Chapter 4 - The Enemy Who Followed Him from Chicago
Victor opened the door only far enough to see the visitor.
The man standing outside was seventy.
Maybe older.
Silver hair.
Navy peacoat.
No visible weapon.
He held a brass key between two fingers.
“My name is Elias Ward.”
Damian’s expression shifted.
“You worked for my father.”
“For thirty-two years.”
Claire recognized the name.
Sebastian’s attorney.
Not his public attorney.
The private one.
The man who made inconvenient paperwork disappear.
“You’re supposed to be retired,” Damian said.
“I was.”
Elias looked past him.
His gaze found Claire.
Then Emma, appearing briefly in the kitchen doorway.
Pain moved across his face.
“So Sebastian was right.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“About what?”
Elias stepped inside only after Mrs. Bellamy gave permission.
That amused Claire.
Power worked differently in Maine.
He placed the brass key on the coffee table.
“The red vault is beneath Blackwood House in Chicago.”
Damian folded his arms.
“I know where it is.”
“But not what’s inside.”
“No.”
“Sebastian instructed me to give you this key if anyone made direct reference to your bloodline.”
Damian looked at the photographs.
“They did.”
“Yes.”
Claire sat beside Emma’s abandoned coloring book.
“Why would Sebastian keep records about my daughter?”
Elias looked at her.
“Because he regretted what he did.”
Claire stared.
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
She did not want Sebastian Blackwood redeemed.
Some men did not deserve convenient repentance after death.
Elias seemed to understand.
“I didn’t say regret made him good.”
“Then what did it make him?”
“Afraid.”
That she believed.
“Of whom?”
“Lucian Bellandi.”
Damian’s face hardened.
“I buried the Bellandi organization three years ago.”
“You buried its leadership.”
“Lucian disappeared.”
“Yes.”
Claire looked between them.
“Who is Lucian?”
Damian answered.
“Sebastian’s oldest enemy.”
“And?”
“My godfather.”
Claire blinked.
Of course.
Nothing in Damian’s world could simply be one thing.
Elias continued.
“Lucian and Sebastian built parts of their organizations together in the nineties. Then money disappeared. People died. They blamed each other.”
“Lucian swore to end the Blackwood line,” Damian said.
Claire looked toward the kitchen.
Emma.
“That means—”
“Yes.”
Damian’s voice was quiet.
Claire stood.
“We’re leaving.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere your family isn’t.”
Elias shook his head.
“Distance didn’t protect you for four years.”
Claire turned on him.
“No. Damian being absent did.”
Elias absorbed that.
“Until now.”
That was the unbearable truth.
Damian’s appearance had triggered something.
Or maybe whoever was watching had simply waited.
“What is in the vault?” Claire asked.
Elias looked at Damian.
“Proof.”
“Of?”
“That Sebastian never believed Lucian disappeared.”
Victor swore under his breath.
Damian picked up the brass key.
“Chicago.”
Claire immediately said, “No.”
“I have to open it.”
“You do.”
He looked surprised.
“You’re not coming.”
“I wasn’t asking you.”
“Good.”
Claire faced him.
“Because Emma and I are staying here.”
Damian hesitated.
Every instinct in him clearly rejected leaving.
But Claire needed him to.
Not forever.
Just long enough to understand what was coming.
“I’ll leave Victor.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“I have local people I trust.”
“This is not local.”
“Neither am I helpless.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
Mrs. Bellamy entered carrying a rolling pin.
Victor stared at it.
She shrugged.
“I was making pastry.”
Claire almost laughed.
Elias did.
Damian looked at Claire.
“I’ll go.”
“When?”
“Now.”
Emma appeared.
“Soup man?”
Everyone stopped.
Damian turned.
Emma approached slowly.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Back to Chicago?”
His brows rose.
“How do you know I live in Chicago?”
“Mommy said a bad word about Chicago once.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Mrs. Bellamy coughed to hide a laugh.
“What word?” Damian asked.
Claire pointed.
“Don’t.”
Emma grinned.
Damian smiled.
Then his face became serious again.
“I need to take care of something.”
Emma held up Mr. Buttons.
“He helps.”
Damian looked at the rabbit.
“I think you need him more.”
“I have Mommy.”
The room went silent.
Emma’s simple certainty hit Damian like a physical thing.
“Yes,” he said quietly. “You do.”
He left ten minutes later.
Claire watched the SUV disappear.
For the first time since morning, she could breathe.
Barely.
Damian reached Chicago before midnight.
Blackwood House stood outside the city, a stone estate Sebastian had purchased when Damian was twelve.
The red vault was beneath the library.
Damian had known about it since childhood.
He had never opened it.
The door was painted dark burgundy.
Sebastian’s sense of drama had always exceeded good taste.
Elias inserted the brass key.
Then Damian entered a code only Blackwood heirs knew.
The lock released.
Inside were shelves.
Boxes.
Ledgers.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
Victor whistled.
“Your father kept everything.”
Damian moved to the central desk.
A folder waited there.
His name was written on it.
DAMIAN — IF YOU HAVE A CHILD
He stopped.
Elias stepped back.
“This is yours.”
Damian opened it.
The first page was a letter from Sebastian.
Son,
If you are reading this, then I failed twice.
First, I taught you that love was weakness.
Second, I proved it by taking yours from you.
Damian stopped.
Victor looked away.
He continued.
I knew Claire was pregnant. I knew where she went. I ordered surveillance not because I wanted the child harmed, but because Lucian Bellandi had resurfaced and I believed secrecy was the only protection I had left.
I was wrong.
Damian’s hands tightened.
There were bank records.
Payments to surveillance teams.
Photographs of Claire.
Emma.
Medical records.
Preschool research.
Sebastian had watched everything.
Then Damian found another folder.
LUCIAN.
Inside were recent records.
Property.
Shell companies.
Names.
One stood out.
HARMON CANNERY REDEVELOPMENT LLC.
Damian went cold.
The project that had brought him to Gray Haven.
It was connected to Lucian.
Not coincidence.
A trap.
He grabbed his phone.
No signal underground.
“Upstairs.”
Victor followed.
Damian called Claire as soon as they reached the library.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Mrs. Bellamy answered.
“Where’s Claire?”
“She took Emma home.”
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
Damian’s blood chilled.
“Call her.”
“I did.”
“Again.”
“What happened?”
“The cannery project brought me to Gray Haven on purpose.”
Silence.
Mrs. Bellamy understood instantly.
Damian was already moving toward the door.
Victor received a call.
“Wait.”
Damian turned.
Victor listened.
His face went pale.
“What?”
“The redevelopment office in Gray Haven.”
“What about it?”
“Someone broke in.”
“And?”
“They took the property files.”
Damian stared.
Victor continued.
“Claire’s home address was inside.”
In Gray Haven, Claire carried a sleeping Emma from the car.
The porch light was off.
Strange.
She had left it on.
Claire shifted Emma against her shoulder and unlocked the door.
Inside, nothing moved.
She took two steps.
Then stopped.
The hallway table had been disturbed.
A drawer stood open.
Claire backed toward the door.
Emma stirred.
“Mommy?”
“Shh.”
Claire reached for her phone.
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Someone was inside the house.
Then Claire saw the photograph placed carefully on her staircase.
It showed Damian at age six beside his mother.
Across the woman’s face someone had drawn a black line.
Claire grabbed Emma and turned toward the door.
The lock clicked.
May you like
From the outside.
Someone had just locked them in.
