Chapter 8 - Dominic’s Aunt Returned From the Dead
Evelyn Pierce had been missing for fifteen years.
She had been Richard’s older sister.
Brilliant.
Cold.
Relentless.
And according to every official record, dead.
The news broke that afternoon.
Three bank directors disappeared.
Two federal witnesses were attacked.
A judge fled the country.
Then Evelyn sent a message.
A simple video.
She sat inside a mansion somewhere overlooking snow-covered mountains.
“I congratulate you,” she said.
“You exposed Charles.”
She smiled.
“But Charles was never the architect.”
Dominic watched in silence.
“I built the Exchange.”
Evelyn leaned forward.
“I built it because Chicago needed order.”
“You built a criminal empire,” Dominic said to the screen.
“No.”
“A system.”
“Exactly.”
She looked directly at me.
“Beatrice Gallagher.”
I froze.
“You are your father’s greatest achievement.”
Dominic turned toward me.
“She knows your name.”
“She knows everything.”
Evelyn continued.
“Your father believed numbers could destroy what men built with violence.”
She smiled.
“He was almost right.”
The screen went black.
Then a location appeared.
Old Pierce estate.
The house where Dominic was supposed to marry Vivienne.
“She wants us there,” Gabriel said.
“Trap,” Dominic answered.
“Yes.”
“We go anyway.”
We returned to Chicago that evening.
The estate was empty.
No guards.
No staff.
Nothing.
The doors were open.
Inside, every clock had stopped at 12:01.
The exact time Dominic’s wedding was supposed to become a murder.
I walked into the ballroom.
A projector turned on.
Evelyn appeared.
“You finally came home.”
Dominic looked around.
“Come out.”
“Why?”
“So I can ask you why.”
Evelyn smiled.
“Because Richard chose you.”
“Chose me for what?”
“To inherit what he believed he could destroy.”
She pressed a button.
The walls opened.
Thousands of documents appeared.
Transactions.
Photos.
Names.
And one folder labeled:
PIERCE BLOODLINE.
Inside were DNA reports.
Dominic stared.
“What is this?”
Evelyn’s voice came through the speakers.
“Richard had two sons.”
Dominic looked at Nathaniel.
“He also had a daughter.”
Silence.
Gabriel stiffened.
“What?”
Evelyn smiled.
“Vivienne Beaumont.”
Everyone froze.
Vivienne was not Charles Beaumont’s biological daughter.
She was Richard Pierce’s daughter.
The affair had happened years before Dominic knew.
Vivienne’s mother had been a Pierce family attorney.
Charles raised her as his own.
That explained why the Beaumonts wanted her married to Dominic.
It would unite the bloodlines.
Dominic’s face was pale.
Vivienne’s entire life had been built around a lie.
Then a woman stepped out of the shadows.
Vivienne.
She held a gun.
“I knew,” she said.
Dominic turned.
“How long?”
“Six months.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Charles had my mother.”
Evelyn’s voice interrupted.
“Vivienne never wanted to kill you.”
“Then who gave the order?”
Evelyn smiled.
“I did.”
Dominic raised his gun.
“You’re going to die.”
“Maybe.”
Evelyn appeared on the screen again.
“But before you shoot me, open the box under the piano.”
I found it.
Inside was a birth certificate.
And another photograph.
Richard.
My mother.
Vivienne’s mother.
All standing together.
My father was in the background.
He had been there.
He had known.
I looked at my mother’s photograph.
Then I understood the final secret.
My mother and Richard had not merely worked together.
They had planned everything.
The war.
The disappearance.
The trust.
Even Dominic’s rise.
Evelyn had been their enemy.
But she had also been part of the plan.
The real betrayal had happened when Evelyn decided she wanted the Exchange for herself.
“Why show us this?” I asked.
Evelyn appeared one final time.
“Because I’m dying.”
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
She smiled.
“Cancer.”
The word stunned everyone.
“I have six months.”
She laughed quietly.
“Enough time to destroy all of you.”
Dominic lowered his gun.
“You expect sympathy?”
“No.”
She looked directly at him.
“I expect you to understand why I did it.”
“I understand greed.”
“You understand nothing.”
The screen changed.
A satellite image appeared.
A warehouse outside Chicago.
“Tomorrow night, every surviving member of the Exchange will meet there.”
Evelyn’s voice became cold.
“And they will choose their new leader.”
Dominic stared.
“Why tell me?”
“Because the new leader will be you.”
The screen died.
Nathaniel whispered, “That’s impossible.”
I looked at Dominic.
But Dominic was staring at the old photograph.
For once, the most feared man in Chicago looked lost.
“I never wanted this.”
I touched his hand.
“I know.”
He looked at me.
“What happens if they choose me?”
“Then you decide what kind of man you become.”
He smiled faintly.
“You make everything sound simple.”
“No.”
I squeezed his hand.
“I make everything sound measurable.”
For the first time, he laughed.
Then Gabriel walked in with a file.
“We found something else.”
“What?”
He looked at me.
“The DNA report was altered.”
I stared.
“By whom?”
Gabriel answered.
“My mother.”
Dominic went still.
“Your mother?”
Gabriel nodded.
“She was Evelyn’s secretary.”
My stomach sank.
Gabriel opened the second report.
Vivienne was not Richard’s daughter.
She was Charles Beaumont’s.
But Evelyn had fabricated the evidence to make everyone believe otherwise.
“Why?”
“To destroy the Beaumonts before they could destroy Dominic.”
I stared at the documents.
Another lie.
Another layer.
Another trap.
Then Nathaniel said the words nobody wanted to hear.
“The warehouse isn’t outside Chicago.”
He pointed to the map.
“It’s beneath the old Exchange building.”
I looked at Dominic.
May you like
The war had not ended.
It had moved underground.
