Chapter 3 - I Found My Father's Hidden Journal—And the First Page Proved Dominic Had Been Protecting Me From the TruthThe note contained an address.
An abandoned church in South Boston.
I went alone.
Or at least I thought I did.
Dominic's men followed me.
I knew because Marcus stepped out from behind a car.
“You're terrible at being discreet.”
I crossed my arms.
“You're terrible at hiding.”
He sighed.
“Boss ordered me to protect you.”
“I didn't ask.”
“He doesn't care.”
Inside the church, we found a hidden compartment.
Behind a wooden cross.
Inside was my father's journal.
The first page contained one sentence.
If Elena is reading this, Dominic failed to keep her hidden.
I stared at the words.
Marcus went pale.
I kept reading.
My father wrote about the Vale organization.
About corruption.
About betrayal.
About a man named Silas.
Then I found a photograph.
My father.
My mother.
Dominic.
And me.
I was a baby.
My mother was smiling.
My father stood behind her.
But there was something else.
A second man in the background.
Silas.
My father had circled him in red.
Underneath, he wrote:
The traitor is not Silas.
I froze.
If Silas wasn't the traitor...
Who was?
The next page had been torn out.
Marcus stared at the journal.
“Someone removed it.”
I nodded.
Then I noticed a bloodstain on the remaining page.
Fresh.
Someone had been here recently.
A gunshot exploded through the window.
Marcus pulled me down.
Glass shattered.
“Get behind me!”
Another shot.
Then silence.
We escaped through the basement.
Outside, I found a second note attached to my car.
Ask Dominic why he was holding the gun when your father disappeared.
I returned to the hospital.
Dominic was awake.
I threw the note onto his bed.
“Explain.”
He stared at it.
“You weren't supposed to see that.”
“Why?”
“Because I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
“From me.”
I stared at him.
He finally told me.
Twenty-one years earlier, Dominic had been ordered to kill his father.
He had gone to the house with a gun.
But when he arrived, his father was already wounded.
Dominic couldn't pull the trigger.
Someone else did.
The house burned.
Dominic believed Elena had died.
But she had been taken by Silas.
Dominic spent twenty-one years searching.
He never found her.
Until I walked into his emergency room.
“You recognized me.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“The birthmark.”
I touched my collarbone.
A tiny crescent-shaped mark.
He had seen it when I treated him.
“You knew before I knew you.”
“Yes.”
I sat down.
“Why didn't you tell me immediately?”
“Because I needed to know if someone had sent you.”
My chest tightened.
“You thought I was a spy?”
“I thought everyone was.”
I looked at him.
“Do you trust me now?”
His answer came immediately.
“Yes.”
Then the hospital alarm sounded.
Marcus rushed inside.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found Silas.”
“Where?”
May you like
Marcus looked at me.
“Outside your apartment.”
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