Chapter 3 - The Photograph Proved Our Families Had Shared a Secret for Decades—and Caleb Was Born at the Center of ItDominic spent hours searching the star room.
I sat in the corner while he opened drawers.
Old financial documents.
Photographs.
Letters.
Medical records.
Then he found a folder with the name VOSS.
Inside were documents from twenty years earlier.
Lucian had worked for Dominic's father.
Not as an assassin.
As an intelligence officer.
He had been assigned to protect a group of witnesses.
One of those witnesses was my father.
Dominic looked at me.
"Your father was protected by my family."
I couldn't breathe.
"Why?"
"Because he had evidence against the Black Ledger."
"What evidence?"
"Names."
The same thing my father had taken.
The same thing I eventually stole.
I looked at the folder.
"My father disappeared when I was fourteen."
Dominic nodded.
"He was killed."
I closed my eyes.
"I never knew."
"He was supposed to testify."
"Against whom?"
Dominic handed me a photograph.
One face was circled.
I recognized him immediately.
Dominic's grandfather.
"Your family?"
"My grandfather."
I stared.
"Then the Mercer family created the Black Ledger?"
"No."
Dominic's voice was cold.
"They inherited it."
That distinction didn't make me feel better.
He explained.
For decades, the Mercer family had controlled the American branch of the network.
But Dominic's father had wanted out.
He had secretly helped witnesses escape.
Including my father.
That was why both families had become enemies of the same people.
Then Dominic found another document.
Caleb's birth records.
Not unusual.
Except there was an attached page.
A handwritten note.
CHILD OF PRIMARY VALUE.
Dominic stared.
"What's this?"
I shook my head.
"I don't know."
Then I saw another line.
THE MERCER BOY MUST NEVER BE TAKEN.
Dominic became still.
"He was targeted before he was born."
I looked at Caleb's photograph.
"Why?"
Dominic found a second folder.
A genetic test.
The words were heavily redacted.
But one line remained.
MERGER OF TWO FAMILY BLOODLINES CONFIRMED.
I frowned.
"What does that mean?"
He didn't answer.
He was reading the next page.
Then he looked at me.
"Your father wasn't just a witness."
I waited.
"He was part of the Black Ledger's inner circle."
My stomach tightened.
"No."
"He left the network."
"You're wrong."
"Your stolen list proves it."
I remembered what my father had taught me.
How to recognize certain symbols.
How to read coded documents.
How to hide money.
I had always thought he had been protecting me.
Maybe he had been preparing me.
Then Caleb came running into the room.
"Daddy!"
Dominic turned.
Caleb held something in his hand.
A small metal key.
"Found this under my bed."
Dominic took it.
The key had a symbol engraved into it.
A black star.
I looked at it.
The same symbol appeared on my father's old notebook.
I whispered:
"The star room."
Dominic looked at me.
"What?"
"The key opens something."
We searched the room again.
Behind the fireplace was a small iron lock.
The key fit.
A panel opened.
Inside was a single box.
Dominic lifted the lid.
A recording device.
A photograph.
And a letter.
The letter was addressed to me.
Mara, when you see this, Lucian has failed to keep you hidden.
My hands shook.
Dominic looked at me.
"Who wrote it?"
I read the signature.
My father.
Then the final sentence:
Trust Dominic Mercer, but never trust the man standing beside him.
Dominic's face changed.
May you like
Someone had been standing beside him all along.
Someone we both trusted.
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