Chapter 3 - Seventeen Years of Lies
Dominic ran up the cellar stairs.
“Lock down the medical wing!”
Daniel spoke into his radio as they moved.
“No response from the east corridor.”
Smoke drifted through the mansion.
Staff members rushed toward the exits while security guards directed them away from the flames. Somewhere above, glass shattered.
Dominic grabbed a guard.
“Where is Dr. Hayes?”
“Second-floor guest suite.”
“And Mia?”
“With him.”
“Harper?”
The guard hesitated.
“She was there.”
Dominic released him and took the stairs two at a time.
At the second-floor landing, a security officer lay unconscious beside the wall.
His gun was missing.
Dominic checked his pulse.
Alive.
Daniel pointed to an open window.
A rope hung over the ledge.
“Someone entered from outside.”
They reached the guest suite.
The door was locked.
“Claire!” Dominic shouted.
A woman answered from inside.
“Put your gun down.”
Dominic recognized the voice immediately.
Claire Bennett.
He positioned himself beside the door.
“Let Harper leave.”
“Why? So you can kill me?”
“I haven’t decided what happens to you.”
“That sounds reassuring.”
Mia cried out inside.
Dominic’s hand tightened around the pistol.
“Claire, listen carefully. Nathan has confessed.”
There was a pause.
“He would never confess.”
“He admitted choosing you. He admitted the poison. He admitted my wife’s death.”
Silence.
Dominic looked at Daniel and nodded toward the adjoining room.
Daniel moved away.
Claire spoke again.
“Nathan is trying to save himself.”
“So are you.”
“I did what I had to do.”
“You chained an innocent woman beneath my home.”
“She saw too much.”
“And Harper?”
“I never touched the girl.”
“You watched her through hidden cameras.”
“That was Nathan.”
Dominic heard quiet sobbing.
Harper.
He kept his voice controlled.
“Open the door.”
“I need a car.”
“No.”
“A car and ten million dollars.”
“No.”
“You’re not in a position to refuse.”
Mia shouted, “Don’t give her anything!”
A sharp sound followed.
Harper screamed.
Dominic stepped toward the door.
“Claire.”
“She is alive,” Claire said. “But Mia needs to stop trying to be brave.”
Dominic fought the urge to force his way inside.
“How did you meet Nathan?”
Claire laughed softly.
“You really want to discuss our love story now?”
“We have time.”
“No, we don’t.”
“You haven’t reached the car. The estate is locked down. The gate is reinforced, and the forest is surrounded.”
“Then give me what I asked for.”
Dominic leaned against the wall.
“I want to understand why.”
“You don’t care why.”
“I cared enough to marry you.”
“You cared about what I represented.”
“What did you represent?”
“A respectable future. Charity dinners. Political connections. A beautiful wife who could smile beside you while people forgot what you were.”
“You believe I chose you as decoration?”
“Didn’t you?”
“No.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Inside the room, Claire went silent.
Dominic continued.
“I chose you because you laughed when I burned dinner. Because you spoke to the kitchen staff by name. Because Harper once spilled juice on your dress and you told her it made the dress more interesting.”
Mia spoke weakly.
“That was before Claire knew I saw her meeting Nathan.”
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
Every memory now felt contaminated.
Claire said, “I did care about you.”
“Then release them.”
“I cared about what you could give me.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“It was enough.”
Daniel appeared at the far end of the hall and raised three fingers.
Three minutes.
He had found another way inside.
Dominic kept Claire talking.
“Did Nathan tell you he intended to share the empire?”
“He signed an agreement.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“Nathan does not share.”
“You don’t know him as well as you think.”
“I knew him for seventeen years. You knew him for eighteen months.”
“He trusted me.”
“He used you.”
Claire’s breathing changed.
Dominic pressed.
“He chose you because he needed someone close to me. Once I signed control to you, how long do you think you would have lived?”
“Stop.”
“He killed my wife after she discovered missing money. He left Mia to die because she found the poison. You were never his partner.”
“Stop talking.”
“You were evidence.”
A gunshot exploded inside the room.
Dominic rammed the door.
It held.
“Harper!”
“I’m okay!” the girl cried.
Daniel’s team breached through the adjoining bathroom.
Men shouted.
Another gunshot struck the wall.
Dominic kicked the door again.
The lock broke.
Claire stood near the window with a pistol in one hand and Harper held against her body. Mia lay beside the bed, gripping her bleeding shoulder.
Daniel and two guards aimed from the bathroom.
Claire turned the gun toward Harper.
“Back away!”
Everyone froze.
Harper’s eyes found Dominic.
She was terrified, but she did not scream.
Dominic lowered his weapon.
“Look at me, Claire.”
“I said back away.”
“You can still leave this room alive.”
“Not if Nathan talks.”
“Nathan already abandoned you.”
“He wouldn’t.”
Dominic slowly placed his pistol on the floor.
“Ask him.”
Claire’s eyes narrowed.
Dominic nodded toward Daniel.
Daniel pressed a button on his radio.
Nathan’s voice came through the speaker from downstairs.
“Claire, take the child and get to the north tunnel.”
Claire stared at the radio.
Nathan continued.
“The girl is leverage. Mia doesn’t matter.”
Harper flinched.
Dominic watched Claire’s face.
Confusion became realization.
“That message was recorded twenty minutes ago,” Daniel said. “Nathan gave the order before the fire began.”
Claire whispered, “He said no one would be hurt.”
Dominic replied, “Mia was chained for three days.”
“I didn’t tie her.”
“You watched.”
“I gave her water.”
“Once,” Mia said from the floor.
Claire’s grip weakened slightly.
Dominic took one slow step.
“You can end this.”
“I can’t go to prison.”
“You should have thought of that before you brought poison into my home.”
Claire’s face twisted.
“I spent my entire life being invisible. Do you understand that? Men like you enter rooms and everyone moves. Women like me wait to be chosen.”
“So you chose murder?”
“I chose security.”
“You chose Nathan.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“He promised me everything.”
“And now he wants you to carry his crimes.”
Harper suddenly bit Claire’s wrist.
Claire screamed.
The pistol swung away.
Dominic crossed the room before she recovered.
He seized Harper with one arm and forced Claire’s gun hand upward with the other.
A shot tore into the ceiling.
Daniel knocked the weapon away.
The guards pulled Claire to the floor and restrained her.
Dominic carried Harper across the room.
She wrapped both arms around his neck.
“I was brave,” she whispered.
“You were.”
“Mommy is hurt.”
Dominic placed her beside the wall and rushed to Mia.
Blood spread through the bandage on her shoulder.
Dr. Hayes entered with the medical team.
“The bullet passed through,” he said after examining her. “We need to stop the bleeding.”
Mia reached for Harper.
The little girl knelt beside her.
“I’m here, Mommy.”
Dominic stood and looked down at Claire.
She sat against the wall in handcuffs.
Her expensive dress was torn. Smoke streaked her face.
“Where was the poison supposed to be used?” Dominic asked.
Claire looked away.
Daniel lifted her to her feet.
Dominic repeated the question.
“At the rehearsal dinner,” she whispered.
“How?”
“In your private bottle of Barolo.”
“What would it do?”
“Cause weakness. Confusion. Heart problems.”
“And then?”
“Nathan had documents prepared.”
“What documents?”
Claire’s voice cracked.
“Medical power of attorney. Control transfers. A revised will.”
“Where are they?”
“In Nathan’s office.”
Daniel ordered two guards to search it.
Dominic turned toward the hallway.
Nathan had spent seventeen years building a trap beneath his feet.
But the trap was not finished.
Nathan had prepared documents, escape routes, cameras, and armed men.
A betrayal that large required more than two people.
Dominic looked at Daniel.
“Find everyone Nathan contacted during the past month.”
Daniel nodded.
“And the police?”
Dominic glanced at Harper and Mia.
For years, he had solved problems within his own world.
This time, two innocent lives had nearly been destroyed because of his silence.
“Call them.”
Daniel looked surprised.
“All of it?”
“All of it.”
Dominic faced Claire one last time.
“You wanted to become Mrs. Vale.”
May you like
She stared at him.
“Instead, you will become the witness who buries Nathan Cross.”
