Chapter 4 - What Was Hidden Beneath the Mansion
Dominic went down first.
Victor followed.
I stayed with Noah.
For approximately thirty seconds.
Then Noah pulled free and ran toward the staircase.
I caught him.
“No.”
“Daddy.”
“He’ll come back.”
“Daddy!”
His terror was immediate.
Not separation anxiety.
Something else.
He believed anyone going downstairs might not return.
That told me enough.
I picked him up.
“We’ll go together.”
Maybe this was reckless.
Actually, there was no maybe.
It was completely reckless.
But leaving Noah upstairs while armed men searched the estate didn’t feel safer.
We descended.
The air changed.
Cooler.
Damp.
The stairs ended in a brick corridor lit by Dominic’s flashlight.
Old pipes lined the ceiling.
A steel door stood open.
Beyond it was a room.
Not a dungeon.
A safe room.
Medical supplies.
Cots.
Shelves.
Emergency food.
And on one cot lay a man who looked enough like Dominic to erase any doubt.
Adrian Vale.
He was thinner.
Older than the portrait.
His dark hair had gone streaked with gray.
A chain circled one ankle.
Dominic stood five feet away.
Neither brother seemed capable of moving.
“You’re alive,” Dominic said.
Adrian laughed.
It sounded painful.
“So are you.”
Dominic crossed the distance.
I expected anger.
Instead he dropped beside the cot and broke the chain lock using keys hanging from the wall.
“Who did this?”
Adrian looked at Victor.
Then at Noah.
Then at me.
“Who is she?”
“Clara.”
I almost laughed at the absurdity.
As if that explained anything.
Adrian’s eyes focused on Noah.
“God.”
His face crumpled.
“He’s so big.”
Noah hid against my shoulder.
Adrian looked away.
“I’m sorry.”
Dominic grabbed his arm.
“Who did this?”
“Marco.”
“Why?”
Adrian looked straight at him.
“Because Elena found the ledger.”
Victor went pale.
Dominic stiffened.
“What ledger?”
“The one proving Marco was selling your routes, names, payments, safehouses. Not to police. To rival crews.”
Dominic stared.
“Elena came to me first.”
“Why you?”
“Because she thought you’d kill Marco before learning who else was involved.”
Dominic’s expression said she had been correct.
Adrian continued.
“We planned to take Noah and leave for one night. Just until we could show you proof.”
Dominic’s voice turned bitter.
“So you kidnapped my wife and child?”
“No.”
Adrian sat up.
“Elena never brought Noah. She changed her mind at the last minute.”
“Then why did her car explode?”
“Marco intercepted her.”
Silence.
“He took her.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
Adrian closed his eyes.
“I followed. They caught me.”
“Where is Elena?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic stood.
“You’ve been here three years and you don’t know?”
“I wasn’t here three years.”
That stopped everyone.
Adrian looked around.
“Marco moved me between properties. Brought me here six months ago.”
The exact period when the camera deletions had begun.
“Why?” I asked.
Adrian looked at me.
“Because Elena came back.”
Dominic gripped the edge of a metal table.
“What?”
“I heard Marco arguing with her.”
“You saw her?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
Dominic’s entire body tensed.
“What did she say?”
“She demanded access to Noah.”
Noah buried his face deeper against me.
Adrian continued.
“Marco told her the boy was already unstable. Said it would be easy to convince you he needed institutional care.”
My stomach turned.
The nannies.
The injuries.
The escalating behavior.
Someone had been cultivating the idea that Noah was dangerous.
“Why?” I asked.
Adrian’s gaze became grim.
“Because if Noah disappeared into a private treatment facility, Marco would control access.”
Dominic’s face became terrifyingly calm.
“And me?”
“You’d be isolated.”
Victor whispered, “And easier to remove.”
No one said the obvious ending.
If Dominic died and Noah was declared incapable—
Someone could control the Vale empire.
Dominic turned toward Adrian.
“Who?”
Adrian looked at Victor.
Victor stiffened.
“No.”
Adrian said nothing.
“No,” Victor repeated.
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Who benefits?”
Victor backed up.
“Think before you accuse me.”
Adrian shook his head.
“It isn’t Victor.”
Victor stopped.
Adrian looked at Dominic.
“It’s someone closer.”
A phone rang.
Not ours.
From a cabinet.
Dominic opened it.
Inside was an old burner phone.
It was ringing.
He answered.
No one spoke.
Then a woman’s voice.
“Dominic?”
He froze.
Elena.
Even I knew.
I had heard her on the recorder.
“Elena.”
No sound from him except her name.
“Listen carefully.”
“Where are you?”
“No time.”
“I’m coming for you.”
“No.”
“Elena—”
“Marco isn’t the one in charge.”
Dominic looked at Adrian.
“Who is?”
The line crackled.
Then Elena whispered a name.
We all heard it.
“Dr. Halden.”
Dominic frowned.
Victor looked horrified.
I didn’t know the name.
“Who?” I asked.
Dominic answered without taking his eyes from the phone.
“Noah’s pediatric psychiatrist.”
My blood went cold.
The doctor evaluating Noah’s behavior.
The professional who could declare him dangerous.
Elena continued.
“He’s been drugging Noah.”
I looked down at the little boy in my arms.
Suddenly his erratic moods.
Night terrors.
Violence.
Panic.
Everything had another possible explanation.
Dominic’s voice became lethal.
“I’ll kill him.”
“No!”
Elena shouted so sharply Noah flinched.
“Dominic, that is exactly what they expect.”
“Where are you?”
“Listen to me. If you react violently, Halden will use it. He has records. Reports. Statements. He is building a case that you are unstable and Noah is unsafe with you.”
Victor looked sick.
Elena continued.
“You cannot beat this with fear. You have to prove it.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“How?”
“Clara.”
Every person in the room turned toward me.
I nearly dropped Noah.
Dominic stared at the phone.
“How do you know Clara?”
My pulse hammered.
Elena didn’t answer immediately.
Then she said, “Because I chose her.”
The room disappeared around me.
“What?” I whispered.
Dominic’s eyes locked onto mine.
I shook my head.
“I don’t know her.”
Elena spoke again.
“I know.”
“How?” Dominic demanded.
“Her mother.”
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
Elena’s voice softened.
“Clara, your mother worked for us.”
I couldn’t breathe.
My mother had died when I was sixteen.
She had cleaned offices.
Hotels.
Private homes.
At least, that was what I had been told.
“She never mentioned you.”
“She couldn’t.”
I felt dizzy.
“What was her name?”
Elena answered.
“Rebecca Reed.”
The exact name.
I held Noah tighter.
“What did she do for you?”
“She kept records.”
Dominic turned toward me.
“What records?”
Elena said, “The ledger.”
Everything stopped.
“My mother had the ledger?”
“She hid a copy.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
I almost laughed.
Of course.
A dead mother.
A hidden ledger.
A mafia family.
I had walked into the mansion because an employment agency called me yesterday.
Or had they?
“How did you choose me?”
Elena’s answer chilled me.
“I arranged the job listing.”
Dominic looked furious.
“You brought her into my house without telling her?”
“I needed someone Marco and Halden didn’t know.”
“You endangered her.”
“I know.”
I hated how guilty Elena sounded.
Because it made it harder to hate her.
“Why my mother?” I asked.
“She discovered the financial transfers while cleaning one of Marco’s offices. She was smarter than anyone realized.”
My eyes burned.
“She died in a car accident.”
Silence.
Too much silence.
I knew before Elena said anything.
“No,” I whispered.
“Clara…”
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
My knees weakened.
Dominic grabbed my arm.
I didn’t pull away.
“My mother’s accident wasn’t an accident?”
Elena cried quietly.
“Marco ordered it.”
The room tilted.
For ten years I had believed my mother swerved on black ice.
I had blamed weather.
Bad luck.
God.
Anything.
Now I knew.
Dominic took the phone.
“Where are you?”
Elena gave an address.
An abandoned medical building near the river.
Then she said, “But do not come alone.”
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“You know I’m coming.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
The call ended.
Dominic immediately started giving orders.
Victor stopped him.
“This is a trap.”
“I know.”
“And you’re walking into it.”
“Yes.”
I placed Noah down.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Dominic didn’t even look at me.
“My mother died because of this.”
“No.”
“Elena chose me.”
“That was her mistake.”
I stepped in front of him.
“No. Her mistake was believing you could solve everything by ordering people away.”
His jaw tightened.
“This is not your fight.”
“They killed my mother.”
That stopped him.
I lowered my voice.
“And they are hurting Noah.”
Dominic looked toward his son.
The rage left his face.
Only pain remained.
I understood then.
Dominic wasn’t afraid of dying.
He was afraid every person he loved would die because of him.
Adrian struggled to stand.
“I’m coming too.”
“You can barely walk,” Victor said.
“I can talk.”
He looked at Dominic.
“And there is something you still don’t know about Dr. Halden.”
Dominic waited.
Adrian swallowed.
“He isn’t working for Marco.”
“Then who?”
Adrian looked toward the passage behind us.
“He works for someone named Reed.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
A light appeared at the far end of the underground corridor.
Footsteps approached.
Slow.
Measured.
A man emerged from the darkness.
He looked at me.
And smiled.
“Hello, Clara.”
I knew his face.
May you like
I had seen it every Christmas of my childhood.
My father was supposed to have been dead for twelve years.
