Chapter 6 - The Key Beneath the Floorboards
We returned to my old apartment before sunrise.
Dominic insisted on bringing six guards.
I argued.
He ignored me.
“You don't get to ignore me.”
“I do when I'm worried.”
“That is not how relationships work.”
He stopped.
I stopped too.
Relationships.
Neither of us had said the word.
Dominic looked at me.
“You think we're in a relationship?”
I flushed.
“I didn't say that.”
“You implied it.”
“I was angry.”
“Good.”
“Why is that good?”
“Because I'd rather have you angry than afraid.”
He took my hand.
“Emma, I don't know exactly what this is yet.”
I looked at him.
“But I know I don't want you walking away.”
My heart beat faster.
Then a gunshot shattered the window.
We dropped.
The attack lasted less than a minute.
When silence returned, Dominic looked at me.
“You were saying?”
“I hate your timing.”
He smiled.
We entered the apartment.
My mother's old bedroom felt smaller than I remembered.
We searched everything.
Closets.
Drawers.
Walls.
Nothing.
Then I remembered her favorite chair.
She used to sit there whenever she was frightened.
I turned it over.
Beneath one leg was a metal key.
Dominic took it.
The key had a small black bird engraved on it.
“That's it,” he whispered.
“What does it open?”
“We're about to find out.”
The key opened a safe deposit box at a private bank in Manhattan.
Inside was a red folder.
Not money.
Not jewelry.
Documents.
A birth certificate.
Dominic stared at it.
Then looked at me.
“Emma.”
“What?”
He handed it to me.
I read my mother's name.
Then my own.
Then another name beneath it.
Father: Silas Vale.
I stopped breathing.
“No.”
Dominic looked equally stunned.
The document said I was Silas Vale's daughter.
His biological daughter.
Dominic's cousin.
My mother had spent my entire life hiding the truth.
“I don't understand.”
Dominic took the paper.
“Neither do I.”
The folder contained more.
Letters between my mother and Silas.
Photographs.
A map.
And one final statement.
Emma must never know who her father is until she is safe.
Silas is alive.
My hands shook.
“Then he knew me.”
Dominic's eyes darkened.
“He may have been watching you your entire life.”
The map showed an estate north of the city.
A place called Blackwood Farm.
We went there that evening.
The farmhouse looked abandoned.
But someone was inside.
A piano played.
The same melody from my mother's music box.
I walked inside.
“Hello?”
A voice answered.
“You have your mother's eyes.”
A man stepped from the shadows.
Silas Vale.
Older than Dominic.
Gray-haired.
But unmistakably family.
Dominic raised his gun.
“You.”
Silas looked at him.
“You grew up.”
“You were supposed to be dead.”
“I was supposed to be forgotten.”
“You killed Elena.”
Silas sighed.
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Our father.”
Dominic froze.
“My father?”
Silas nodded.
“Your father ordered the murder because Elena discovered the trust.”
“What trust?”
Silas looked at me.
“Your mother's trust.”
The trust was designed to protect the legal businesses from the criminal network.
Dominic's father wanted to seize control.
Elena discovered the plan.
She threatened to expose him.
He killed her.
Silas had tried to protect my mother.
But he failed.
Dominic's expression changed.
“You let us believe you were dead.”
“I needed to.”
“Why?”
“Because your father was hunting me.”
“Why didn't you come back?”
Silas looked at me.
“Because I discovered my enemies were closer than I thought.”
He reached into a drawer.
He pulled out another file.
Inside was a photograph of Marcus.
The same man I knew as Marcus.
But the photograph was fifteen years old.
Marcus stood beside Dominic's father.
Silas said, “He wasn't protecting your family.”
Dominic stared.
“What?”
“He was reporting to your uncle.”
I stepped back.
Marcus had disappeared during the chaos.
Now we knew why.
He had been working for Silas.
Or perhaps against him.
Silas placed a second photograph on the table.
A hidden camera image.
Dominic's mansion.
Marcus entering a private room.
With someone else.
Dominic's face became stone.
“Who is that?”
Silas didn't answer.
I recognized the woman.
May you like
It was Elena.
Alive.
