Chapter 2 - The Locked Door Beneath the Mansion
“Call Dr. Hayes,” Dominic ordered. “Now.”
Daniel knelt beside Mia while another guard carried Harper away from the broken glass on the floor.
Harper refused to release her mother’s hand.
“I’m staying.”
“You can stay,” Dominic said. “But stand beside me.”
Mia’s breathing was shallow.
Dominic touched two fingers to her neck.
Her pulse was weak.
“What happened?” he asked.
Mia looked toward Nathan.
Fear crossed her face.
Nathan took one step backward.
Daniel immediately drew his weapon.
“Don’t move.”
Nathan lifted his hands.
“Everyone needs to calm down.”
Dominic stood.
“You locked her in here.”
“No.”
“You told the staff she had left.”
“Because that’s what Claire told me.”
“You approved the new lock.”
“To protect your property.”
Dominic approached him.
“My property is wine. Mia is a human being.”
Nathan glanced toward the guards.
“You’re willing to condemn me because a frightened woman looks in my direction?”
Mia forced herself upright.
“He was here.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
Dominic turned to her.
“When?”
“The first night.”
“What did he do?”
“He asked me where the ledger was.”
Nathan laughed once.
“There is no ledger.”
Mia looked directly at Dominic.
“There is.”
The doctor entered the cellar with two medical assistants. Dominic moved aside while they examined Mia.
Dr. Hayes cut open part of her sleeve.
“She’s severely dehydrated. Her wrists may be infected. We need to move her upstairs.”
“Is she stable enough to speak?”
“Not for long.”
Mia caught Dominic’s hand.
“Listen to me.”
“You need treatment.”
“Claire knows.”
Nathan said, “She’s delirious.”
Mia’s eyes filled with anger.
“I watched Claire put something in your wine.”
The cellar went silent.
Dominic stared at her.
“What?”
“Three nights ago. She came down here to choose bottles for the wedding dinner. I was checking inventory.”
Mia paused, fighting for breath.
“She opened a case that wasn’t part of the collection. Inside were documents, cash, and small glass vials.”
Nathan shook his head.
“This is absurd.”
Mia continued.
“I asked her what they were. She said they were perfume samples. Then she offered me money.”
“For what?” Dominic asked.
“To forget what I saw.”
Harper leaned against Dominic’s leg.
Mia looked at her daughter, then back at him.
“I refused.”
“Where did Nathan enter the situation?”
“He was already waiting in the corridor.”
Nathan’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But Dominic saw it.
Mia swallowed.
“They brought me here. Claire said I should have minded my own business. Nathan tied my hands.”
“That is a lie,” Nathan said.
Mia pulled the silver bird pendant from beneath her torn collar.
“I recorded part of it.”
Nathan lunged.
Daniel slammed him against the stone wall.
The guards seized his arms.
Dominic took the pendant from Mia.
“What is this?”
“A recorder,” she whispered. “I bought it after someone kept entering the staff rooms. I thought a worker was stealing.”
Nathan struggled.
“She could have recorded anything.”
Dominic handed the pendant to Daniel.
“Play it.”
Daniel opened the back and connected it to his phone.
Static filled the cellar.
Then Claire’s voice emerged.
“You should have taken the money, Mia.”
Mia’s recorded voice answered, “What are you planning to do to him?”
Nathan spoke next.
“Dominic will never know.”
Harper covered her ears.
The recording continued.
Claire said, “After the wedding, the estate, the accounts, and the shipping routes become accessible to me.”
Mia answered, “Only if he dies.”
There was a pause.
Then Claire laughed.
“He doesn’t have to die immediately.”
Nathan’s voice followed.
“He only has to become weak enough to sign.”
The recording ended with a struggle and Mia screaming.
No one moved.
Dominic looked at Nathan.
Seventeen years of loyalty collapsed in less than a minute.
“You planned to poison me.”
Nathan’s breathing became heavier.
“Dom, listen to me.”
“I am listening.”
“This isn’t what it sounds like.”
Daniel stared at him in disbelief.
“It sounds like your voice.”
Nathan lowered his tone.
“You know what we built together. You know what I sacrificed.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“I know what Mia sacrificed.”
Nathan’s eyes moved toward the open door.
Every guard noticed.
Daniel pressed the pistol into his back.
“Don’t.”
Nathan smiled bitterly.
“You think Claire planned this? She doesn’t understand half of what we do. She wanted wealth. I gave her a path.”
“You used my fiancée.”
“I gave you a fiancée.”
Dominic stopped.
“What does that mean?”
Nathan remained silent.
Dominic grabbed his shirt.
“What does that mean?”
“Claire never met you by accident.”
Mia closed her eyes.
Nathan’s smile widened.
“I chose her.”
Dominic released him slowly.
“Why?”
“Because you were becoming careless.”
“I built everything you have.”
“We built it,” Nathan snapped. “But your name was on every building. Your face was in every newspaper. Men called you the king while I cleaned blood from the floor.”
“You could have walked away.”
“And leave with what? A salary? A handshake?”
“You had access to millions.”
“Access is not ownership.”
The doctor signaled that Mia needed to be moved.
Dominic looked at Harper.
“Go upstairs with your mother.”
Harper tightened her grip on him.
“Will the bad people come back?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Dominic looked at Nathan.
“Because they won’t be allowed to leave.”
The medical team placed Mia on a stretcher.
As they carried her from the cellar, she reached toward Dominic.
“Claire has a key.”
“To what?”
“A room beneath this one.”
Nathan’s head turned sharply.
Dominic noticed.
“What room?”
“I heard them talking about tunnels.”
Daniel frowned.
“There are no tunnels on the estate plans.”
Mia’s voice weakened.
“There are now.”
Dominic looked around the cellar.
Wine racks covered three stone walls.
On the fourth wall, moisture had formed a dark vertical line.
He approached it.
One wine rack was bolted to the floor but not the wall.
“Move this.”
Two guards pulled.
The rack shifted, revealing a narrow metal door.
Nathan swore.
Dominic turned.
“What is beneath my house?”
Nathan’s expression finally lost all confidence.
Dominic opened the hidden door.
A concrete staircase descended into darkness.
At the bottom, a row of screens illuminated the underground room.
Live security footage covered every wall.
The foyer.
Dominic’s bedroom.
The library.
The staff quarters.
Harper’s room.
Dominic stared at the screen showing the child’s bed.
His voice became deadly quiet.
“They were watching her.”
Daniel inspected a table filled with passports, cash, weapons, and electronic equipment.
Then he found a folder.
“Sir.”
Dominic opened it.
Inside were photographs of meetings, bank records, shipping schedules, and names of people loyal to him.
At the bottom was a photograph of Dominic’s first wife beside her car.
The image had been taken one day before the explosion that killed her.
Dominic slowly raised his eyes toward Nathan.
“You told me the bomb came from the Moretti family.”
Nathan said nothing.
“You dragged me from the wreckage.”
Still nothing.
Dominic held up the photograph.
“Did you know the bomb was there?”
Nathan’s silence answered him.
Dominic stepped forward.
Nathan finally spoke.
“I was supposed to inherit everything after you died.”
“But I survived.”
“Yes.”
“And my wife didn’t.”
Nathan looked away.
Dominic struck him once.
Nathan fell against the stone wall.
Dominic did not hit him again.
He did not need to.
“Take him upstairs,” he ordered. “Separate him from Claire.”
Daniel pulled Nathan toward the stairs.
Before they left, Nathan looked back.
“You still don’t understand.”
Dominic stood beneath the screens.
“Understand what?”
Nathan smiled through the blood on his lip.
“Claire is not waiting upstairs.”
A distant explosion shook the estate.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
An alarm began screaming.
Daniel’s radio erupted with voices.
“Fire in the east wing!”
“Vehicle breach at the south gate!”
“Two guards down!”
Dominic drew his weapon.
Nathan laughed.
“She’s leaving, Dom.”
Dominic looked toward the monitor displaying Harper’s room.
The bed was empty.
Then he remembered.
May you like
Harper had gone upstairs with Mia.
And Claire knew exactly where they were.
