Chapter 3 - Ninety-Four Sleepless Nights
Arthur opened the door with his gun raised.
The woman outside was sixty, elegant, frightened, and bleeding from one temple.
Clara recognized her.
Nora Bell.
The banker.
The third name on Daniel’s list.
Nora looked at Clara and whispered, “You have Evelyn’s eyes.”
“My mother?”
Nora nodded.
Arthur pulled her inside.
“What happened?”
“Dominic found me.”
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
Nora shook her head.
“No. You don’t understand. Dominic was trying to save me.”
Clara stared.
Nora collapsed into a chair.
Over the next hour, the story Arthur had avoided for years began coming apart.
Evelyn Vance had not been an ordinary woman.
Twenty-seven years earlier, she had worked as a financial investigator.
She discovered a laundering network embedded inside several Chicago businesses, including companies later inherited by Arthur.
Arthur’s father had been involved.
Arthur had not.
At twenty-one, Arthur secretly helped Evelyn gather evidence against his own family.
Then Evelyn disappeared.
Clara remembered being told her mother died in a car accident.
“There was no accident,” Nora said.
Clara looked at Arthur.
“You knew?”
“I knew she disappeared.”
“You let me believe she died.”
“I didn’t know you existed.”
“And Daniel?”
“I met Daniel six years ago. He approached me.”
“Why?”
“Because he discovered your mother’s files.”
Nora interrupted.
“And because Evelyn told him to.”
Clara’s knees weakened.
“My mother is alive?”
Nora looked devastated.
“She was six years ago.”
Not an answer.
Clara demanded the truth.
Nora explained that Evelyn had hidden evidence in multiple locations. Daniel had found part of it. The six names were not six conspirators.
They were six custodians.
People each entrusted with one piece.
Marcus had died protecting his.
Dominic held another.
Nora had one too.
She removed a tiny memory card from beneath the bandage on her head.
Arthur inserted it into an isolated laptop.
Files appeared.
Transactions.
Photographs.
Names.
Then one audio recording.
Arthur played it.
Evelyn’s voice filled the room.
“If Arthur Kingsley hears this, then I was right about him.”
Arthur looked away.
“You were never your father, Arthur. That is why your father feared you.”
The recording continued.
“The network survived him. Someone close to you inherited it. Daniel knows part of the truth. Clara must never become involved.”
Clara almost laughed.
Too late.
Then Evelyn said something stranger.
“My children were never safe because of what their father knew.”
Clara leaned forward.
Their father.
Arthur’s expression had changed again.
“You know who she means.”
Arthur remained silent.
“Arthur.”
Nora answered instead.
“Your father was Thomas Vance.”
Clara frowned.
“Yes. I know.”
“No,” Nora said. “Thomas Vance was the name he used afterward.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
“His real name was Thomas Kingsley.”
Clara felt the room tilt.
“Kingsley?”
Arthur looked at her.
“My uncle.”
Silence.
Clara stared at him.
Arthur Kingsley was her cousin.
Daniel’s employer.
Her mother’s former ally.
Her blood.
Suddenly Daniel’s trust in him made sense.
So did Evelyn’s.
Arthur poured whiskey but didn’t drink it.
“My father hated Thomas. Thomas refused the business. Changed his name. Married Evelyn. Disappeared.”
“And you knew?”
“Not until Daniel showed me proof.”
Clara’s anger rose.
“Everybody knew my life except me.”
“Daniel was protecting you.”
“I’m tired of men using protection as another word for lying.”
Arthur absorbed that without arguing.
Nora stood.
“We need Dominic.”
Clara laughed bitterly.
“Wonderful. The man who spent six months humiliating me.”
Nora’s face hardened.
“He did that because someone was watching you.”
Clara stopped.
“Dominic recognized you the first day you entered this building.”
Arthur looked surprised.
Nora continued.
“He knew Evelyn. He realized immediately whose daughter you were. Making you look insignificant was his way of keeping attention away from you.”
Clara remembered every cruel joke.
The elevator.
The uniform.
The laughter.
“Interesting method.”
“He needed the enemy to underestimate you.”
“He succeeded.”
Arthur looked toward the door.
“Where is Dominic?”
Nobody knew.
Arthur called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then his security system flashed.
Unauthorized access.
Floor seventeen.
Arthur checked the camera.
Dominic stood inside Apartment 1706.
He was holding a gun.
Beside him knelt a hooded prisoner.
Clara moved closer.
Dominic looked directly into the security camera.
Then he removed the prisoner’s hood.
Daniel.
Alive.
Clara screamed his name.
Dominic raised his pistol.
But instead of pointing it at Daniel, he aimed behind the camera.
“Arthur,” Dominic said into the microphone, “if you’re watching, get down here now. I caught the man who took Daniel.”
Someone stepped into view.
Clara recognized him.
Her former fiancé.
Ryan Mercer.
The man who had stolen her money and disappeared.
Ryan smiled into the camera.
Then he said, “Hello, Clara.”
The feed went black.
Arthur reached for the door.
May you like
Before he could open it, the penthouse lights died.
And from somewhere inside Arthur’s supposedly secure bedroom, a man began laughing.
