Chapter 3 - the woman who survived
Marcus went down hard.
Dominic kicked the gun away.
Richard Hale rushed backward.
Vanessa screamed.
Isabella moved toward Marcus, but Dominic caught her arm.
“Don’t.”
She twisted free.
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand enough.”
Security men flooded the corridor.
Two stopped when they saw Marcus on the floor.
Another looked toward Richard.
Nobody knew who was giving orders.
Dominic did.
“Secure the house.”
His voice cut through the confusion.
“No one leaves.”
Richard pointed at him.
“You’re making a mistake.”
Dominic ignored him.
“Take Senator Hale to the library.”
Two guards hesitated.
Dominic looked at them.
They moved.
“Vanessa goes to the east sitting room.”
She stared at him.
“You can’t detain me.”
Dominic wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.
“Watch me.”
Vanessa turned toward her father.
Richard said nothing.
That frightened her more than Dominic’s threat.
Dominic pointed toward Marcus.
“Disarm him. Search him. Lock him downstairs.”
Marcus laughed while being hauled upright.
“You still think these are your people.”
Dominic looked around.
Marcus was right about one thing.
For the first time, Dominic could not be certain.
“Then anyone who doesn’t know where his loyalty is can walk out now.”
Nobody moved.
Dominic nodded.
“Good.”
He turned toward Isabella.
She remained where she was.
“What about me?” she asked.
Dominic stared at her.
“You’re coming with me.”
Sophia had been taken to a private bedroom upstairs where a doctor from the family’s security staff examined her injury.
The bleeding looked worse than the wound itself.
Vanessa had struck her with the edge of the statue rather than the base.
The doctor said she needed imaging at a hospital.
Sophia refused to leave.
Dominic stood beside the bed.
“You might have a concussion.”
“I have survived worse.”
“When?”
Sophia looked away.
Dominic understood.
“Seventeen years ago?”
Silence.
He closed the bedroom door.
Isabella stood near the window.
Emma remained by Sophia.
Dominic looked at all three women.
“Now.”
Sophia sighed.
“Dominic.”
“No more protection. No more secrets. No more deciding what I deserve to know.”
His mother closed her eyes.
Isabella spoke.
“The boat accident was staged.”
“I gathered that.”
“Our father arranged it.”
That surprised him.
“Why?”
“Because someone tried to kill me.”
Dominic looked at Sophia.
She nodded.
Isabella continued.
“I had discovered payments from one of our companies to accounts connected to judges and detectives. I thought Dad was bribing them.”
“Was he?”
“No. Someone was using Vance money to make payments in Dad’s name.”
Dominic frowned.
“For what purpose?”
“To create evidence.”
Emma whispered, “Evidence of crimes he didn’t commit?”
Isabella looked at her.
“Some he committed. Some he didn’t. The point wasn’t morality. It was control.”
Dominic understood immediately.
“Blackmail.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Isabella looked toward Sophia.
Sophia answered.
“Your uncle.”
Dominic froze.
“Uncle Adrian?”
Adrian Vance was Vincent’s younger brother.
He had died ten years earlier in Florida.
At least Dominic had been told he died.
Dominic laughed once without humor.
“Is anybody in this family actually dead?”
Sophia almost smiled.
“Adrian is.”
“How certain are you?”
“I saw his body.”
“Apparently that standard failed us before.”
Isabella crossed her arms.
“Adrian started it, but he wasn’t alone.”
“Richard Hale.”
“Yes.”
“Marcus?”
Isabella hesitated.
“No.”
Dominic looked toward the door.
“That surprises me.”
“Marcus came later.”
“How much later?”
“Three years ago.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You have been in contact with him for three years?”
“Yes.”
“And today he put a gun against my head.”
“I didn’t know he would.”
“That answer is becoming popular.”
Sophia reached for Dominic’s hand.
He did not take it.
The hurt in her face nearly broke his resolve.
Nearly.
“Why keep Isabella hidden from me?”
Sophia answered.
“Your father believed the conspiracy reached into our own security teams. He staged her death and sent her overseas.”
“Where?”
“Switzerland first. Then Italy.”
Dominic looked at Isabella.
“And you stayed away even after Dad died.”
Her eyes became wet.
“Because his death proved he was right.”
The room went quiet.
Dominic lowered his voice.
“Tell me.”
Isabella looked at Sophia.
Sophia shook her head weakly.
“Mom,” Dominic said. “No.”
Sophia finally surrendered.
“Your father called me the night he died.”
Dominic felt his chest tighten.
Nobody had ever told him that.
“He said he had identified the person working with Richard and Adrian. He said he had put everything into the ledger and hidden it where only someone who truly knew him would think to look.”
“Then what?”
“He told me if anything happened to him, I was to keep you and Isabella apart.”
“Why?”
“Because together you were a threat.”
Dominic stared at her.
“To who?”
Sophia whispered, “Everyone.”
Isabella stepped closer.
“Dad believed you would take the family while I gathered evidence. Separately, we were manageable. Together, we could expose politicians, prosecutors, banks and people inside the organization.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“So the solution was for you to pretend my sister was dead.”
Sophia said, “It was the only way to keep her alive.”
“And me?”
Sophia looked at him.
“You were already surrounded.”
Dominic understood the implication.
“By Marcus?”
“No.”
“Richard?”
“Partly.”
“Who?”
Sophia did not answer.
Isabella looked away.
Dominic’s anger returned.
“Who was beside me when Dad died?”
Sophia’s eyes filled with tears.
“Someone you loved.”
Dominic stared at her.
Then Emma’s phone vibrated.
Everyone looked at it.
She checked the screen.
Her face changed.
“What?”
Emma turned the phone toward Dominic.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
Five words.
THE LEDGER IS NOT AT ST. AGNES.
Below the message was a photograph.
Taken only moments earlier.
It showed the third pew inside the empty church.
The floorboard had been ripped open.
Someone had already searched it.
Dominic looked at Isabella.
“You told them about St. Agnes.”
She shook her head.
“Not me.”
Dominic looked at Sophia.
“Then who knew?”
Sophia whispered, “Only one other person.”
“Who?”
She looked toward the bedroom door.
“Your wife.”
Dominic’s face went still.
“I’ve never been married.”
Sophia looked at him.
“Yes, Dominic.”
May you like
Then she said a name he had not heard in thirteen years.
“Caroline.”
