Chapter 5 - The Man Who Had Been Hiding in Plain Sight
The bullet missed Dominic's heart by less than an inch.
It tore through his shoulder.
He hit the floor beside me.
“Dominic!”
“I'm fine.”
“You are bleeding.”
“I noticed.”
Marcus fired toward the window.
The shooter was gone.
Security flooded the room.
Within minutes, Dominic was sitting at the dining table while a private doctor stitched his wound.
I stood across from him.
“You're an idiot.”
The doctor glanced at him.
Dominic almost smiled.
“She's right.”
“Don't encourage me.”
Marcus brought coffee.
Dominic refused it.
I handed him mine.
He drank it.
Marcus stared.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Dominic looked annoyed.
But the corners of his mouth betrayed him.
For a moment, everything felt almost normal.
Then his phone rang.
He listened.
His face hardened.
“What?”
The caller said something.
Dominic stood.
“Bring him here.”
Thirty minutes later, a man walked into the mansion.
Gray hair.
Expensive suit.
Cold eyes.
I knew him immediately.
Arthur Kane.
He wasn't dead.
Dominic raised his gun.
Arthur smiled.
“You still look like your father.”
“And you still lie like him.”
Arthur glanced at me.
“She's her mother's daughter.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“You killed my sister.”
Arthur shook his head.
“I didn't.”
“My mother said you did.”
“She misunderstood.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Who ordered it?”
Arthur looked at me.
“Your mother knew.”
“Then tell me.”
Arthur sighed.
“The order came from the man who inherited everything.”
“Who?”
Arthur smiled.
“You're asking the wrong question.”
Dominic's expression became murderous.
Arthur continued.
“Ask who really owns Vale Holdings.”
Dominic froze.
I'd heard that name before.
The logistics company was Dominic's largest legitimate business.
Arthur leaned closer.
“Your father left you the company.”
“He did.”
“No.”
Arthur shook his head.
“He left you the face of the company.”
I frowned.
“Then who owns it?”
Arthur looked at me.
“Your mother.”
My blood went cold.
“My mother?”
“She held the controlling shares through a trust.”
Dominic stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“She knew your father would betray her.”
Arthur produced documents.
The trust had been created seventeen years before.
The majority ownership of Vale Holdings had been transferred into a hidden account controlled by my mother.
“Why?”
Arthur answered.
“Because your mother knew what the Vale family really was.”
I looked at Dominic.
Everything he had built might not have belonged to him.
It might have been protected for him.
By my mother.
Arthur was not finished.
“She wanted Dominic out of the life.”
Dominic stared at him.
“She wanted me free.”
“Yes.”
“And when did she plan to tell me?”
“She never got the chance.”
The room went silent.
Dominic lowered his weapon.
“My father killed her.”
Arthur nodded.
“Indirectly.”
My stomach turned.
My mother hadn't died naturally.
She had been poisoned slowly.
The doctor who signed her death certificate had been bribed.
The person who delivered the poison had been someone she trusted.
Vincent.
I turned toward him.
“No.”
Marcus looked at me.
“I didn't know it was poison.”
Dominic's face twisted with pain.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You were supposed to protect her.”
“I tried.”
“Not hard enough.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Arthur watched them.
Then he laughed.
“You're all fighting over the wrong enemy.”
Dominic looked at him.
Arthur said one name.
“Silas Vale.”
Dominic's uncle.
The man believed dead.
“Where is he?”
Arthur smiled.
“Closer than you think.”
The lights suddenly went off.
Someone screamed.
Gunfire erupted.
When emergency lights came on, Arthur was gone.
So was Marcus.
Dominic grabbed my hand.
“Stay with me.”
We moved through the mansion.
A door at the end of the hall stood open.
Inside, the hidden room behind the library had been exposed.
On the wall was a collection of photographs.
Dominic as a child.
Elena.
His father.
My mother.
Me.
And one photograph taken only two weeks earlier.
Me leaving the grocery store.
Someone had been tracking me for a long time.
Dominic stared at the images.
Then he found a final photograph.
It showed me standing outside my mother's apartment.
Beside me was a man I recognized.
David.
My mother's old employer.
The same man who had been married to my aunt years ago.
The same man we'd trusted.
Dominic's expression changed.
“Emma.”
I looked.
David was smiling at the camera.
But beside the photograph was a note.
She knows where the key is.
I whispered, “What key?”
May you like
Dominic looked at me.
“The one your mother died protecting.”
