Chapter 3 - The Name My Wife Was Afraid to SayThat night, I found Elena's old journals.
I'd never read them.
Not because I didn't care.
Because I couldn't.
Her handwriting made the room feel like she was alive.
Claire opened the first journal.
There was one sentence on the first page.
Dominic must never find out what happened before he met me.
I stared at it.
“What happened before me?”
Claire turned the page.
Names.
Dates.
Locations.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Lillian Kane.
Another.
Daniel Cross.
And a third.
Arthur Vale.
My own father.
Dead for twenty-two years.
I felt the room tilt.
“My father?”
Claire nodded.
“Elena was investigating him.”
“For what?”
“Orpheus.”
The journals explained everything.
My father had belonged to a secret network that manipulated criminal organizations.
He didn't run the organization.
He ran information.
He knew who was loyal.
Who was afraid.
Who was vulnerable.
Who had children.
Who had debts.
He could destroy a person without ever touching them.
When my father died, he left his network behind.
I inherited the criminal organization.
Someone else inherited Orpheus.
I had never known the difference.
Elena had.
She had discovered it five years into our marriage.
And she had tried to dismantle it.
A photograph fell from the journal.
Elena stood in front of a hospital.
Beside her was Claire.
“You were really there,” I said.
“Yes.”
“What was your role?”
“I treated Ava after the bombing.”
I stared.
“She's never mentioned it.”
“She wouldn't remember.”
“She was fourteen.”
“She was unconscious.”
I looked at Claire.
“You were there when Elena died?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Claire hesitated.
“She told me to protect Emma.”
My chest tightened.
“Why Emma?”
“Because Emma wasn't supposed to survive.”
I stared.
“What?”
Claire showed me another photograph.
Emma as a baby.
A hospital bracelet.
A handwritten note.
Subject E-17 must not leave the facility.
I felt sick.
“What is this?”
“Elena discovered there had been a genetic research program connected to Orpheus.”
I laughed.
“That's insane.”
“I wish it were.”
“Emma was targeted because…”
“Because of you.”
I looked at her.
“Me?”
“Your bloodline.”
Claire explained that Orpheus had operated under the belief that families could be controlled through inherited patterns.
My father had been part of the research.
They had studied certain families for generations.
My family.
Elena's family.
Lillian's family.
Claire's.
“What about you?”
She touched the scar near her elbow.
“My father was one of their test subjects.”
I went silent.
“He died.”
“I know.”
“Who killed him?”
She looked at me.
“Your father.”
Everything went quiet.
Claire had a reason to hate me.
Yet she had saved my daughter.
“Why work here?”
“Because Elena asked me.”
“When?”
“The night before she died.”
Claire reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded letter.
My name was on it.
I couldn't open it.
Not immediately.
My fingers shook.
Claire finally placed it on the desk.
“Your wife wrote this for you.”
I opened it.
Dominic,
If Claire gives you this, it means I failed to tell you the truth.
I stopped.
The next line destroyed me.
I'm not afraid of the enemy outside our family.
I'm afraid of the person you trust most.
Then:
Daniel knows.
I closed my eyes.
Claire sat across from me.
“What happened after she gave you this?”
“She died.”
“You left the hospital.”
“No.”
She looked down.
“You did.”
“What?”
“After the bombing, everyone thought you were unconscious.”
I stared.
“I woke up in the hospital.”
“Six hours later.”
“And?”
“You asked where Elena was.”
“I was told she died.”
Claire looked at me.
“You weren't told the truth.”
I felt cold.
“What did you see?”
“Your wife alive.”
I stood.
“What?”
“She was alive for forty-three minutes after the bombing.”
My heart stopped.
“You're lying.”
“No.”
“Who was with her?”
“Daniel.”
I couldn't breathe.
“What did he do?”
Claire looked away.
“He told her you were dead.”
I stared.
“What?”
“He told Elena you were dead.”
“Why?”
“So she would tell him where she had hidden the evidence.”
I grabbed the desk.
“And what happened?”
“Your wife refused.”
Claire's voice broke.
“Then Daniel left.”
“Did he kill her?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Claire looked directly at me.
“Lillian.”
I felt rage explode.
“Where is she?”
“Gone.”
“Where?”
“She has been preparing for this for three years.”
“For what?”
Claire's eyes filled with fear.
“For tonight.”
At that moment, the lights in the house went out.
The doors locked automatically.
Then Emma screamed.
Not in fear.
In recognition.
“Mommy!”
I ran.
A figure stood at the end of the hallway.
A woman's voice echoed through the darkness.
“Hello, Dominic.”
Lillian.
She stepped into the emergency light.
She held a photograph of Elena.
“You should have stayed in Miami.”
I raised my gun.
Lillian smiled.
“You still don't understand what your wife died protecting.”
She held up another photograph.
Emma.
Taken that afternoon.
Then she spoke:
May you like
“She wasn't protecting your daughter from us.”
“She was protecting us from your daughter.”
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