Chapter 4 - The Father in the Dark
Dominic watched the video twice.
The second time did not make Richard Carver any less alive.
Daniel stood beside him.
Lily had been taken downstairs by one of Dominic’s female security staff, far enough away not to hear the conversation.
Marcus had regained consciousness and was being treated.
Victor remained missing.
Richard’s face filled the phone screen.
“Hello, son.”
Then the feed cut.
Daniel spoke first.
“That changes things.”
Dominic looked at him.
“No. It explains them.”
“How?”
“My father never trusted funerals.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Dominic didn’t.
Richard Carver had spent his life preparing exits.
Swiss accounts.
Safe houses.
Alternate passports.
Doctors who accepted cash.
Dominic should have considered the possibility.
But grief made fools of even suspicious men.
“What does he want?”
“Lazarus.”
“No.”
Daniel frowned.
Dominic held up the drive Grace had kept.
“If my father wanted Lazarus, he had access to it before his supposed death.”
“Unless Mercer took it.”
“Or unless the archive contains something my father doesn’t want Mercer to see.”
Daniel considered that.
“Then why bring Grace into this?”
“Leverage.”
“Against you?”
“Against both of us.”
Daniel paced.
“What’s on the drive?”
“We find out.”
Dominic brought in his cybersecurity specialist, Ava Chen.
She plugged the drive into an isolated laptop.
“It’s encrypted.”
“How long?”
“Depends.”
“Best case.”
“An hour.”
“Worst?”
“Years.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“I used a phrase Grace would know.”
“What phrase?”
He hesitated.
“The first thing she said to me after Lily was born.”
Dominic stared.
“You encrypted a criminal archive with something sentimental?”
“Nobody guesses sentimental.”
Ava looked between them.
“Do you know the phrase?”
Daniel’s face softened.
“Yes.”
He typed.
ACCESS GRANTED.
Ava raised an eyebrow.
“Sentimental works.”
Folders appeared.
Names.
Dates.
Transactions.
Photographs.
Government officials.
Judges.
Police commanders.
Business executives.
Dominic watched his father’s secret empire unfold.
Then Ava opened a directory marked CARVER INTERNAL.
Only three files.
RICHARD.
DOMINIC.
SUCCESSION.
Daniel looked at Dominic.
“Do you want me to leave?”
“No.”
Ava opened DOMINIC.
A medical record appeared.
Dominic frowned.
“What is this?”
Blood tests.
Hospital documents.
A birth certificate.
Then a DNA report.
Dominic read it once.
Then again.
PATERNITY PROBABILITY: 0.00%.
Richard Carver was not Dominic’s biological father.
Daniel said nothing.
Dominic remained completely still.
Ava quietly stepped away.
Dominic stared at the report.
His mother had died when he was twelve.
Richard had raised him afterward.
Harshly.
Methodically.
Training him to inherit the Carver organization.
But not because Dominic was his son.
“Open SUCCESSION.”
Ava hesitated.
“Dominic.”
“Open it.”
A video appeared.
Richard Carver sat in the same office Dominic had visited hours earlier.
He looked younger.
Healthy.
“Dominic,” Richard said, “if you discover this file, then you have already learned the first truth.”
Dominic’s hand tightened.
“You were never my son.”
Daniel glanced at him.
Richard continued.
“Your mother came to me pregnant and terrified. Your biological father had become inconvenient to powerful people. I gave her protection.”
Dominic’s breathing remained even.
“Protection,” he repeated.
Richard’s recorded smile was cold.
“In return, she gave me something more valuable than loyalty. She gave me an heir.”
Dominic shut the laptop.
Daniel spoke gently.
“You don’t have to—”
“Open it.”
Ava resumed.
Richard continued.
“I raised you because blood is unreliable. Loyalty can be manufactured.”
Dominic’s eyes became hard.
“When I disappeared, I expected you to maintain the organization exactly as I designed it. Instead, you dismantled half my networks.”
“You trafficked people,” Dominic whispered.
Richard on-screen seemed almost to answer.
“You confused morality with strength.”
Dominic leaned toward the laptop.
“I’m going to kill him.”
Daniel said quietly, “Get in line.”
The video continued.
“There is one final fact you should know. Your biological father did not die.”
Dominic froze.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“He found Lazarus before Daniel Harper did.”
A photograph appeared.
A younger man stood beside Dominic’s mother.
Dominic recognized his own eyes.
His jaw.
His expression.
The file labeled him:
THOMAS VALE.
STATUS: ACTIVE.
Dominic felt the ground beneath his entire life shift.
Richard’s voice continued.
“Thomas Vale has spent thirty-five years trying to destroy what I built.”
The screen went black.
Ava whispered, “There’s more.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at Dominic.
“We have three hours until midnight.”
Dominic stood.
“We go to Pier Seventeen.”
“With the drive?”
“A copy.”
Ava nodded.
“I can create a decoy archive.”
“Make it convincing.”
Daniel asked, “And Lily?”
Dominic looked toward the doorway.
“She leaves the estate.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere even Victor doesn’t know.”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“You believe the recording.”
“I believe Victor knew where I was without being told.”
“He may still have an explanation.”
Dominic checked his weapon.
“If he does, he can give it when I find him.”
At 11:34 p.m., Dominic and Daniel arrived near Pier Seventeen.
No convoy.
No visible security.
Marcus shadowed them from two blocks away against Dominic’s direct orders.
Dominic knew because Marcus was terrible at disobeying discreetly.
Daniel noticed too.
“Your people don’t listen.”
“The good ones don’t.”
They entered the abandoned warehouse.
The same place where Daniel had nearly died four years earlier.
Burn marks still stained the ceiling.
A single row of lights led toward an underground elevator.
Daniel’s breathing changed.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good enough.”
They descended.
The elevator opened into a concrete corridor.
Mercer waited at the end.
“Dominic.”
“Elias.”
Mercer smiled.
“You look like Richard when you’re angry.”
“I’m trying not to take that personally.”
“Drive.”
Daniel held it up.
“Grace first.”
Mercer nodded.
A door opened.
Grace stepped into the corridor.
Unbound.
Daniel stared.
“Grace?”
She ran toward him.
Daniel caught her.
For one second the entire nightmare disappeared between them.
Then Grace slapped him.
Hard.
“You were alive.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“You let Lily grow up without you.”
“I know.”
She hit his chest.
Then again.
Then collapsed against him, sobbing.
Daniel held her.
“I’m sorry.”
Dominic looked away.
Mercer seemed bored.
“How touching.”
Dominic faced him.
“Where’s Richard?”
“Waiting.”
“Why?”
“For you to make your decision.”
“What decision?”
Mercer opened another door.
Richard Carver sat at the head of a long table.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Dominic walked inside.
Richard smiled.
“My son.”
“I’m not your son.”
“Biology is such a primitive obsession.”
Dominic placed the decoy drive on the table.
“You wanted Lazarus.”
Richard didn’t touch it.
“I wanted you.”
“Then planting a bomb was an odd invitation.”
“That wasn’t mine.”
Dominic looked at Mercer.
Mercer’s smile disappeared.
Richard continued.
“Elias has become ambitious.”
Mercer’s hand moved toward his jacket.
Daniel noticed.
So did Dominic.
Richard raised one finger.
“No.”
Mercer stopped.
Dominic almost laughed.
Even now Richard commanded the room.
“Tell me why I’m here.”
Richard leaned back.
“Because Thomas Vale is coming.”
“My biological father.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“And he intends to kill every person in this room.”
Grace whispered, “Why us?”
Richard looked at Daniel.
“Because your husband stole evidence capable of destroying governments.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“I stole evidence capable of destroying you.”
Richard smiled.
“Same thing.”
Dominic looked toward Mercer.
“You planted the bomb.”
Mercer said nothing.
Richard answered for him.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To eliminate you before Thomas made contact.”
Mercer finally spoke.
“You’ve become weak.”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“That sounds like something my father would say.”
Richard’s smile vanished.
A distant alarm suddenly sounded.
Mercer turned.
One of his men rushed in.
“We have movement outside.”
“How many?”
“We don’t know.”
The lights flickered.
Richard stood.
For the first time, Dominic saw fear in him.
A speaker on the ceiling crackled.
Then a man’s voice filled the room.
“Richard.”
Dominic froze.
Richard’s face went white.
The voice continued.
“You stole thirty-five years from me.”
Mercer pulled his gun.
Daniel moved Grace behind him.
The lights went out.
Gunfire exploded in the corridor.
Dominic grabbed the table and flipped it.
Grace screamed.
Emergency lights turned red.
A door at the far end opened.
A tall man stepped through the smoke.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Armed.
He looked directly at Dominic.
The same eyes.
The same jaw.
The man lowered his gun.
“Dominic.”
Richard backed away.
May you like
Thomas Vale took one more step into the room.
Then he said, “Before you decide which father to believe, ask Richard what he did to your mother.”
