Chapter 4 - The Mother Who Lied
Madeline refused to believe it.
Rebecca Reeves had spent the night crying over her son.
She had nearly collapsed when Noah disappeared.
She had told Madeline about Daniel.
About Route Seventeen.
About the crash.
"Rebecca is Noah's mother," Madeline said.
Dominic looked at Luca.
"And Luca doesn't lie."
They stabilized him.
The injury was serious but survivable.
When Luca regained consciousness, Dominic stood beside him.
"Tell me."
Luca swallowed.
"I followed the transfer vehicle."
"Why?"
"Something felt wrong."
He looked at Madeline.
"Rebecca left the clinic through the service entrance. Met a woman."
"Elena?" Dominic asked.
"No."
"Who?"
"Couldn't see her face."
"What happened?"
"I followed. Rebecca spotted me."
Madeline frowned.
"Rebecca attacked you?"
"No."
Luca shook his head.
"The woman did."
"Where is Rebecca now?"
"Gone."
Madeline searched Noah's room.
Rebecca's purse remained.
Her coat.
Her phone.
Everything designed to make it appear she'd been taken suddenly.
Inside the purse, Madeline found a photograph.
Daniel.
Rebecca.
Noah.
On the back was a handwritten date.
And beneath it:
IF I FAIL, KEEP HIM AWAY FROM V.
Madeline showed Dominic.
"Victor?"
"Maybe."
"You keep saying maybe."
"Because assumptions are how people die."
Madeline looked at Daniel's handwriting.
"Who else starts with V?"
Dominic froze.
Madeline saw it.
"Who?"
"My mother."
"What's her name?"
"Vivienne."
Madeline stared.
"Where is she?"
"Dead."
"How long?"
"Twenty-two years."
That should have ended it.
It didn't.
Dominic sat.
"My mother discovered something about the family when I was seventeen. She tried to leave."
"What happened?"
"Car accident."
The same words Rebecca had used about Daniel.
Madeline sat opposite him.
"You don't believe it anymore."
"No."
"What did she discover?"
"I never knew."
The pieces were getting older.
Much older than Julian.
Dominic's phone rang.
Victor Vale.
Dominic answered.
His uncle sounded weak.
"Where are you?"
"Safe."
"Julian told me you betrayed us."
Dominic almost laughed.
"Of course he did."
"He says you stole documents."
"I recovered documents proving he's stealing from you."
Silence.
Then Victor said, "Come home."
"Is Elena there?"
Another silence.
"Why?"
Dominic looked at Madeline.
"Because Daniel Reeves left evidence."
Victor's breathing changed.
"What evidence?"
"Enough."
"Bring it."
"No."
"Dominic."
"Where is Noah Reeves?"
Victor sounded genuinely confused.
"Who?"
Dominic ended the call.
"He doesn't know."
Madeline believed that.
"Then Elena and Julian are controlling what reaches him."
"Yes."
"And Rebecca?"
"I don't know."
A message arrived on Madeline's phone.
A photograph.
Noah sat in a chair.
Alive.
Behind him was a blue wall.
Madeline recognized it.
"That's our hospital."
"What?"
"The old pediatric wing."
It had been closed for renovation.
Dominic stood.
They returned immediately.
The abandoned wing was dark.
Madeline knew every corridor.
They found Noah in a former therapy room.
Alone.
Bound to the chair with medical restraints but otherwise unharmed.
Madeline rushed to him.
"Noah."
He began crying.
She freed him.
"Where's your mom?"
Noah looked away.
"Noah."
"She was here."
Dominic crouched.
"Did she bring you?"
Noah nodded.
Madeline felt something break inside her.
"Why?"
"She said she had to."
"Did she hurt you?"
"No."
"Did she explain?"
"She kept saying she was sorry."
Noah reached into his sock.
"I stole this."
A small recorder.
Madeline pressed play.
Rebecca's voice.
Then Elena's.
Elena said, "You were supposed to keep Daniel quiet."
Rebecca answered, "I tried."
"You failed."
"He was my husband."
"And now your son has the same problem."
"Don't touch Noah."
"Then finish what Daniel refused to finish."
"What?"
"Give me the ledger."
Rebecca began crying.
"I don't have it."
"Madeline does."
The recording stopped.
Noah whispered, "Mom didn't cause Dad's accident."
Madeline looked at him.
"I know."
"But she knew."
That was different.
Painfully different.
Dominic asked, "Did your mother say where she was going?"
Noah nodded.
"To see Julian."
Madeline's stomach tightened.
"Why?"
"She said she was done being afraid."
They moved Noah to a secure room guarded by police officers Dominic trusted through an old contact.
Then Madeline confronted him.
"We need actual law enforcement."
"We have evidence implicating powerful people and possible compromised officers."
"So we choose the right ones."
Dominic looked at her.
"You make that sound simple."
"It's not. It's still necessary."
For years, Dominic had solved problems inside his family's walls.
Madeline was asking him to step outside them.
That terrified him more than violence.
She could see it.
"If you protect Victor by hiding this," she said, "you're doing what Julian did."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"Careful."
"No. You wanted me to judge you by what you do."
He said nothing.
"Here's the moment."
Dominic looked at Noah through the glass.
Then he called Detective Sarah Monroe, a major-crimes investigator with no Vale connections.
He gave her everything.
The video.
Ledger.
Daniel's recording.
Names.
Madeline watched him destroy the wall between his family and the law one sentence at a time.
When he finished, he seemed lighter.
And more dangerous.
"They'll come for us now," he said.
"Good."
"Good?"
"People make mistakes when they're desperate."
Dominic looked at her.
"Remind me never to make you angry."
"You already did."
He smiled.
Then Noah called Madeline.
She entered.
He held something.
A folded piece of paper hidden inside his shoe.
"Mom gave me this."
Madeline opened it.
Rebecca had written:
Madeline,
I'm sorry.
Daniel found out the conspiracy began before Julian was born.
Dominic's mother found it first.
She hid proof somewhere Victor would never search.
Elena knows where.
But Elena isn't the person at the top.
Madeline stopped reading.
Dominic entered.
"What?"
She handed him the note.
He read the final line.
Then his face went blank.
The person who ordered Vivienne's death is still inside the Vale house.
Tonight, Rebecca was going there to say the name.
Dominic looked at Madeline.
His phone rang.
Victor.
Dominic answered.
No words came.
Only Rebecca's terrified breathing.
Then Victor Vale's voice.
"Dominic, come home."
A pause.
"And bring Madeline."
May you like
Behind him, Rebecca screamed.
The call ended.
