Chapter 6 - The Woman in the Security Footage
Emergency lights flickered on.
Dominic did not move.
“My father was Anthony Hale.”
Margaret’s voice came through the phone.
“No.”
Elena gripped it.
“Mom, where are you?”
“Elena, listen—”
“Where are you?”
A sound interrupted her.
A door.
Then a man’s voice in the distance.
Margaret gasped.
The line died.
Mason restored the lights.
Dominic stood motionless.
Elena touched his arm.
“Dominic.”
“Victor was my uncle.”
“That’s what you were told.”
He stared at the floor.
Anthony Hale had raised Dominic.
A hard man, but not cruel.
He died when Dominic was twenty-three.
If Margaret was right, Dominic’s entire family history had been constructed.
Mason searched old records.
The answer emerged two hours later.
Anthony Hale had no biological children.
Dominic’s birth certificate was amended when he was four.
Original father: Victor Hale.
Dominic sat alone when he read it.
Elena sat beside him.
Neither spoke for several minutes.
Finally Dominic said, “You should postpone the wedding.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“I said no.”
“My father threatened your mother.”
“Your biological father.”
“He may be alive.”
“Then we find him.”
“He may be targeting you because of me.”
“He was targeting my family before you and I ever met.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You’re not afraid?”
“I’m terrified.”
That answer seemed to reach him.
She took his hand.
“But I’m not afraid of you.”
The following morning Elena returned to Bellamy.
Not as a humiliated customer.
As its owner.
She called every employee together.
Candace stood at the back.
Elena looked at her.
“You're fired.”
Candace began crying.
“I was told to do it.”
“You chose how.”
“Elena—”
“You could have refused. You could have been decent. Instead, you enjoyed it.”
Candace lowered her eyes.
Elena turned to the staff.
“No customer who walks through these doors will ever be treated the way I was. Not because of her size. Her budget. Her age. Her race. Her disability. Anything.”
Marla listened silently.
Elena continued.
“We’re expanding sizing. Samples too.”
“That will cost a fortune,” Marla said.
“Then we spend one.”
Dominic, standing near the entrance, almost smiled.
Elena looked at him.
“Not yours.”
His smile disappeared theatrically.
“Understood.”
For the first time since the nightmare began, Elena felt like herself again.
Then Mason entered.
“We found Margaret.”
Elena’s heart stopped.
“Where?”
“Security footage.”
He showed them a frame.
Margaret.
Older.
Thin.
But unmistakable.
She was entering a private medical facility outside Chicago.
Yesterday.
“She’s alive.”
“Yes.”
Elena began crying.
Dominic held her.
“Then we get her.”
The clinic claimed no patient named Margaret Brooks existed.
Dominic’s attorney obtained a court order.
By evening, the story changed.
A Jane Doe had been admitted under private protection.
When Elena entered the room, she recognized her mother immediately.
Margaret opened her eyes.
“Leni.”
Elena crossed the room and embraced her.
Seventeen years collapsed.
Anger remained.
Pain remained.
But for one minute none of it mattered.
“I thought you left me.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
“I did.”
“Six years ago.”
“I thought they’d stopped watching.”
“Who?”
Margaret looked at Dominic.
He remained near the door.
“Victor.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Is he my father?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was there when you were born.”
Dominic stared.
Margaret explained.
Victor had loved Dominic’s mother, Sophia. But his enemies made a child dangerous.
Anthony raised Dominic as his own.
Victor disappeared.
Years later, he financed Bellamy through illegal money.
When Margaret discovered it, she threatened exposure.
Victor threatened Elena.
“So this is revenge?” Elena asked.
“No.”
Margaret shook her head.
“He wants Bellamy.”
“Why?”
“Arthur hid something inside the company.”
“What?”
“Evidence.”
Dominic frowned.
“Of what?”
“Everything Victor built.”
The ledgers could destroy people still operating today.
“Where are they?”
Margaret looked at Elena.
“I hid them.”
“Where?”
“In your wedding dress.”
Elena stared.
“The ivory gown?”
“No.”
Margaret reached for her.
“The dress you haven't found yet.”
A nurse entered.
“There’s someone asking for Ms. Brooks.”
Mason appeared behind her.
“No visitors.”
The nurse looked confused.
“He said he was family.”
Dominic went still.
“What name?”
The nurse checked her clipboard.
“Victor Hale.”
Margaret screamed.
The hallway lights suddenly went dark.
May you like
A shadow stopped outside the hospital-room door.
Then the handle began to turn...
