Chapter 11 - What Greg Higgins Really Knew
Dominic’s gun lowered.
“My father had no other son.”
Greg laughed.
“Arthur had many secrets.”
He claimed Arthur Costello was his father.
His mother had been Evelyn’s younger sister.
That made him both Costello and Hayes blood.
Crown had raised him as the perfect successor.
Meline understood.
The blind date had never been about her meeting Dominic.
It was about Greg watching both of them.
“Why pretend to be harmless?”
“Harmless men hear everything.”
Dominic said, “DNA.”
Greg smiled.
“You’ll get your proof.”
Then he released the switch.
Nothing happened.
Greg looked down.
Meline smiled.
“You really should respect architects.”
“What did you do?”
“The roof has no network connection.”
She had disconnected the relay downstairs.
Dominic moved.
Greg ran.
He jumped to the adjacent roof.
Dominic followed.
Meline shouted after him.
The chase ended three buildings away.
Greg escaped into the subway.
But the archive survived.
DNA later confirmed part of Greg’s story.
Arthur Costello was his father.
Dominic had a half brother.
The discovery changed him.
Not because Greg shared his blood.
Because Arthur had hidden another child.
Another lie.
Meline found Dominic alone in his study.
“You don’t become responsible for someone because you share DNA.”
“He’s my brother.”
“He tried to kill you.”
“Families are complicated.”
“That’s an understatement coming from us.”
He looked at her.
“Us?”
She realized what she had said.
He stood.
“Was that accidental?”
“Possibly.”
He approached.
“Meline.”
“Don’t look so pleased.”
“I’m trying not to.”
She kissed him before he could say more.
For a few minutes, Crown, B-17 and dead fathers disappeared.
Then Harper called.
Greg had contacted her.
He wanted to trade himself for Evelyn.
“He wants her out of federal custody,” Harper said.
“Why?”
“He says she has the location of the final archive.”
Meline frowned.
“What final archive?”
“Thomas’s.”
Her father had created his own evidence collection.
One that could destroy Crown permanently.
Greg gave them a location.
Grand Central.
Midnight.
Meline went with Dominic.
Greg never appeared.
Instead, a locker key waited.
Inside the locker was Greg’s dying bouquet of daisies.
The same flowers from Belladonna.
Underneath was a recorder.
Thomas’s voice.
“Meline, if you found this, Gregory found you first.”
Her hands trembled.
“Greg knew my father would leave this?”
Dominic listened.
Thomas continued.
“Gregory is dangerous, but he is not the person you should fear most. He was a child when Crown took him. Remember that before you decide what he deserves.”
Meline closed her eyes.
Even dead, her father refused simple answers.
The recording continued.
“The final archive is somewhere Meline already knows. I taught her how to find it.”
A pause.
“Old walls reveal what people try to hide.”
Meline whispered the words with him.
She knew.
Her childhood home.
They drove to Queens.
The house had been sold years ago.
Now it stood empty for renovation.
Meline found the wall.
Her childhood bedroom.
Behind the height marks her father had drawn as she grew.
She broke through plaster.
A steel box waited.
Inside were hard drives.
And a letter.
Before she could open it, headlights appeared outside.
Dominic looked through the window.
A black SUV stopped.
Greg stepped out.
But he wasn’t alone.
Meline’s mother emerged beside him.
No restraints.
No fear.
She looked up at Meline’s window.
May you like
Then she raised a gun.
And pointed it toward her own daughter...
