Chapter 4 - The Bride Who Built the Trap
By morning, the Vale estate looked less like a mansion and more like a federal command center.
Police vehicles lined the driveway. Investigators photographed the hidden surveillance room while forensic teams searched the tunnels beneath the wine cellar.
Dominic stood outside the medical suite.
Through the open door, Harper sat beside her mother’s bed, coloring on a tray.
Mia was awake.
Her shoulder had been treated, her wrists bandaged, and an IV line ran into her arm.
Dr. Hayes stepped into the corridor.
“She will recover.”
Dominic exhaled.
“How long?”
“She needs rest, hydration, and surgery on one wrist. The nerve damage appears limited.”
“Can she be moved to a hospital?”
“She can, but she asked not to leave her daughter.”
Dominic looked into the room.
Harper drew a crooked bird with enormous wings.
“What about the child?”
“She’s exhausted and frightened. But children often recover faster when adults finally listen to them.”
The doctor left.
Dominic entered.
Harper looked up.
“I made you something.”
She handed him the drawing.
It showed three people standing beside a large house.
One was Mia.
One was Harper.
The third was a tall man in black.
Dominic pointed to the figure.
“Who is this?”
“You.”
“I look angry.”
“You always look angry.”
Mia tried not to laugh and winced from the pain.
Dominic sat beside the bed.
“The police will need your statement.”
“I’ll give it.”
“You don’t have to do it today.”
“I waited three days in that cellar. I can speak for one hour.”
Harper looked between them.
“Will Mommy have to go away?”
“No,” Dominic said.
“Will Miss Claire?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“That will be decided by a judge.”
Harper frowned.
“She did bad things.”
“She did.”
“Then why does a judge need to decide?”
Mia gave Dominic a tired smile.
“I’d like to hear your answer.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“Because people should not be punished by one angry man.”
Mia studied him.
“Do you believe that?”
“I am trying to.”
A knock sounded at the door.
Daniel entered with a folder.
“We found the documents.”
Dominic stood.
“Where?”
“Inside a false wall in Nathan’s office.”
Mia looked at Daniel.
“What was in them?”
“Property transfers, bank access, medical declarations, and a new will.”
“Who prepared them?” Dominic asked.
“A lawyer in Albany. He claims Nathan told him you were seriously ill.”
“Bring him in.”
“He’s already speaking to the police.”
Daniel handed Dominic the folder.
“There’s more.”
Inside was a list of payments made to estate employees.
Two guards.
A driver.
A kitchen supervisor.
A private nurse.
Every name belonged to someone with access to Dominic’s daily routine.
Nathan had bought loyalty throughout the house.
At the bottom of the list was Dr. Samuel Pierce, a cardiologist Dominic had never met.
“What was Pierce’s role?”
“He was supposed to diagnose you with a degenerative heart condition after the poisoning began.”
Mia whispered, “So no one would question why he became weak.”
Daniel nodded.
“There were also instructions for Claire. She would convince Dominic to avoid public appearances and sign authority over to her.”
“And Nathan would control Claire,” Dominic said.
“Exactly.”
Harper looked up from her coloring.
“Mr. Cross is the worst bad man.”
No one disagreed.
Daniel closed the door.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“Nathan refuses to speak.”
“He doesn’t need to. Claire will.”
“She changed her mind.”
Dominic looked at him.
“When?”
“After her lawyer arrived.”
“What lawyer?”
“Elliot Crane.”
Dominic knew the name.
Crane had represented powerful criminals for twenty-five years. He did not appear unless someone had paid him very well.
“Nathan hired him?”
“That is our assumption.”
Mia said, “Claire was afraid of Nathan.”
“She should be,” Dominic replied.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Claire says the recording was manipulated. She claims Mia attacked her, and Nathan intervened.”
“That will not survive forensic analysis.”
“It might not have to. Crane is trying to shift the focus toward your organization. He is arguing that Claire feared for her life.”
Dominic gave a humorless smile.
“She was planning my murder.”
“She says the vials contained medication.”
Mia pushed herself higher.
“I saw her add it to wine.”
“But no poisoned bottle was found,” Daniel said.
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Where is the bottle?”
“We searched the cellar, kitchen, and dining rooms.”
“Search Claire’s car.”
“We did.”
“Her bedroom?”
“Nothing.”
Mia suddenly touched her pendant.
“Not the private bottle.”
Dominic turned.
“What?”
“She switched the label.”
“When?”
“The night she trapped me. She peeled the label from the Barolo and put it on another bottle.”
“Why?”
“To make you think the bottle came from your own collection.”
Daniel called the forensic team.
Dominic asked, “What did the original bottle look like?”
“Dark glass. Black wax around the neck. A gold crest on the cork.”
Dominic knew exactly where he had seen it.
“The wedding display.”
Claire had arranged a decorative wine tower in the grand ballroom. More than a hundred bottles formed an arch behind the table where she and Dominic were supposed to sit.
The police rushed toward the ballroom.
They found the bottle in the center of the display.
Forensic officers opened it inside a controlled area.
A chemical test confirmed that the wine contained a dangerous combination of heart medication and sedatives.
Enough to make Dominic seriously ill over time.
Possibly enough to kill him.
Claire’s lawyer stopped speaking to reporters.
By afternoon, she agreed to cooperate.
Dominic watched her interview through the glass of the estate library.
Claire sat across from two detectives, her hands folded on the table.
“Nathan approached me eighteen months ago,” she said. “He knew where I worked. He knew I was in debt.”
“What did he offer?” a detective asked.
“Money. A new identity. A marriage to Dominic.”
“You were instructed to begin a romantic relationship?”
“Yes.”
“Did Dominic know?”
“No.”
“Did you ever intend to marry him?”
Claire hesitated.
“At first, it was an assignment.”
“And later?”
Her eyes moved toward the mirrored window.
“I started caring about him.”
Dominic felt nothing.
The detective continued.
“Yet you agreed to poison him.”
“Nathan said it would only make him sick.”
“Mia Carter heard you discussing his death.”
“I was trying to keep Nathan calm.”
“You locked Mia in a cellar.”
“I panicked.”
“You left a four-year-old child without her mother for three days.”
Claire lowered her head.
“I know.”
“No,” Dominic whispered behind the glass. “You don’t.”
Daniel entered.
“Nathan wants to see you.”
“Why?”
“He says he will reveal the full network.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Safe passage out of the country.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“He still thinks this is a negotiation.”
“He claims there is another threat.”
“What threat?”
Daniel’s expression was grim.
“He says the explosion that killed your wife was not the only bomb placed that night.”
Dominic turned slowly.
“What does that mean?”
“He refuses to explain unless you speak to him alone.”
Mia’s warning returned to Dominic.
The enemy had not merely hidden beneath his home.
Nathan had buried secrets under every part of his life.
Dominic looked through the glass at Claire.
Then toward the room where Harper sat beside her mother.
“Prepare the interview room.”
Daniel nodded.
May you like
Dominic’s voice hardened.
“This time, Nathan tells me everything.”
