Chapter 5 - The Enemy Sitting Beside Him
“Mom?”
Molly ran back.
Victor caught her before she reached the ballroom entrance.
“Wait.”
“That’s my mother.”
“I know.”
“Then let me go.”
“We don’t know who brought her.”
Evelyn Higgins appeared between two men.
Elias was one.
The other was Victor’s driver.
Molly broke free.
“Mom!”
Evelyn rushed toward her.
They collided in the middle of the ballroom.
Molly held her tighter than she had held anyone since childhood.
Then anger returned.
She pulled away.
“You knew.”
Evelyn’s face changed.
“Molly—”
“You knew Dad was alive.”
Tears filled her mother’s eyes.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more because it came immediately.
“No excuse?”
“I have thousands.”
“I don’t want thousands.”
Thomas watched from across the room.
Evelyn looked at him.
Twenty-four years passed between them in one glance.
Thomas whispered, “Evie.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Molly stepped back.
Her parents looked like strangers remembering how not to be strangers.
Victor walked toward Dominic.
Dominic was restrained by two of Victor’s men.
“You planned all of this.”
Dominic smiled weakly.
“I planned enough.”
Victor held up the recorder.
“You planned your own conviction.”
“Do you really think you’ll take that to police?”
Victor’s expression did not change.
Dominic laughed.
“That’s what I thought.”
Molly looked between them.
Dominic knew Victor.
Knew which laws he would avoid.
Knew which authorities he would never contact.
Dominic had built the trap around Victor’s reputation.
Molly stepped forward.
“I will.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What?”
“I’ll take it to the police.”
He laughed.
“You think they’ll believe a waitress?”
Molly held up her phone.
“They don’t need to believe me. They can listen to you.”
Dominic’s smile faded.
Molly had recorded everything since entering the ballroom.
Not intentionally at first.
She had activated audio recording before approaching the hotel because she was scared.
Now the phone contained Dominic’s admissions.
Threatening Evelyn.
Kidnapping Claudia.
Coercing Adrian.
Planning the dinner.
Dominic stared at her.
Victor looked impressed.
“You really do notice everything.”
Molly ignored him.
Evelyn approached Thomas.
“You should have told her years ago.”
Thomas nodded.
“I know.”
“You promised me you would come home when Michael Vale died.”
“I thought Dominic would continue it.”
“You were right.”
“That doesn’t mean I was right to stay away.”
Molly listened.
Her anger did not disappear.
But something else joined it.
Understanding.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
Thomas had spent two decades hiding because a dangerous family knew he possessed evidence.
Evelyn had raised Molly alone to keep her away from that danger.
Their choices had wounded her.
But those choices had not been made because they stopped loving her.
Victor’s phone rang.
One of his men answered first.
His expression changed.
“Boss.”
Victor took the phone.
He listened.
Then looked at Dominic.
“Where is Adrian’s son?”
Dominic said nothing.
Victor crouched in front of him.
“Where is Ethan Mercer?”
Dominic smiled.
“You have bigger problems.”
Victor’s face hardened.
Molly stepped closer.
“What happened?”
Victor looked at her.
“Ethan never owed gambling money.”
Adrian stood near the doorway.
“What?”
Victor continued.
“My people checked.”
Adrian stared.
“No. That’s impossible.”
“Someone created the debt.”
Dominic looked amused.
“Very expensive illusion.”
Adrian charged toward him.
Victor’s men restrained him.
“You took my son!”
Dominic shrugged.
“I needed cooperation.”
“Where is he?”
Dominic said nothing.
Molly watched his eyes.
He glanced toward the table.
One second.
Then away.
Molly went to it.
Four plates.
Four forks.
One centerpiece.
She lifted the flower arrangement.
Beneath it sat a phone.
Victor came beside her.
The screen showed a live video.
Ethan Mercer sat inside a storage room.
Alive.
A clock on the wall read 12:34.
Molly leaned closer.
“I know that room.”
Adrian rushed over.
“Where?”
“Crystal House.”
Victor looked at her.
“The basement dry storage.”
Adrian nodded.
“There’s no camera down there.”
“This isn’t restaurant security.”
Molly pointed.
“The camera is sitting on the old flour shelf.”
Victor understood.
“Dominic had someone inside the restaurant.”
Everyone looked at Dominic.
He smiled.
“Maybe.”
Victor ordered three men back to Crystal House.
Molly stopped them.
“Wait.”
They turned.
“If someone is holding Ethan there, they’ll see you coming through the main entrance.”
Adrian nodded.
“There’s another way.”
“The loading tunnel,” Molly said.
Crystal House had once been connected to the neighboring hotel kitchen by an underground passage.
It had been sealed years earlier.
Except, as Adrian admitted, the lock was broken.
Victor sent Elias.
Then Molly noticed something.
The live image shifted.
A figure stepped into frame.
Only a hand was visible.
A gold ring.
Victor stared.
His expression changed more dramatically than Molly had ever seen.
He knew that ring.
“Who?”
Victor whispered a name.
“Anthony.”
Everyone turned.
Anthony Bell was gone.
His chair stood empty.
Molly had not seen him leave.
Victor called his men.
No answer.
Then Judge Kellerman shouted from the hallway.
“Victor!”
They ran.
One of Victor’s guards lay unconscious near the stairwell.
Anthony Bell was nowhere.
Victor looked at Dominic.
Dominic laughed.
“You always thought I was the traitor.”
Victor grabbed him.
“Bell was working with you?”
“Working with me?”
Dominic smiled.
“You still don’t understand.”
The phone beneath the centerpiece rang.
Victor answered on speaker.
Anthony Bell’s voice came through.
“Dominic.”
Dominic’s smile disappeared.
Anthony continued.
“You talk too much.”
For the first time that night Dominic looked afraid.
Victor stared at him.
“You’re not in charge.”
Dominic said nothing.
Anthony laughed through the phone.
“Victor, your father made one mistake. He believed Michael Vale was the only man selling him out.”
Victor slowly looked at Dominic.
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
Anthony continued.
“Michael took the blame. Thomas vanished. Kellerman built his career. And I inherited the routes.”
Victor’s expression turned cold.
“You killed my father.”
“No.”
A pause.
“I paid the man who did.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Evelyn gasped.
Victor stood completely still.
Anthony said, “And before midnight ends, I’m going to finish what should have ended fifteen years ago.”
A crash sounded through the live video.
Adrian shouted his son’s name.
The camera fell sideways.
Ethan disappeared from view.
Then Anthony whispered one last sentence through the phone.
“Victor, check who is sitting beside Molly.”
Victor turned.
So did Molly.
May you like
The chair beside her was empty.
Her mother was gone.
