Chapter 5 - THE BOY IN THE REFLECTION
Dominic sat on Penelope’s apartment floor holding the photograph.
“My brother drowned.”
Penelope said nothing.
“I saw the boat come back without him.”
“How old were you?”
“Fifteen.”
“And Julian?”
“Fourteen.”
“Was his body recovered?”
Dominic’s eyes lifted.
“No.”
The answer hung between them.
Penelope hated where her mind went.
Dominic clearly did too.
“Don’t,” he said.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
She sat opposite him.
“I was going to say that your family seems to have buried several people without seeing bodies.”
His expression almost became a smile.
Almost.
Then Gabriel called.
Dominic answered on speaker.
“We found something in Vanguard’s archived corporate records,” Gabriel said. “Victor Sloane has a silent partner.”
“Name.”
“No public name. Initials only.”
“What initials?”
“J.V.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Penelope felt cold.
Gabriel continued.
“There’s more. The partnership began eighteen years ago.”
Three years after Julian supposedly drowned.
Dominic stood.
“Find him.”
“We’re trying.”
“No. Find him.”
He ended the call.
Penelope picked up the wooden house.
Something rattled.
She shook it.
Dominic looked over.
“There’s something else inside.”
The false bottom had a second layer.
Penelope used a kitchen knife to pry it loose.
A folded strip of paper slid out.
Not ledger pages.
A child’s drawing.
Two boys stood beside a woman in a blue dress.
Above them, in Penelope’s twelve-year-old handwriting:
MRS. VALE AND HER BOYS.
One boy was taller.
The other had a scar over his eyebrow.
Penelope looked at Dominic.
“You were there.”
“I don’t remember you.”
“I don’t remember you either.”
On the back, Elias had written:
ONE BOY KNOWS. ONE BOY BELIEVES.
“What does that mean?” Dominic asked.
Penelope studied the drawing.
The shorter boy—Julian—held something.
A gold pocket watch.
“Julian knew about the watch.”
Dominic stared.
A memory seemed to hit him.
“He accused my father of lying.”
“When?”
“Before the drowning.”
“About your mother?”
Dominic nodded slowly.
“He said Mom wasn’t dead.”
Penelope’s heart beat faster.
“What did you do?”
“I told him to stop.”
His voice changed.
“I told him Dad was barely surviving and Julian was making everything worse.”
“You were fifteen.”
“He left the house angry that night.”
Dominic looked at the drawing.
“The next morning he took the boat.”
Penelope understood the guilt immediately.
“You thought he died because of your argument.”
“For twenty-two years.”
“And if he survived?”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“Then someone made sure I believed he hadn’t.”
They returned to the mansion before dawn.
Evelyn was asleep.
Celeste sat beside her.
Richard stood at the far end of the library with a coffee he had apparently forgotten to drink.
When Penelope entered, he approached.
“I owe you something.”
“If it’s an apology, you owe me several.”
“Yes.”
He placed a folder on the table.
Penelope opened it.
Employment records.
Project credits.
Emails.
Richard had printed proof of every major design she had produced during the past four years.
“What is this?”
“Your work.”
“I know what it is.”
“I signed a statement identifying every project where I took credit that belonged to you.”
Penelope stared at him.
“You think paperwork fixes this?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because apologies without consequences are just another way powerful people make themselves feel better.”
She looked at him.
For once, Richard seemed smaller without anyone forcing him to be.
“I’m resigning from Harrison Architecture tomorrow.”
“That’s your company.”
“Yes.”
“And the employees?”
“I’m transferring control to the senior partnership until the board decides what happens.”
Penelope closed the folder.
“Why now?”
“Because tonight I heard myself call you an idiot.”
His face tightened.
“My father used to speak to my mother like that.”
Penelope said nothing.
“I spent thirty years telling myself I wasn’t him.”
Richard looked toward the ballroom.
“Apparently I just needed an audience powerful enough to make me hear myself.”
It did not absolve him.
But it was the first thing he had said that sounded honest.
“Thank you for the records,” Penelope said.
Nothing more.
Richard nodded.
He understood.
Across the room, Dominic was showing Celeste the photograph.
Her face went white.
“Julian.”
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Mom?”
They woke Evelyn gently.
When she saw the photograph, tears filled her eyes.
“My baby.”
Dominic knelt beside her.
“Did Julian survive?”
Evelyn nodded.
Dominic stood abruptly.
Celeste covered her mouth.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“How could you not know?”
“Because Victor took him.”
The room went silent.
Evelyn explained.
Julian had overheard Victor discussing her captivity. He had tried to reach her. Victor intercepted him and staged the boating accident.
“Why keep him alive?” Dominic asked.
“Leverage.”
“Against whom?”
“Your father.”
Evelyn looked toward the ledger.
“Victor made your father choose repeatedly. Expose Vanguard, and Julian died. Search publicly for me, and Julian died.”
Dominic turned away.
His father had not abandoned them.
He had been trapped.
Penelope thought of all the years Dominic had probably spent judging a dead man who could no longer explain himself.
“Then why did your father access the room eleven years ago?” she asked.
Evelyn looked at the stopped watch.
“Because Victor finally offered him a trade.”
“For what?”
“The ledger.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Did Dad give it to him?”
“No.”
“Then what happened?”
“He gave Victor something else.”
Evelyn’s voice broke.
“His life.”
Dominic froze.
Evelyn reached toward him.
“Your father’s death wasn’t Vanguard punishing him.”
“What was it?”
“He arranged a meeting and promised Victor the ledger in exchange for Julian.”
Dominic’s face drained.
“Did Julian come?”
“Yes.”
“Then where is he?”
Evelyn started crying.
“Your father got him out.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Where?”
“I don’t know. He made sure even I couldn’t tell Victor.”
Gabriel entered quickly.
“Boss.”
Dominic turned.
Gabriel held the missing ledger pages.
Everyone stared.
“Where did you find those?”
“They were never missing.”
Gabriel placed them beside the ledger.
“They were concealed inside the portfolio lining.”
Richard frowned.
“My portfolio?”
“Yes.”
Penelope looked at him.
Richard looked equally stunned.
Gabriel opened the first page.
There were recent entries.
Not twenty-one years old.
Recent.
The latest was from three days earlier.
Beside several payments were the initials J.V.
Dominic read the final line.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Penelope asked.
He turned the ledger.
The last payment was addressed to Harrison Architecture.
Richard stared.
“I never received that.”
Penelope looked at the amount.
Two million dollars.
Then at the authorization name.
Not Richard Harrison.
P. HAYES.
Her own name.
Penelope’s mouth went dry.
“I didn’t sign that.”
Richard took the page.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the account number isn’t mine.”
Dominic looked at Gabriel.
“Whose is it?”
Gabriel was already searching.
Seconds later, he stopped.
The room became silent.
Dominic said, “Gabriel.”
Gabriel looked at Penelope.
“The account belongs to Elias Hayes.”
Penelope felt the air leave her lungs.
“My father is dead.”
May you like
Gabriel swallowed.
“The account was accessed yesterday.”
