Chapter 4 - The Brother Who Lied to Me
Mia tried to run toward the hidden passage.
I caught her around the waist.
“Let me go!”
“Mia.”
“They have my daughter!”
“I know.”
“Then let me go!”
She fought harder than someone who had spent three days tied to a wine rack should have been capable of fighting.
Fear can do that.
Motherhood can do more.
I turned her toward me.
“If you run into that tunnel alone, Harper loses both of us.”
That stopped her.
Barely.
Her eyes were wild.
“They want me.”
“They want something you found.”
“I don't care.”
“I do.”
“She is four years old!”
“And that's exactly why we're bringing her back.”
Her shoulders shook.
For three years, Mia had been the calmest person in my house.
She had handled drunk senators at charity dinners, feuding chefs, broken pipes, visiting executives, and once an escaped peacock from a neighbor's estate without raising her voice.
Now she looked like she might tear my mansion apart stone by stone.
I understood.
If somebody had taken Harper from me after watching her cling to my coat that morning, I might have done the same thing.
Nathan entered the hallway carrying two rifles.
“We have forty-three minutes.”
I turned toward him.
“You're staying here.”
“No.”
“That wasn't a discussion.”
“You don't know the tunnel system.”
“You've kept enough secrets for one lifetime.”
His expression hardened.
“Then hate me after we get the kid back.”
I wanted to refuse.
But Harper mattered more than my pride.
“Fine.”
We left through the north service passage with Nathan leading.
Mia insisted on coming.
I stopped arguing after she told me she would walk to the chapel alone if I tried to lock her inside.
St. Agnes sat on the northern edge of the Vale property.
My grandfather had built the small stone chapel for my grandmother in 1962.
Nobody had worshiped there in years.
My parents used it for Christmas Eve gatherings when I was a child.
My father was buried in the family mausoleum fifty yards behind it.
Snow fell harder as we crossed the woods.
Nathan stopped us twenty yards from the chapel.
“One vehicle.”
Black SUV.
No plates.
“Heat signature?” I whispered.
He checked the thermal viewer.
“Two inside the chapel.”
“Harper?”
“Can't tell.”
Mia stepped forward.
I caught her arm.
She looked at me.
“Dominic.”
“We do this my way.”
Her voice broke.
“Your way got my daughter taken.”
She regretted the words immediately.
I didn't.
Because she was right.
This was my house.
My people.
My secrets.
Harper had paid for them.
“You're right,” I said.
Mia stared at me.
Then I released her arm.
“But we're still bringing her home.”
We entered through the chapel's side door.
Candles burned near the altar.
Someone had lit twelve of them.
The old stained-glass windows turned the snow outside blue and red.
A woman stood at the front pew.
Claire.
She was wearing my coat.
Not hers.
Mine.
The black cashmere coat I kept in the garage.
She looked exhausted.
Mascara beneath her eyes.
Hair tangled.
No engagement ring.
Mia surged forward.
“Where is Harper?”
Claire flinched.
“I don't have her.”
“Liar!”
“I don't!”
I stepped between them.
“Then who does?”
Claire looked at Nathan.
He raised his rifle.
“Answer him.”
Her laugh was bitter.
“Still pretending?”
Nathan's expression didn't change.
My attention snapped between them.
“What does that mean?”
Claire shook her head.
“You really don't know.”
“Know what?”
She stared at me.
“Ask your brother.”
Nathan's voice went cold.
“Claire.”
“Ask him why he knew where Room Nine was.”
I looked at him.
She continued.
“Ask him why he had access to Victor's private files.”
“Nathan worked for my father.”
Claire laughed again.
“He did a lot more than work for him.”
Nathan took one step forward.
“Where is Harper?”
Claire's eyes hardened.
“Raymond has her.”
My stomach dropped.
“Raymond Sloan?”
She nodded.
Mia pressed one hand over her mouth.
I felt nothing for several seconds.
Raymond had taught me how to drive.
Raymond had attended every birthday dinner after my father died.
When I asked Claire to marry me, Raymond had toasted us with a thirty-year-old Scotch and said my father would have been proud.
“Why?” I asked.
Claire looked at me.
“Because your father left something behind.”
“The ledger.”
“Not just the ledger.”
“What else?”
“I don't know.”
“Stop lying.”
“I DON'T KNOW!”
Her shout echoed through the chapel.
Then she lowered her voice.
“You think I'm the mastermind because that's easier than admitting your family has been rotten for decades.”
“Careful.”
“No, Dominic. You need to hear this.”
She looked at Mia.
“I did bring her to the cellar.”
Mia moved toward her.
I blocked her again.
Claire continued.
“I needed the ledger. Raymond told me Mia had found it.”
“You locked her down there.”
“Yes.”
“Who hit her?”
Claire looked away.
“Raymond's man.”
“You left her tied up for three days.”
“I thought Nathan would release her.”
My eyes went to Nathan.
His face showed nothing.
Claire pointed at him.
“He was supposed to.”
Nathan's jaw tightened.
“She told me Raymond had surveillance on my sister.”
“Because he did!”
“You could have warned Dom.”
“So could you.”
They stared at each other.
Both guilty.
Maybe in different ways.
Maybe not.
I turned to Claire.
“Why marry me?”
She closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, there was no performance left.
“At first?”
That answer hurt before she even finished it.
“Raymond paid me.”
Mia went still.
Nathan looked toward me.
I didn't move.
Claire's voice became quiet.
“My family had debts. My father's company collapsed. Raymond approached me at a fundraiser three years ago. He arranged for us to meet.”
I remembered that night.
Claire spilling champagne near me.
Claire laughing when I offered her my handkerchief.
Claire telling me she hadn't realized who I was.
Every beautiful accidental moment.
Designed.
“Your job was to make me fall in love with you.”
“Yes.”
“And marry me.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
She looked toward the candles.
“Get you to sign the new trust.”
“What new trust?”
“The one giving your spouse temporary voting authority if you were medically incapacitated.”
Nathan muttered a curse.
I understood immediately.
Not death.
Death would create scrutiny.
An accident leaving me alive but unable to control the company would be cleaner.
“You planned to hurt me.”
Claire's eyes filled.
“That was the plan.”
“Was?”
“I fell in love with you.”
I almost smiled at the cruelty of it.
“You expect that to matter?”
“No.”
For once, she gave the right answer.
Mia stepped forward.
“Where is my daughter?”
Claire looked toward the altar.
“There should be a phone.”
Nathan found it beneath a Bible.
The screen turned on the moment he touched it.
Live video.
An old wooden building.
River behind it.
My family's abandoned boathouse.
Harper sat in a chair.
Not tied.
But terrified.
A man stood behind her.
Only his black suit was visible.
Then Raymond Sloan stepped into frame.
Silver hair.
Perfect tie.
The same gentle expression he wore in every family photograph.
“Hello, Dominic.”
My hand tightened around my weapon.
“Raymond.”
“I wish you hadn't opened the cellar.”
“Let Harper go.”
“Bring me the blue ledger.”
“Mia doesn't have it.”
Raymond smiled.
“She knows where it is.”
Mia shouted toward the screen.
“You touch my daughter—”
“Mia, please. You're frightening her.”
I had never wanted to kill a man more.
Raymond continued.
“Dominic, your father created a problem before he died. I have spent nine years cleaning it up.”
“What problem?”
“You'll find out when I have what belongs to me.”
The screen went black.
Then the church bells rang.
Once.
Twice.
Nathan suddenly raised his rifle.
At me.
I stared down the barrel.
Mia gasped.
Claire backed away.
“Nathan.”
His face was pale.
“Put your gun down, Dom.”
For seventeen years, I had trusted this man with my life.
I had given him keys to my houses.
Access to my accounts.
A seat beside me at every table that mattered.
Now he aimed a rifle directly at my chest.
“Nathan,” I said quietly. “Don't do this.”
His eyes met mine.
Something unreadable lived there.
“I'm sorry.”
Footsteps moved behind the chapel walls.
Men.
Several.
Doors opened.
Armed strangers entered from both sides.
Claire whispered, “I told you.”
Nathan kept his weapon trained on me.
“Drop it.”
I let my pistol fall.
A man moved behind me.
I heard the metallic click of a weapon being raised.
Nathan's eyes flicked over my shoulder.
His finger tightened.
“Nathan?”
He whispered three words.
“Trust me once.”
May you like
Then he pointed the rifle straight at my head—
and pulled the trigger.
