Chapter 6 - A Family Built on Theft
Victoria aimed the gun at Grace.
Dominic moved in front of her.
“Put it down.”
Victoria’s hand remained steady.
“You should have left the past buried.”
Margaret stared at her.
“You knew.”
“Of course I knew.”
“You knew Dominic was Elena’s child.”
Victoria laughed without humor.
“I knew more than Elena ever did.”
The second security officer reached for his weapon.
Victoria fired into the ceiling.
Dust and stone fragments rained down.
“Take your hand away from the holster.”
The officer obeyed.
Victoria stepped inside.
“Give me the letter.”
Dominic held it behind his back.
“No.”
“Then someone else dies.”
“You won’t leave this building.”
“I have already arranged my exit.”
Margaret’s voice broke.
“Why did you do it?”
Victoria looked at her with contempt.
“I did not switch the children.”
“Who did?”
“Your husband.”
Margaret recoiled.
“Anthony?”
“Anthony and Dr. Sebastian Vale.”
Grace recognized the name. Vale had been a celebrated obstetrician before disappearing overseas twenty-five years earlier.
Victoria continued.
“Anthony’s father had spent decades building the DeLuca name. He needed an heir. When your infant died, Anthony panicked.”
“He told me the baby survived.”
“He found another infant.”
“Elena’s son.”
“Elena was seventeen, alone, and unconscious after an emergency delivery. Her mother had signed adoption inquiries because the medical bills were impossible. Anthony paid a nurse to alter the records.”
Dominic’s face had become unreadable again, but his hands were clenched.
“Did Elena know?”
“Not then.”
“When did she learn?”
“Years later, when she came to work for Margaret.”
Grace understood suddenly.
“My mother took the job because she suspected the truth.”
Victoria nodded.
“She recognized the birthmark behind Dominic’s left shoulder. It matched her father’s. Then she found old hospital records.”
Dominic stared at Victoria.
“What was your role?”
“I protected the family.”
“You protected yourself.”
Victoria’s eyes flashed.
“I protected an empire that employed thousands of people.”
“You stole foundation money.”
“I redirected money to prevent collapse.”
“Into your own companies.”
“Because I was the only person competent enough to manage what your mother was giving away.”
Margaret’s expression sharpened.
“The foundation money belonged to hospitals and shelters.”
“It belonged to people who would have wasted it.”
Grace looked toward the fallen security officer. He was breathing, but blood spread across his sleeve.
“Let us get him help.”
Victoria ignored her.
“Elena discovered the financial transfers while searching for adoption records. She threatened to expose everything. Anthony wanted to negotiate.”
“My father died before Elena,” Dominic said.
“Anthony’s death changed the situation. Without him, Elena believed she could tell you the truth.”
“So you killed her.”
Victoria’s eyes moved to Grace.
“I did not light the fire.”
“Who did?”
“The man who has protected this family longer than you have been alive.”
Dominic took a step forward.
“Name him.”
Victoria raised the gun higher.
“Give me the letter.”
A sound came from the chapel stairs.
Footsteps.
Victoria turned slightly.
That was enough.
Grace grabbed the wooden cradle and shoved it toward her.
The cradle struck Victoria’s knees. The gun fired as she fell.
Dominic lunged forward and caught her wrist.
They crashed against the wall.
The security officer drew his weapon.
“Drop it!”
Victoria struggled beneath Dominic.
“You have no idea what you are doing.”
Dominic twisted the pistol from her hand.
The officer restrained her.
Grace rushed to the wounded guard.
The bullet had passed through his shoulder.
“We need an ambulance.”
Dominic pulled out his phone.
There was no signal underground.
He turned toward the stairs.
Before he reached them, the chapel door slammed shut.
A mechanical lock engaged from the other side.
Victoria began to laugh.
Dominic looked at her.
“What?”
“You think I came alone?”
Smoke drifted beneath the chapel door.
Margaret’s face went white.
“They are setting another fire.”
Grace stared at the smoke.
Eleven years disappeared.
She was eight again, standing on a rain-soaked fire escape while someone searched for her inside.
Dominic shook the chapel door.
It did not move.
The wounded guard pointed toward the ceiling.
“There may be another ventilation route.”
Grace remembered the roots hanging through the cracked stone.
She climbed onto the altar and pulled at the sheet covering the largest statue. Dust filled the air.
Behind the statue was a narrow iron ladder leading upward.
Dominic lifted Margaret from the wheelchair.
“I’ll carry her.”
The opening was barely wide enough.
The uninjured guard climbed first. Grace followed, then Dominic with Margaret secured against his chest. The wounded officer came next while Victoria was forced up behind him.
Smoke filled the chapel below.
The ladder ended beneath a metal grate.
The guard pushed.
It would not open.
“It’s locked.”
Grace examined the edges.
A thin silver wire ran into the locking mechanism.
“It’s electronic.”
Dominic looked down.
“Can you break it?”
“Maybe.”
Grace pulled a hairpin free and inserted it into the narrow control opening.
Her hands shook.
Below them, flames entered the chapel.
Victoria coughed.
“You will never get out.”
Grace turned the pin.
The lock clicked.
The guard forced the grate open.
Cool night air poured in.
They emerged in the hotel’s rear sculpture garden, where gala guests were arriving only a few hundred feet away.
Music drifted from the ballroom.
No alarms sounded.
No one knew a fire was burning beneath them.
Dominic handed Margaret to the guard.
“Take her to the secure penthouse.”
Margaret grabbed his sleeve.
“No. The ball must continue.”
“Mother, someone tried to burn us alive.”
“Exactly.”
She looked at Victoria.
“They believe the evidence is destroyed.”
Grace understood.
“You want them to think their plan worked.”
Margaret nodded.
“The person Victoria refused to name will come to the ball.”
Dominic looked toward the glowing ballroom windows.
“How do you know?”
“Because he has attended every Founders’ Ball for twenty-six years.”
Victoria’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Grace noticed.
“Who?” she asked.
Margaret looked at the guest list displayed on Dominic’s phone.
Her finger stopped on one name.
Judge Conrad Vale.
May you like
The older brother of Dr. Sebastian Vale.
And the man scheduled to announce Margaret’s new medical center.
