer.”
An hour later, Nadine was inside Carver’s armored SUV with Ada secured beside her.
They were leaving the clinic.
Not because Carver ordered it.
Because Nadine had chosen his protected property after seeing Dominic arrive with three vehicles.
Carver sat opposite her.
“What are you looking for?”
“Something I missed.”
She opened the copied ledger.
Bellweather Restoration.
Payments every month.
Exactly $18,750.
Too regular for construction.
She followed the entity through the records.
Bellweather paid a consulting firm.
The consulting firm paid another shell.
That shell had one registered beneficiary.
Nadine stopped breathing.
Carver noticed.
“What?”
She turned the laptop.
The beneficiary was not Dominic.
It was Amber Vale.
Her sister.
Carver’s face hardened.
“How long?”
“Three years.”
“Before your marriage?”
“Yes.”
Nadine felt sick.
Amber had been receiving money from Dominic before Nadine ever married him.
The affair suddenly looked different.
Worse.
Or perhaps stranger.
Carver pointed to another line.
“What’s that?”
A reference number.
Nadine enlarged it.
AC-0714.
Her initials were NC.
Amber’s were AV.
The code meant nothing.
Then she remembered seeing it somewhere.
Not in Dominic’s books.
In her father’s papers after he died.
Nadine opened an encrypted archive she had copied years earlier.
Carver waited.
A scanned document appeared.
Life insurance.
Her father’s name.
A handwritten note in the margin.
AC-0714.
Nadine’s pulse accelerated.
“What did your father do?” Carver asked.
“He was an accountant.”
“For Dominic?”
“No.”
She looked at Carver.
“For Dominic’s father.”
The SUV suddenly slowed.
Carver’s lieutenant spoke from the front.
“We have company.”
Two headlights appeared behind them.
Then four.
Carver reached beneath his jacket.
Nadine grabbed Ada’s carrier.
“Dominic?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Carver stared into the side mirror.
“Because Dominic’s men use black vehicles.”
The first pursuing SUV pulled alongside them.
Its passenger window lowered.
And Nadine saw Amber sitting inside.
She pressed both hands against the glass.
Her mouth formed two desperate words.
May you like
DON’T STOP.
Then someone beside Amber raised a gun.
