Chapter 6 - The Architect Revealed
Fear spread through the family faster than any gunshot.
Everyone was investigated.
Every guard.
Every driver.
Every employee.
Every captain.
Every relative.
Dominic even ordered searches of rooms belonging to people he had trusted for years.
Then Vincent brought him something.
A bank account.
“It was opened six years ago.”
Whose?
“Yours.”
Dominic frowned.
“My account?”
“Technically.”
He looked at the documents.
The account contained millions.
Money he had never seen.
Dominic's face hardened.
“Someone used my identity.”
Vincent nodded.
“And the account was used to pay several shell companies.”
“Who had access?”
Vincent hesitated.
“Rafael.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“Only Rafael?”
“No.”
Vincent handed him another document.
“Your father had access before he died.”
Dominic stared.
“That means the money was moving before him.”
“Yes.”
They followed the trail.
The account led to a trust.
The trust led to an attorney.
The attorney led to a security company.
The security company led to the shelter network.
And the shelter network led back to someone Clara knew.
Her former employer.
The director of the South Halsted shelter.
Mrs. Evelyn Price.
Clara froze when she saw the name.
“No.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You know her?”
“She helped me.”
“She might have been using you.”
Clara shook her head.
“She saved women.”
“That doesn't mean she wasn't involved.”
Sophia looked at the records.
“Evelyn was one of the people who helped me disappear.”
Clara suddenly remembered something.
A sentence Evelyn had once said.
You don't rescue everyone.
Sometimes you move them where they need to go.
Clara had assumed it was about domestic violence.
Now it sounded different.
Dominic went to the shelter.
Evelyn was gone.
Her office had been emptied.
But they found a hidden room.
Inside were hundreds of files.
Women.
Children.
Names crossed out.
New identities.
Bank accounts.
Travel routes.
It was not a trafficking operation.
It was an escape network.
Evelyn had been moving victims out of dangerous situations.
But someone had infiltrated it.
Someone had been using the network to move people who were not victims.
Money.
Weapons.
Information.
And one name appeared repeatedly.
Rafael Castiglione.
Clara looked at Dominic.
“He infiltrated the shelter.”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
Sophia answered.
“To hide his own trafficking victims among real ones.”
Dominic's jaw clenched.
He finally understood why his sister had been targeted.
She had found the intersection.
She had seen legitimate rescue routes being hijacked.
Dominic ordered Rafael brought in.
But Rafael was gone.
His mansion was empty.
Cars gone.
Accounts emptied.
The Architect had anticipated everything.
Then Vincent found the final clue.
A recording.
Rafael speaking to someone.
The voice on the other end was distorted.
“You said Dominic would marry the girl.”
“He did.”
“And she survived.”
“She wasn't supposed to.”
“Then fix it.”
Rafael sighed.
“She's more dangerous than we expected.”
The distorted voice spoke again.
“Then use the nephew.”
Dominic smashed the recorder.
His blood ran cold.
Matteo.
He ran upstairs.
The secure room was empty.
Clara screamed his name.
Sophia collapsed against the wall.
The child was gone.
Every security camera had been disabled for exactly ninety seconds.
Ninety seconds.
Long enough.
Dominic stood in the empty room.
For the first time in years, he felt helpless.
Then Clara walked toward him.
“Dominic.”
He turned.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Find him.”
“I will.”
“Even if it takes everything?”
“Yes.”
“Then don't waste time blaming yourself.”
He stared at her.
She took his hand.
“You told me I was free.”
“Yes.”
“You saved me without asking anything in return.”
“Yes.”
“Now let me save your family.”
She pulled a small device from her dress.
A tracker.
Dominic stared.
“When did you put that on Matteo?”
“This morning.”
His eyes widened.
“You tracked him?”
“I learned to survive.”
The device showed a moving signal.
Twenty miles southwest.
Dominic smiled for the first time that night.
“Let's bring him home.”
They followed the signal to an abandoned factory.
Inside they found dozens of men.
A black van.
And Matteo.
But there was something else.
A man stood beside the child.
Dominic recognized him.
Not Rafael.
Not Joseph.
Not anyone he expected.
Vincent Corvo.
Dominic stopped.
Clara gasped.
Sophia went rigid.
Vincent slowly turned.
His face was broken with exhaustion.
“I can explain.”
Dominic raised his gun.
“Then explain.”
Vincent looked at Matteo.
“I was trying to protect him.”
“By kidnapping him?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Vincent's voice cracked.
“Because The Architect threatened my daughter.”
Silence.
Dominic lowered the gun slightly.
“What?”
Vincent looked at him.
“My daughter disappeared two years ago.”
Dominic stared.
“I was told she died.”
“She didn't.”
A man behind Vincent stepped forward.
“Enough.”
The Architect.
His face remained hidden beneath a black mask.
Dominic aimed his weapon.
“Take it off.”
The man laughed.
“You already know me.”
He removed the mask.
Dominic's world stopped.
It was the man who had hugged him at his father's funeral.
The man who had advised him after Sophia disappeared.
The man who had helped negotiate every major Castiglione deal.
The man Dominic had trusted more than almost anyone.
His mother's brother.
Uncle Rafael stood there.
Dominic's hand shook.
“You.”
May you like
Rafael smiled.
“Finally.”
