Chapter 5 - The Night Elena Told Claire the TruthWe found the old train station abandoned.
Lillian had expected me.
She had expected Claire too.
We entered through opposite sides.
Ava stood on the platform.
Harper beside her.
Emma sat on a bench.
All three were alive.
Lillian stood behind them.
Daniel was there.
His gun was lowered.
I nearly shot him.
“Don't,” Claire whispered.
Lillian smiled.
“You're finally learning patience.”
“Let my daughters go.”
“Why?”
“They're not part of your war.”
“They have always been part of it.”
I stepped forward.
“It's over.”
Lillian laughed.
“No, Dominic.”
She pulled a small device from her pocket.
“This is the first time you've understood what your wife was trying to do.”
She pressed a button.
A recording began.
Elena.
Three years earlier.
Her voice trembled.
“Lillian, please.”
Lillian's younger voice replied.
“Where is the child?”
“You will never have her.”
“Then Dominic dies.”
“He knows nothing.”
“He knows enough.”
Elena cried.
“Please.”
I listened.
Unable to move.
The recording continued.
Lillian ordered Elena to give her Emma.
Elena refused.
Then another voice entered.
Daniel.
“I can get Dominic out.”
Lillian answered:
“No.”
Daniel said:
“He doesn't have to die.”
She replied:
“He is already too dangerous.”
Then the recording stopped.
I looked at Daniel.
“You tried to save us.”
He nodded.
“But you still lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I promised Elena.”
“To do what?”
“Keep you away from Orpheus.”
I stared at him.
“She wanted me ignorant.”
“She wanted you alive.”
Claire spoke.
“That's why she never told him.”
I looked at her.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You all knew.”
She nodded.
“You were building an empire while Orpheus built a cage around your family.”
Lillian smiled.
“You see?”
She stepped closer.
“Dominic wasn't the king.”
“He was the prisoner.”
I felt something inside me crack.
All the wars.
All the deals.
All the blood.
I'd thought I was controlling my organization.
But someone had been watching.
Me.
My wife.
My daughters.
Everyone.
“What do you want?”
Lillian answered:
“Emma.”
“No.”
“Then Ava dies.”
She raised the gun.
I stepped forward.
Claire moved first.
She grabbed the barrel.
Gunfire exploded.
Claire fell.
My heart stopped.
“Claire!”
She rolled behind the bench.
Ava pulled Harper down.
Daniel fired.
Lillian disappeared into the station tunnel.
I grabbed Claire.
Blood covered her side.
“Where are you hit?”
“Shoulder.”
She looked at me.
“Don't worry.”
“Don't tell me not to worry.”
She smiled weakly.
“Your wife used to say that too.”
We escaped.
At the safe house, Claire underwent surgery.
The bullet was removed.
She survived.
While she recovered, I searched Elena's remaining files.
I found one final letter.
Dominic,
If you are reading this, Claire must have saved the children again.
She is the only person I trust to understand what Orpheus did.
She knows what happened to her father.
She knows why I couldn't save him.
I turned the page.
I married you because I loved you.
My hands shook.
But I stayed silent because the people around you had made your love into a weapon against me.
Then:
Daniel tried to warn you.
I tried to warn you.
You refused to see it.
The final line destroyed me.
If I die, don't avenge me. Save our daughters.
I cried for the first time since her funeral.
Not silently.
Not privately.
Claire woke.
She saw me.
“Dominic.”
I wiped my face.
“She loved you.”
“I know.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“She loved who you could become.”
I stared at her.
“You knew her better than I did.”
“She was my friend.”
“She died because of me.”
“No.”
Claire's voice became firm.
“She died protecting you.”
I looked away.
“You should leave.”
She frowned.
“Why?”
“Because anyone near me gets hurt.”
She smiled.
“Then why did Elena send me?”
I had no answer.
Ava entered.
She sat beside Claire.
Then she whispered:
“Thank you.”
Claire smiled.
“You're welcome.”
Harper entered behind her.
Then Emma.
Emma climbed onto the bed.
Claire wrapped an arm around her.
The three girls were together.
Safe.
For the moment.
Then Emma spoke.
“Daddy.”
I looked at her.
She held something in her hand.
A tiny silver key.
“Mommy gave me this.”
My stomach tightened.
“When?”
“Before she died.”
Claire looked at it.
Her face changed.
“That's not a key.”
“What is it?”
“A storage key.”
“For what?”
“Evidence.”
The key had a number engraved on the side.
1984.
I recognized it.
The year my father founded Orpheus.
The year everything began.
And the location attached to the key wasn't in Chicago.
It was in Miami.
The city I was supposed to be staying in.
The city I had left three days early.
Someone had wanted me away from the evidence.
Someone had wanted me walking into this house before I knew what they had planned.
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The betrayal wasn't happening now.
It had been happening for years.
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