Chapter 5 - Marry Me Before He Comes Upstairs
Emergency lights flooded the corridor red.
Carver moved Nadine and Ada into the secured nursery.
This time Nadine locked the door herself.
A minute later, the power returned.
One security officer was missing.
Elias Ward.
Carver’s oldest lieutenant.
The man who had warned them about Dominic at the clinic.
Nadine remembered his face.
Calm.
Professional.
Helpful.
“He knew about my father?”
Carver’s jaw tightened.
“He knew my father.”
They searched Elias’s room.
Empty.
His closet contained one thing that did not belong.
A photograph of Nadine at sixteen.
She was standing beside her father at an accounting conference.
Behind them stood Elias.
Nadine stared.
“I’ve seen him before.”
Carver nodded.
“So have I.”
Elias had worked for Carver’s father.
Before that, Dominic’s father.
He was the bridge.
Nadine opened her father’s archived files.
AC-0714 appeared seventeen times.
Always beside transfers occurring shortly before Carver’s father died.
She finally understood.
“It isn’t an account.”
“What is it?”
“A case number.”
She searched public court archives.
Nothing.
Then sealed federal records.
Still nothing.
Carver said, “Try reversing it.”
“Why?”
“My father used dates backward.”
1407-CA.
A corporate archive appeared.
Castellano Assets.
July 14.
The date Carver’s father died.
Nadine stared at the screen.
Her father had built a private forensic file documenting the theft of Carver family assets.
Dominic’s father had not merely taken territory.
He had stolen millions through shell companies.
And Elias Ward had authorized the transfers.
“Your father discovered it,” Carver said.
“And someone killed him.”
Nadine looked at the photograph.
Elias.
That evening, Dominic called.
Nadine answered.
“Come home.”
“No.”
“You married Reigns.”
“Yes.”
“You humiliated me.”
Nadine almost laughed.
“You kissed my sister while I was pregnant.”
“That was different.”
“Only to you.”
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“Amber lied to you.”
“About what?”
“Everything.”
“Be specific.”
“She has been working with Reigns.”
Nadine looked across the room at Carver.
He could hear Dominic through the speaker.
Carver’s face remained still.
“For how long?”
“Ask your husband.”
Nadine muted the call.
“Carver?”
“I met Amber once before Montana.”
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
Nadine’s stomach dropped.
“You lied.”
“I withheld it.”
“That is what liars call lying when they own expensive suits.”
Carver accepted the hit.
“Amber approached me.”
“Why?”
“She said Dominic was monitoring you and your father had left evidence.”
“And you never thought that mattered?”
“I promised her I wouldn’t tell you until she could explain herself.”
“You made promises concerning me without me.”
“Yes.”
“Exactly what Dominic does.”
Carver went silent.
Nadine unmuted the phone.
Dominic was still there.
“Nadine?”
She looked at Carver.
For the first time since Montana, she felt truly uncertain.
Dominic spoke softly.
“Ask him what happened to your father the night he died.”
Carver’s face changed.
Nadine saw it.
“Carver?”
He looked at her.
“What happened?”
Before he could answer, Ada began crying upstairs.
Then the baby monitor activated.
A man’s voice came through it.
“Mrs. Reigns?”
Nadine’s blood froze.
The nursery was supposed to be empty except for Ada.
May you like
The man spoke again.
“I think you should come upstairs.”
