Chapter 6 - The Night at Blackwood Lodge
Clara answered.
“Congratulations,” Victoria said.
Dominic reached for the phone.
Clara moved away.
“You knew.”
“I know many things.”
“Did you threaten my child?”
Victoria laughed softly.
“If I wanted to threaten you, Clara, you wouldn't need to ask.”
“Where are you?”
“Trying to keep you alive.”
Clara looked at Dominic.
“That sounds familiar.”
“Dominic lied because he thought distance would protect you. Men like him always believe cruelty becomes noble when they call it protection.”
Dominic heard.
His jaw tightened.
Victoria continued.
“My father knows about the pregnancy.”
Charles Mercer.
“Why does he care?”
“Because Dominic having an heir changes the Russo succession.”
“I don't care about succession.”
“My father does.”
“What do you want?”
“To help you.”
“Why?”
Victoria went silent.
Then:
“Because Charles Mercer killed my mother too.”
Clara froze.
“Meet me alone.”
“No.”
“Then you'll never learn who inside the Russo family helped him murder your parents.”
The call ended.
Dominic immediately said, “Absolutely not.”
Clara looked at him.
“Stop deciding for me.”
“She wants you alone.”
“And?”
“And you're carrying my child.”
“My child too.”
His face softened.
“I know.”
“No, Dominic. You don't. You learned about this baby hours ago. I've spent days terrified and alone.”
He absorbed that without defending himself.
“You're right.”
Clara had expected argument.
The admission disarmed her.
Dominic stepped closer.
“I handled this badly.”
“That's generous.”
“I thought if Victoria believed you meant nothing, her father would believe it too.”
“And did he?”
“No.”
“Then you broke my heart for nothing.”
His face changed.
She wished she could take the words back.
Not because they were false.
Because they revealed too much.
Dominic spoke quietly.
“Did I?”
Clara looked away.
He touched nothing.
He had learned.
“I meant what happened at Blackwood,” he said.
She looked back.
“Then why were you cold the next morning?”
“Because I woke up and realized you had become the one person my enemies could use against me.”
“That isn't love.”
“No.”
He paused.
“It's fear.”
The word seemed difficult for him.
Clara's anger weakened.
Not vanished.
But weakened.
Dominic looked toward the room where they had spent that night.
“I've never been afraid of losing anyone before.”
“You lost your mother.”
“That's why.”
Clara understood.
Before she could answer, Liam entered.
“We traced Victoria’s call.”
“Where?” Dominic asked.
“The Russo estate.”
Everyone stared.
Victoria was inside Dominic's home.
They returned immediately.
The gala had ended.
Guests were gone.
The ballroom was empty except for abandoned glasses and flowers.
Victoria waited in Dominic's study.
Alone.
Dominic entered first.
Clara followed.
Victoria looked at Clara’s stomach.
“So it's true.”
Dominic moved between them.
Victoria rolled her eyes.
“If I wanted her dead, Dominic, she wouldn't have reached the lodge.”
“Choose your next sentence carefully.”
Victoria's confidence faltered.
“My father has someone inside this house.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Convenient.”
“I've spent years trying to find out.”
Clara placed the photograph on the desk.
Victoria stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“Archive 17.”
Victoria picked it up.
Her face changed.
“My mother took this.”
“How do you know?”
“She had the same photograph.”
“Where is it?”
“Destroyed.”
“Why?”
“My father burned everything after she died.”
Clara studied her.
“You really weren't planning an engagement.”
Victoria almost smiled.
“Dominic would rather marry a cactus.”
Dominic looked unimpressed.
Victoria continued.
“The announcement was designed to force my father to move money. Dominic and I were baiting him.”
“And I was collateral damage,” Clara said.
Victoria's smile disappeared.
“Yes.”
At least she admitted it.
“I'm sorry.”
Clara had not expected that.
Victoria opened her purse.
Dominic's security men immediately moved.
She slowly removed a flash drive.
“My father keeps an encrypted ledger.”
She placed it on the desk.
“I copied it.”
Dominic took it.
“Why now?”
“Because this morning he ordered someone to kill Clara before the pregnancy became public.”
Silence.
Dominic's face emptied of emotion.
That was more frightening than anger.
“Where is Charles?”
“I don't know.”
“Find him.”
“I tried.”
Victoria looked toward Clara.
“But there is someone who does know.”
“Who?”
Victoria hesitated.
“Dominic's mother.”
Dominic stared.
“You know where she is?”
Victoria nodded.
“Where?”
A sound came from behind the study wall.
A quiet mechanical click.
Everyone turned.
One section of the mahogany bookcase moved outward.
Dominic drew his weapon.
Behind it was a narrow passage none of them knew existed.
A woman stepped from the darkness.
Her hair was silver now.
But Dominic recognized her instantly.
May you like
His weapon slowly lowered.
“Mother?”
