Chapter 7 - The Deal That Could Save Everyone
Mave wanted to trade herself immediately.
Dominic refused.
“I'll go instead.”
“No.”
“Mave.”
“No.”
“This is not a negotiation.”
“It becomes one when my mother is the hostage.”
Dominic slammed his hand onto the table.
“You are not a bargaining chip.”
“And you're not invincible.”
Silence.
They stared at each other.
Then Mave said softly,
“I'm tired of being protected by people who think they know what's best for me.”
Dominic's anger faded.
“You're right.”
She blinked.
He rarely admitted anything.
“I spent my whole life controlling every variable,” he said. “And somehow you have made that impossible.”
Mave almost smiled.
“Good.”
They created a plan.
Mave would meet Helena.
Dominic's people would track the location.
Adrian would remain hidden.
Grace would coordinate the exits.
The meeting point was an abandoned theater.
Helena wanted Mave alone.
Mave entered carrying a small audio recorder.
She was not alone.
Three hidden translators were monitoring through an earpiece.
But Helena had anticipated it.
The doors locked.
Mave was trapped.
Then Helena appeared.
She was elegant.
Older.
Silver-haired.
Beautiful in a cold, polished way.
“Mave.”
“So you know my name.”
“I knew it before you did.”
Mave stared at her.
“You ruined my life.”
Helena smiled.
“No.”
“I buried my parents.”
“You were given a childhood.”
“A childhood built on lies.”
“A childhood where you survived.”
Mave's jaw tightened.
“You used my family.”
“Your family was always broken.”
“You broke it further.”
Helena stepped closer.
“You don't understand power.”
“I understand fear.”
“They're not the same.”
“No.”
Mave met her gaze.
“Power is when people listen even when they're not afraid.”
Helena's smile disappeared.
“You sound like your father.”
“Which one?”
For the first time, Helena looked unsettled.
Mave continued.
“Lucien raised me.”
“Adrian created you.”
“And you destroyed them.”
Helena's expression hardened.
“You have his memory.”
“No.”
Mave smiled.
“I have something worse.”
“What?”
“I have language.”
Helena went still.
Mave switched to French.
Then Arabic.
Then Russian.
Then Georgian.
Then Italian.
Five languages in less than a minute.
Helena's eyes narrowed.
“You can't know everything.”
“I don't need to.”
Mave pulled out a folded page.
“I only need to know what each person says when they think you're not listening.”
She revealed a list of names.
Seventeen children.
Seventeen families.
Helena's hidden network.
Helena's face became pale.
“Where did you get that?”
“From your own people.”
“You're lying.”
“Test me.”
A long silence.
Then Helena did something unexpected.
She laughed.
“You really are extraordinary.”
“I don't want to be.”
“That is what makes you dangerous.”
Helena looked toward the dark seats.
“Your mother is alive.”
“I know.”
“She will be released.”
Mave stiffened.
“In exchange?”
“You leave America.”
“Forever?”
“You disappear.”
Mave shook her head.
“No.”
Helena's expression became vicious.
“Then she dies.”
Mave thought for three seconds.
Then she smiled.
“I already knew you would say that.”
She pressed a button.
A recording played.
Helena heard her own voice from five minutes earlier.
A statement admitting responsibility for multiple crimes.
Her face changed.
“You recorded me.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You never searched the ceiling.”
Helena looked up.
A tiny microphone hung inside a theater light.
Then another voice echoed through the speakers.
Dominic.
“You talk too much.”
The doors exploded open.
Security stormed in.
Helena tried to flee.
She was captured.
Isabelle was found alive in a back room.
Mave ran to her.
Her mother collapsed into her arms.
The danger seemed finished.
But Helena had one last weapon.
As officers led her away, she turned toward Dominic.
“You think you're free?”
Dominic stared.
Helena smiled.
“Ask your father what happened the night Adrian disappeared.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
“Your father is not the man you think he was.”
Then she was gone.
The statement destroyed Dominic's certainty.
He confronted his father in the family archives.
Old records revealed the truth.
Robert Rossi had known about Helena.
He had tried to stop her.
But he had also protected her.
Why?
Because Helena threatened Dominic's life.
Robert had chosen silence.
Dominic read the final letter his father had left.
I chose my son's life over the truth.
Forgive me.
Dominic closed his eyes.
For the first time, he cried.
Mave found him there.
She sat beside him.
“You don't have to be strong with me.”
He looked at her.
“I don't know who I am without all of this.”
Mave took his hand.
“You're Dominic.”
“That's it?”
“That's enough.”
He stared at her.
Then he kissed her.
It was brief.
Careful.
Almost uncertain.
But it changed everything.
When they pulled apart, Mave whispered,
“You're still a terrible man.”
Dominic smiled.
“And you're still a terrible cleaner.”
She laughed.
They both knew they were lying.
She wasn't his cleaner anymore.
And he wasn't simply her employer.
Something had begun between them.
May you like
Something neither of them had expected.
Something neither wanted to lose.
