Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Fought Beside Him
The attack lasted twelve minutes.
It felt like an hour.
Dominic moved through the west wing while Elena covered the staircase.
She didn't panic.
She didn't freeze.
She calculated.
Every shot was deliberate.
Every movement efficient.
Leo saw her drop an attacker from twelve yards away and nearly forgot to breathe.
After the last gunshot, silence returned.
Dominic found Elena kneeling beside Beatrice.
The older woman was shaking.
“You okay?”
Beatrice nodded.
“You frightened ten years off my life.”
Elena laughed softly.
“I'm sorry.”
Beatrice hugged her anyway.
Dominic watched.
Something inside him shifted.
He had spent his entire life believing strength had to look like him.
A suit.
A weapon.
A hard voice.
But Elena's strength was different.
It was quieter.
It survived.
They found one surviving attacker in the garden.
He refused to speak.
Dominic sent Leo away.
Then Elena entered the room.
The man stared at her.
“You.”
She stopped.
He laughed.
“Gabriel's little girl.”
Dominic's expression darkened.
“You know her?”
The man spat blood.
“Everyone knows her.”
“What is her real name?”
“Doesn't matter.”
Elena looked at him.
“Tell me about my father.”
The man smiled.
“Your father betrayed the wrong people.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“He betrayed the right people.”
The man laughed.
“Then why is he dead?”
Elena's face remained calm.
“Because he was trying to expose men who believed themselves untouchable.”
Dominic watched her.
The attacker finally broke.
“Arthur didn't order Gabriel's death.”
Elena froze.
“What?”
“He did.”
The man pointed toward Dominic.
“Your father gave the order.”
Dominic's blood ran cold.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
The attacker smiled.
“Arthur just carried it out.”
Elena's eyes closed.
Dominic saw the pain pass through her.
She had spent years carrying anger.
Now she had a new target.
But the attacker wasn't finished.
“Your father also ordered the death of a woman named Isabel Bell.”
Elena opened her eyes.
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
The room became silent.
Dominic turned to her.
“Elena.”
She walked out.
Dominic followed.
He found her in the hallway, staring through a window.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
He didn't touch her.
“I don't know what to believe.”
Dominic stood beside her.
“Neither do I.”
“My father was supposed to be different.”
“I thought mine was.”
She laughed once.
“It seems we both inherited lies.”
That night, Dominic opened every old family file.
He discovered something unexpected.
His father's private journals.
Most were mundane.
Business.
Meetings.
Names.
Then one entry from thirteen years earlier.
"G. Bell must be moved. Arthur suspects he has copies."
Another.
"Elena cannot remain exposed."
Dominic froze.
His father knew Elena existed.
He had protected her.
Or had he?
Dominic read further.
"Do not allow Arthur to find the girl. She is the key."
The key.
To what?
The next page was missing.
Dominic slammed the journal shut.
He searched every document.
He found an old property transfer.
A remote farmhouse.
Owned by his father.
Transferred in Elena's childhood years.
Dominic looked at her.
She read the paper.
“He was hiding me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dominic shook his head.
“I don't know.”
She stared at the document.
“Then I need to find out.”
They traveled to the farmhouse the next morning.
The house was abandoned.
Dust covered everything.
Under the floorboards they found a hidden room.
Inside were boxes.
Letters.
Photographs.
And a cassette tape.
Dominic played it.
His father's voice filled the room.
“If Elena ever finds this, tell her this truth.”
A pause.
“I wasn't innocent.”
Dominic looked down.
“I knew what Arthur was doing.”
Another pause.
“I protected myself before I protected the people who trusted me.”
Elena's eyes filled.
Her father's voice continued.
“Gabriel wanted to expose everything. I gave him a chance to run. Arthur found him anyway.”
Dominic clenched his fists.
Then his father's final words came.
“If you are alive, Elena, then there is still hope. The evidence is not in the ledger.”
Dominic frowned.
“Then where?”
His father's voice answered.
“In the family foundation.”
The recording ended.
Elena looked at Dominic.
“The foundation.”
He nodded.
“Which means your father left one more secret.”
They returned to Bellhaven.
The Gallo Foundation had operated for decades.
Nobody suspected it was a vault.
Dominic called Claire.
“I need every historical document from the foundation.”
She asked why.
“Because my family built a charity to hide a crime.”
Silence.
Then Claire said,
“I'll find it.”
Three hours later, she did.
A donation record.
A private account.
And a photograph.
Elena recognized it.
Her mother.
Standing beside Dominic's father.
Holding a child.
Elena.
Behind them was a man she had never seen.
A young priest.
On the back were three words.
HE KNOWS EVERYTHING.
Dominic stared.
“Who is he?”
Elena whispered,
“Father Gabriel.”
“My father's priest?”
“Yes.”
“What does he know?”
May you like
She looked at the photograph.
“Everything.”
