Chapter 5 - Claire’s Confession Revealed the One Secret Dominic Never Saw Coming
Claire survived.
The bullet had entered her shoulder and passed cleanly through.
She was conscious when Avery arrived.
The sisters stared at each other.
Avery rushed forward.
Claire hugged her.
“I’m sorry.”
Avery cried.
“You lied to me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You almost got killed.”
“I know.”
Dominic stood in the doorway.
Claire looked at him.
“You know.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
Claire looked at Avery.
“Then you know what Dad was involved in.”
“Yes.”
“Not everything.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“What else?”
Claire took a breath.
“Your father wasn't the one who betrayed ours.”
Dominic went still.
“Who was?”
Claire looked at him.
“My mother.”
Silence.
Avery shook her head.
“What?”
Claire continued.
“She discovered what Dad had found. She sold the information.”
“To whom?”
“Silas Rourke.”
Dominic's jaw clenched.
“That’s impossible.”
Claire pulled a small flash drive from beneath her pillow.
“This belonged to Mom.”
Avery stared.
“Why did you keep it?”
“Because I found it after she died.”
Dominic took it.
Marcus connected it to a secure laptop.
The files contained bank records, photographs, names and transactions.
One file was marked 2001.
Dominic opened it.
The truth emerged.
Rourke had orchestrated the warehouse fire.
Avery's father had survived.
So had her mother.
But they disappeared afterward.
Richard Vale had tried to protect them.
Rourke had killed Dominic's father weeks later.
Dominic stared at the screen.
“My father wasn't part of it.”
“No,” Claire said.
“He was trying to stop it.”
“Yes.”
Dominic leaned back.
Twenty-one years of hatred collapsed inside him.
He had spent decades believing his father had been the architect of his family's destruction.
Instead, his father had died trying to save someone else's family.
Avery reached for him.
Dominic took her hand.
“I was wrong about him.”
“You were a child.”
“I had twenty years to learn the truth.”
“You didn't have the evidence.”
He looked at her.
“You always make everything sound simple.”
“It isn't simple.”
“No.”
He raised her hand to his lips.
“But you make me want to try.”
Claire smiled faintly.
“There’s something else.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Rourke isn't the final threat.”
“What?”
“He’s working for someone.”
“Who?”
Claire looked at Avery.
“Your mother.”
Avery's heart stopped.
“My mother died.”
Claire shook her head.
“That’s what everyone was supposed to believe.”
Avery stared.
“No.”
“She’s alive.”
The room became silent.
Dominic immediately began planning.
“Where is she?”
“We don't know.”
“Then how do you know she's alive?”
Claire pointed to the files.
“Because she signed one last transfer six months ago.”
The recipient was listed as an investment company in Boston.
Avery couldn't breathe.
Her mother had been alive.
All this time.
Dominic saw the devastation in her face.
He pulled her close.
“You're not doing this alone.”
She buried her face in his chest.
“I don't understand why she left us.”
“We'll find out.”
They spent the next week tracking financial records.
The investigation revealed a hidden network.
The same network that had been using Dominic's company to move money for years.
Rourke was only one part.
Someone higher controlled everything.
Dominic's legal businesses had unknowingly become a cover.
The person behind it had access to his internal systems.
Someone close to him.
A traitor.
Dominic began quietly testing his executives.
One failed.
Then another.
Finally, one name surfaced.
Martin Keller.
The same executive who had arranged Avery's first meeting at Vale Tower.
Dominic's blood ran cold.
He called Martin into his office.
“What do you know about Avery Hart?”
Martin smiled.
“Nothing.”
Dominic placed a photo on the table.
“This was taken outside Lakehaven last month.”
Martin's smile disappeared.
“You're misunderstanding.”
“No.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“I'm finally understanding.”
Martin reached for his gun.
Dominic was faster.
Within seconds, Martin was disarmed.
Marcus entered.
“Take him.”
As they dragged Martin away, he laughed.
“You think you've won?”
Dominic stared.
Martin looked toward Avery.
“Ask her why her father left her a message hidden in the Lakehaven foundation.”
Avery froze.
Dominic turned to her.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Then we find it.”
They returned to Lakehaven.
The old building was nearly finished.
The foundation was opened.
Behind a sealed section of concrete, they found a metal box.
Inside:
A letter.
Two passports.
And a key.
The letter was addressed to Avery.
My daughter,
If you're reading this, then the people who wanted me dead failed to erase everything.
Trust no one who tells you that our family was innocent.
And most of all, trust the man named Dominic Vale.
He doesn't know yet that he is the last person I ever asked to protect you.
Avery looked up.
Dominic's face had gone pale.
“What does the key open?”
They searched the passports.
One belonged to Avery's mother.
The second belonged to a man named Samuel Hart.
Her father's name.
But the photo was different.
Samuel Hart was alive.
May you like
And on the passport, his destination was listed.
Geneva.
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