Chapter 7 - THE MOTHER WHO CHOSE THE ENEMY
Dominic stared at the photograph for so long Emma wondered if he had stopped breathing.
Vanessa whispered:
“Elena.”
Peter shook his head.
“No.”
“She has a gun.”
“That doesn't mean—”
“She is standing behind two hostages.”
Dominic finally spoke.
“We go to the depot.”
Peter frowned.
“That's exactly what Claire wants.”
“Yes.”
“Then why do it?”
“Because she thinks the box matters more than the people carrying it.”
Dominic looked at Emma.
“You're not coming.”
She laughed once.
“I think we're past that discussion.”
“Claire asked for you specifically.”
“Because of my father.”
“Which makes you leverage.”
“And it makes me useful.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“No.”
Emma held his gaze.
“You need to stop doing the same thing you're angry at Rachel for doing.”
That hit.
Dominic became still.
Emma continued.
“You don't get to make every choice for everyone because you're afraid of losing them.”
Vanessa looked down.
Peter pretended to examine the window.
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“You think that is what I'm doing?”
“Yes.”
“You have no idea what happens to people around me.”
“My father has already been kidnapped twice.”
“Exactly.”
“And I am still standing here.”
Their eyes held.
Then Dominic nodded.
“One condition.”
“What?”
“You stay beside me.”
Emma almost smiled.
“Fine.”
The Hartford rail depot had been abandoned since the 1990s.
Broken windows.
Rusting tracks.
Graffiti.
Claire had chosen a place where no civilians would wander in.
Dominic arrived with only Emma, Vanessa, Peter, and the metal box.
His men waited several blocks away.
The depot doors opened.
Caleb stood inside.
Dominic looked at him.
“I was wondering when you would stop pretending.”
Caleb’s jaw tightened.
“I never wanted this.”
“People always say that after betrayal.”
Caleb looked toward Vanessa.
“Where is the key?”
“In the box,” Dominic lied.
Caleb frowned.
“You opened it?”
“No.”
Claire’s voice echoed from the upper level.
“Smart.”
She appeared on the catwalk.
Emma immediately understood why Dominic had loved Rachel.
Claire and Rachel shared the same eyes.
But Rachel’s eyes held warmth even when afraid.
Claire’s did not.
“You brought Emma.”
Dominic said:
“Where are Thomas and Noah?”
Claire smiled.
“Always transactional.”
“Where?”
She snapped her fingers.
Two men led Thomas and Noah onto the platform.
Emma nearly ran forward.
“Dad!”
Thomas looked at her.
“Emma?”
His speech was slurred from exhaustion, but he was standing.
Alive.
Noah remained silent.
Twelve years old.
Too thin.
Trying very hard not to cry.
Dominic glanced around.
“Where is my mother?”
Claire smiled.
“Close.”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Let Noah go.”
Claire looked at her.
“My brave little half sister.”
“Don't call me that.”
“Why? We share more than you think.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“You killed Marianne.”
“No.”
“Your people did.”
Claire shrugged.
“Semantics.”
Dominic said, “Exchange.”
Claire pointed toward a table.
“Put the box there.”
Dominic did.
“Open it.”
“You first.”
Claire laughed.
“You really are Antonio’s son.”
“No.”
Dominic looked up.
“That is becoming clearer by the hour.”
Claire’s smile faded.
“Open it.”
Dominic entered the code.
He had found it beneath the compartment lid.
The box opened.
Inside were paper ledgers.
Microcassettes.
Old photographs.
Three flash drives.
Claire inhaled.
Even from across the depot, Emma could see hunger in her face.
“Bring it.”
Dominic closed the lid.
“Noah and Thomas.”
Claire looked at Caleb.
He untied Thomas.
Then Noah.
“Walk.”
Emma’s father moved slowly.
Noah helped him.
Halfway across the depot, a gunshot exploded.
Emma screamed.
Thomas collapsed.
She ran.
Dominic moved with her.
But the bullet had struck the concrete beside Thomas, not his body.
A warning.
Claire’s smile disappeared.
She looked upward.
“I didn't order that.”
Another shot.
One of Claire’s men fell.
Chaos erupted.
Dominic pulled Emma and Thomas behind a steel support.
Peter dragged Noah down.
Vanessa fired toward the upper windows.
Claire shouted at Caleb.
“Who is shooting?”
He looked as confused as everyone else.
Then speakers throughout the depot crackled.
Elena’s voice filled the building.
“Everybody put your weapons down.”
Dominic looked upward.
“Mother.”
Elena stood in the old control booth.
Gun in hand.
Claire stared.
“You stupid old woman.”
Elena smiled.
“I've been called worse by better.”
Claire raised her weapon.
Elena said:
“If I die, the files go public.”
Claire stopped.
“What files?”
“The originals.”
Claire looked toward the metal box.
Elena laughed.
“That box is a copy.”
Dominic looked at his mother.
He had not known.
Neither had Peter.
Elena continued:
“Samuel never trusted one hiding place. Neither did Margaret Reed.”
Emma stared.
“My mother?”
Elena looked down at her.
“Your mother saved my life.”
Emma stopped breathing.
Claire shouted:
“Enough.”
She seized Vanessa and put a gun to her head.
Dominic aimed.
Claire smiled.
“Don't.”
Vanessa remained strangely calm.
Claire whispered beside her ear.
“You spent your whole life being useful to people who lied about why you existed.”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Still better than becoming you.”
Claire’s smile disappeared.
She pressed the gun harder against Vanessa’s temple.
“Put the box on the floor, Dominic.”
He did.
“Kick it toward me.”
He obeyed.
Claire dragged Vanessa backward.
Caleb moved toward the box.
Peter shouted:
“Caleb, don't.”
Caleb looked at him.
Then at Dominic.
Something changed in his face.
Dominic saw it.
Claire said:
“Pick it up.”
Caleb bent.
Instead of lifting the box, he kicked it beneath a freight platform.
Then turned and shot Claire’s gun from her hand.
Vanessa dropped.
Dominic fired at a light above Claire.
Glass exploded.
Darkness.
His men entered through three doors simultaneously.
Claire ran.
Dominic did not chase her.
He went to Vanessa first.
“You hurt?”
“No.”
Then Emma.
“Your father?”
Thomas sat against the pillar, breathing heavily.
“I'm fine.”
Emma hugged him.
He lifted one weak hand to her hair.
“My girl.”
She cried.
Only for a moment.
Then Thomas looked past her at Dominic.
“You.”
Dominic crouched.
“Mr. Reed.”
Thomas pointed shakily toward the box.
“Not there.”
“What?”
“Ledger.”
Thomas touched his chest.
“Not there.”
Emma frowned.
“Dad, where?”
Thomas looked at her necklace.
The wedding ring.
Then shook his head.
“No.”
His gaze moved toward her shoe.
Emma looked down.
“What?”
Thomas whispered:
“Margaret.”
Emma’s heart hurt at her mother’s name.
“What about Mom?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“Her grave.”
Elena came down from the control room.
She heard him.
Her face changed.
Thomas pointed at her.
“You promised.”
Elena nodded.
“I know.”
Dominic stood.
“Promised what?”
Elena looked at him.
“That nobody would ever find the final ledger.”
“Where is it?”
Thomas answered.
“Buried with my wife.”
Emma stared.
Her mother's grave.
Claire’s voice suddenly came over the depot’s old speakers.
Everyone turned.
She had escaped the building.
But somehow gained access to the communication system.
She laughed.
“Thank you, Thomas.”
Emma went cold.
Claire continued:
“I've been trying to learn that for four years.”
Dominic ran toward the exit.
Too late.
May you like
Claire finished:
“I'll see you at the cemetery.”
