Chapter 4 - The Woman the Council Erased
Dominic read the letter three times.
Genevieve did not speak.
Neither did Elias.
Doctor Hale stood beside the fire, weeping silently.
Dominic finally looked up.
“I don’t have a daughter.”
Hale closed her eyes.
“You do.”
“No.”
“You were seventeen.”
Dominic stared at her.
Something moved behind his eyes.
A memory.
Genevieve felt it before he spoke.
“Amelia.”
Hale nodded.
Elias frowned.
“Who’s Amelia?”
Dominic stood.
His face had gone pale.
“Amelia Hart.”
Genevieve had seen the name once.
A minor noble family.
Their estate had burned down sixteen years ago.
No survivors.
According to the archive.
Dominic looked at Hale.
“She told me she was leaving.”
“She was made to leave.”
“She said she didn’t want this life.”
“She was pregnant.”
The silence became unbearable.
Dominic gripped the table.
“And no one told me.”
“Helena knew.”
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
Dominic shut his eyes.
Genevieve saw the wound opening again.
His father.
His brother.
Now his child.
Every person he believed he had lost had been taken through deception.
“She hid my daughter?”
“She hid her to save her.”
“That sentence is beginning to mean nothing to me.”
Hale flinched.
Dominic immediately looked remorseful.
He lowered his voice.
“I’m sorry.”
“You have every right to be angry.”
“No.”
His gaze moved toward the letter.
“I have the right to be angry at the people responsible.”
Genevieve stepped closer.
“Then find Clara.”
Dominic looked at her.
The rage softened.
Only around her.
“How old?”
“Sixteen,” Hale said.
Dominic’s expression crumbled.
Sixteen.
The age he had been when his father disappeared.
Genevieve understood the cruelty.
His daughter had reached the same threshold while living without him.
Elias folded his arms.
“If the Circle took her, why now?”
Varrick answered.
“Because Dominic is no longer following the path they built.”
“What path?”
“Marriage alliance.”
Dominic frowned.
“I refused every arranged match.”
“Yes.”
“That should make them pleased.”
“No. It made them nervous.”
Varrick looked at Genevieve.
Dominic’s body stiffened.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Varrick did.
“The Circle expected you to eventually marry someone from one of their bloodlines.”
“And because I chose Genevieve?”
“They realized influence through marriage was failing.”
Genevieve swallowed.
“So they searched for another heir.”
Varrick nodded.
“Clara.”
Dominic’s eyes darkened.
“They want my daughter on the throne.”
“Under their control.”
Dominic turned away.
Elias paced.
“Where would they take her?”
Varrick thought.
“Not the castle.”
“Why?”
“Too visible.”
“The old council estate?” Genevieve asked.
Varrick looked at her.
“Which?”
“Ravenswood.”
Everyone went still.
Genevieve had found references to it in the treasury records.
A secluded manor beyond the eastern ridge.
Officially abandoned.
But the accounts still paid for heating oil, food deliveries and security.
Dominic looked at her.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She gave him a look.
He exhaled.
“Right. Because we’ve established my castle leaks secrets like a cracked roof.”
Elias almost smiled.
They left within the hour.
No royal convoy.
No banners.
Dominic borrowed an ordinary truck from a ranch outside the territory.
Genevieve sat beside him.
Elias and Varrick rode behind.
Hale remained hidden.
The road to Ravenswood took three hours.
Dominic barely spoke.
Genevieve watched his hands tighten around the steering wheel.
“You’re thinking about Amelia.”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to tell me?”
“No.”
She nodded.
Five minutes passed.
Then Dominic spoke.
“I loved her.”
Genevieve turned toward him.
He kept his eyes on the road.
“Not like you.”
Genevieve said nothing.
“She was my first everything.”
“Dominic, you don’t have to explain.”
“I want to.”
His voice was quiet.
“She was brave. Loud. Hated court manners. My mother disliked her.”
“That sounds familiar.”
He glanced at Genevieve.
She raised an eyebrow.
He almost smiled.
“Mother would have liked you.”
“I’m the archivist who discovered she hid half your family.”
“She respected persistence.”
Genevieve laughed softly.
The sound seemed to release something inside him.
Then he became serious.
“I thought Amelia left because I wasn’t enough.”
Genevieve reached across the console and covered his hand.
“She was trying to protect Clara.”
“I should have been there.”
“You were seventeen.”
“I should have known.”
“No.”
Genevieve turned toward him.
“You are not responsible for secrets other people built around you.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“I am responsible for what I do now.”
“Yes.”
He squeezed her hand.
“Then I’m getting my daughter.”
Ravenswood appeared after sunset.
Stone walls.
Dark windows.
Two guards.
Elias studied the property through binoculars.
“Six outside.”
Dominic frowned.
“You said two.”
“Four more near the east gate.”
Varrick said, “There’ll be more inside.”
Genevieve looked at Dominic.
“You can call loyal guards.”
“I don’t know who’s loyal.”
“You know some.”
“Do I?”
The question hurt.
Genevieve understood.
Trust had become dangerous.
Dominic looked at her.
“You stay in the truck.”
“No.”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“That wasn’t an answer.”
Elias sighed.
“I see why you like her.”
Dominic shot him a look.
Genevieve opened the door.
“We waste time arguing or we get Clara.”
Dominic grabbed her hand.
“Genevieve.”
She looked at him.
“If something happens to you—”
“Then make sure nothing happens.”
His expression softened despite himself.
“You are impossible.”
“You love me.”
He stared.
Genevieve realized what she had said.
Neither had ever spoken the words directly.
Not like that.
Dominic leaned closer.
“Yes.”
One word.
No hesitation.
“Yes, I do.”
Genevieve’s throat tightened.
Then Elias tapped the window.
“I hate interrupting whatever extremely overdue moment this is, but a guard is coming.”
Dominic looked toward the road.
The moment vanished.
They moved.
Varrick knew a service entrance beneath the kitchen.
That concerned Dominic.
“How many secret doors do you know?”
“Enough to make architects distrust me.”
They entered through a wine cellar.
Voices above.
Genevieve followed Dominic up the stairs.
A corridor.
Two guards.
Dominic handled one before the man shouted.
Elias disarmed the other.
No killing.
Dominic had insisted.
“I want witnesses,” he said.
They moved deeper.
Then Genevieve heard a girl scream.
Dominic stopped.
Every muscle in his body tightened.
Again.
“Get away from me!”
Dominic ran.
Genevieve followed.
They reached a locked room.
Dominic kicked the door open.
Inside, a teenage girl stood behind a table holding a fireplace poker.
Three men surrounded her.
She had dark hair.
Gray eyes.
Dominic’s eyes.
One man turned.
Dominic hit him before he finished reaching for his weapon.
Elias took another.
The third ran.
Genevieve reached Clara.
“It’s okay.”
“Who are you?”
“My name is Genevieve.”
Clara’s gaze went to Dominic.
He stood frozen.
For once, the Alpha King had no words.
Clara stared at him.
“You.”
Dominic swallowed.
“You know me?”
“Everyone knows you.”
His expression fell slightly.
Of course.
His portrait hung in government buildings.
His face appeared in newspapers.
Clara raised the poker.
“Stay away.”
Dominic lifted his hands.
“I won’t touch you.”
“Why are you here?”
He looked at Genevieve.
Then back at Clara.
“To take you somewhere safe.”
Clara laughed bitterly.
“That’s what they said.”
Dominic flinched.
“Who?”
“The woman.”
“What woman?”
“The one who said she was my grandmother.”
Dominic went still.
“My mother is dead.”
Clara shook her head.
“She didn’t say she was your mother.”
The room fell silent.
Genevieve felt dread climb her spine.
Clara pointed toward the adjoining door.
“She said she was Amelia Hart’s mother.”
Dominic stared.
Clara whispered, “She’s waiting for you.”
Dominic reached for the handle.
Genevieve caught his sleeve.
He looked at her.
She shook her head.
Something felt wrong.
Then a voice came from behind the door.
A woman’s voice.
Older.
Calm.
“Dominic, you’ve kept us waiting long enough.”
The lock clicked.
May you like
The door opened from inside.
And the woman standing there wore the missing ninth ring of the Circle.
