Chapter 4 - The Photograph That Never Happened
Dominic grabbed Grace and pulled her behind the desk.
Marcus moved toward the staircase.
Victor drew a pistol from his ankle holster.
“Backup generator,” Dominic said.
“Ten seconds,” Marcus replied.
Eight seconds later, the lights returned.
No attacker appeared.
The gunshot had come from an empty guest room.
A pistol sat on the floor.
Beside it was another envelope.
Dominic opened it.
One sentence:
STOP TRUSTING THE MAN BESIDE YOU.
Dominic looked at Marcus.
Then Victor.
Then the security guards.
That was exactly what Cole wanted.
Doubt.
Dominic refused to give it to him.
“We go to the lake house.”
Grace immediately protested.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“You left me here last time.”
Dominic had no answer.
Victor did.
“She stays with me.”
Dominic looked at him.
Grace shook her head violently.
“No.”
Dominic understood.
Victor had been the man who transported Elena.
Whether he had intended harm or not, Grace did not trust him.
“Marcus stays with Grace.”
Marcus frowned.
“You need me.”
“My daughter needs you more.”
The words came more naturally now.
Grace heard them.
Her expression softened.
Dominic crouched.
“I will bring your mother back.”
“You promised before.”
“I know.”
“So don't break it.”
“I won't.”
Dominic left with six men.
The lake house stood forty miles north.
When they arrived, the front door was open.
Dominic entered alone first.
“Elena?”
Nothing.
He found the chair from the video.
Empty.
The ropes had been cut.
Blood marked the floor.
Not much.
Enough.
On the table lay a laptop.
Dominic opened it.
A video began automatically.
Elena appeared.
Not today's Elena.
This recording was eight years old.
She was pregnant.
“Dominic,” she said into the camera, “if you ever see this, then somebody finally told you the truth.”
Dominic sat down.
“I didn't leave you. Alexander threatened my mother. He showed me photographs of you with another woman. I didn't believe them until he showed me marriage records.”
Dominic whispered, “Forged.”
Elena continued.
“He said you knew about the baby and didn't want it.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“He said if I contacted you, you would have the baby taken away.”
Dominic's hands curled into fists.
“I was scared. I was stupid. And I believed him.”
She wiped tears from her face.
“Then Victor found me after Grace was born. He told me you had searched for me. But by then Alexander had disappeared, and Nathan Cole had taken over the payments.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“Nathan knows where everything is. He knows about the photographs. He knows about the medical records. If anything happens to me, follow the payments.”
The video ended.
A second file appeared.
Dominic opened it.
Bank transactions.
Nathan Cole had paid the photographer who forged Elena's photograph.
But Cole had also paid the investigator who gave Dominic the fake overseas records.
Dominic finally understood.
Alexander had begun the lie.
Cole had maintained it.
But why?
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Dominic raised his weapon.
“Elena?”
No answer.
He climbed the stairs.
The bedroom door was closed.
He opened it.
Alexander sat on the floor.
Bleeding.
“Where is she?”
Alexander laughed weakly.
“You really do only care about her.”
Dominic grabbed him.
“Where?”
“Cole took her.”
“When?”
“Ten minutes before you arrived.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
Dominic pressed him against the wall.
Alexander coughed.
“Kill me if you want. It won't change what Cole wants.”
“What does he want?”
Alexander looked at him.
“Grace.”
Dominic froze.
“Why?”
“Because Grace isn't only your daughter.”
Dominic tightened his grip.
“Explain.”
“Elena documented everything while she was pregnant. The laundering. The accounts. The shell companies.”
“So?”
“She hid the access key in Grace's birth record.”
Dominic stared.
“The original birth certificate contains a handwritten numerical sequence.”
“The account password?”
“Part of it.”
Dominic released him.
“Cole needs Grace's original records.”
“And Elena knows where they are.”
Dominic's phone rang.
Marcus.
He answered immediately.
“Grace?”
“Safe.”
Dominic exhaled.
“But she remembered something.”
“What?”
“Her mother gave her a necklace.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Of course.
“What's on it?”
“Numbers.”
“Send me a picture.”
The image arrived.
A silver pendant.
On the back were six digits.
Dominic showed Alexander.
Alexander laughed.
“Elena was smarter than all of us.”
Dominic looked at the sequence.
“What's it unlock?”
“An account containing every transaction our organization made for twenty years.”
Dominic stared.
Enough evidence to destroy the criminal remnants of the Vale empire.
Enough to imprison Cole.
Enough to explain why Elena had been hunted.
Dominic's phone buzzed again.
Unknown number.
A location.
St. Catherine’s Hospital.
Basement level.
Midnight.
COME ALONE.
Dominic looked at the clock.
11:21.
Alexander saw the message.
“It’s a trap.”
“Yes.”
“You'll still go.”
“Yes.”
Alexander smiled.
“You really did love her.”
Dominic looked at him.
“I still do.”
He left Alexander with two men and drove toward St. Catherine’s.
At 11:57, Dominic entered the hospital basement.
The corridor was empty.
Room B17 stood at the end.
He opened it.
Elena sat on a hospital bed.
Alone.
For eight years Dominic had imagined this moment.
Sometimes he had imagined anger.
Sometimes accusation.
Sometimes he imagined simply walking away.
Instead, he stopped.
Elena looked up.
Her face was thinner.
Her hair shorter.
But she was Elena.
“Dominic.”
His name broke in her voice.
He crossed the room.
Neither knew whether to touch the other.
Finally Elena whispered, “You came.”
“I always came.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I know that now.”
Dominic took her hand.
“Elena, we have to leave.”
“Grace?”
“Safe.”
“She found you?”
“Yes.”
Elena smiled through tears.
“Did she call you sir?”
Dominic almost laughed.
“Yes.”
“She practiced that all afternoon.”
“Why?”
“She was scared.”
“So was I.”
Elena looked at him.
“She knows?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“She called me Dad.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Dominic's eyes burned.
“We lost eight years.”
“I know.”
“We don't lose another day.”
A sound came from the corridor.
Dominic turned.
Nathan Cole stood in the doorway.
May you like
A pistol hung loosely in his hand.
“I’m afraid,” Cole said, “that decision isn't yours.”
