Chapter 4 - The Mother Who Knew EverythingThey escaped through a service tunnel built beneath the wine cellar.
Evelyn spent it realizing she barely understood the family she had married into.
At seven the next morning, she found him in the library surrounded by photographs, bank statements, shipping manifests, and old legal files.
Marco stood near the fireplace.
Camille sat at the table wearing jeans and one of Evelyn’s sweaters.
Evelyn stopped in the doorway.
Camille stood immediately.
“I should explain yesterday.”
“You probably should.”
Dominic looked between them.
“I’ll leave.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “You’ve done enough leaving me out of conversations.”
Dominic sat again.
Camille approached slowly.
Up close, Evelyn could see bruising around her wrist.
A thin cut crossed her cheek.
“I’m sorry about the shirt,” Camille said.
“That sentence is going to sound strange forever.”
Camille almost smiled.
“I didn’t know Dominic was married when I first contacted him.”
Evelyn looked at Dominic.
He raised one eyebrow.
“Apparently my wedding was insufficiently publicized.”
“It was in three magazines.”
“I avoid society pages.”
Despite everything, Evelyn laughed.
The tension eased slightly.
Camille sat.
“My mother’s name was Celeste Laurent. She met Dominic’s father in Montreal.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened whenever his father was mentioned.
“Antonio visited her for years,” Camille continued. “When she became pregnant, he paid for an apartment, schooling, everything. But he never acknowledged me publicly.”
“Did you meet him?”
“Twice.”
Evelyn glanced at Dominic.
He was staring at the table.
Camille continued.
“My mother died last year. Before she died, she gave me a key to a deposit box.”
“What was inside?” Evelyn asked.
“Letters. Photographs. Financial records. And a sealed envelope addressed to Dominic.”
Dominic slid the envelope across the table.
The paper was yellowed.
Evelyn didn’t touch it.
“What does it say?”
Dominic answered.
“My father believed Adrian was stealing from the organization.”
Marco added, “Not small amounts.”
“How much?”
“Potentially hundreds of millions.”
Evelyn stared at them.
“And your father knew?”
“He suspected. He didn’t have proof.”
Camille tapped the records.
“My mother apparently did.”
“Why?”
“Because some of the money passed through accounts in her name.”
The pieces began moving into place.
Antonio Vale had hidden money.
Adrian had discovered it.
Camille possessed records.
People who knew about those records were dying.
“And my pregnancy?” Evelyn asked.
Dominic looked at Marco.
Marco answered.
“Adrian may have been preparing to remove Dominic.”
Evelyn’s stomach tightened.
“Remove?”
Nobody needed to translate.
“If Dominic died without children,” Marco continued, “Adrian could argue that leadership should pass to him.”
“And now there’s a baby.”
“Yes.”
Camille looked horrified.
“I didn’t know any of this when I came.”
Dominic spoke calmly.
“That’s why Evelyn goes nowhere alone.”
Evelyn turned.
“No.”
Dominic blinked.
“No?”
“I am not becoming a prisoner.”
“You are pregnant.”
“Pregnant, not incapacitated.”
“There is a target on you.”
“Then tell me what is happening instead of locking me behind walls.”
His voice hardened.
“This is not negotiable.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed.
“Everything in my life is negotiable when it involves my body.”
Marco suddenly became fascinated by the fireplace.
Camille looked down.
Dominic stared at his wife.
Then something almost like reluctant admiration appeared in his eyes.
“You’re impossible.”
“You married me.”
“I noticed.”
Evelyn pulled out a chair.
“Start from the beginning.”
For three hours, Dominic did.
He explained family structures Evelyn had intentionally avoided learning.
Antonio Vale had built a vast network of legal and illegal businesses.
After his death, Dominic had spent years pushing the organization away from narcotics, trafficking, and street violence toward legitimate holdings.
That decision had created enemies.
Adrian considered Dominic weak.
Old captains considered him disrespectful of tradition.
But Dominic controlled the money, political relationships, and loyalty of most younger members.
If Adrian wanted the empire, he had two problems.
Dominic.
And now Dominic’s unborn child.
“We have no proof Adrian ordered anything,” Dominic said.
“Yet,” Marco added.
Evelyn studied a photograph on the table.
Adrian stood beside Antonio twenty years earlier.
Behind them was another man.
She recognized him.
“Who is this?”
Dominic looked.
“Vincent Moretti.”
“I met him at the Christmas gala.”
“He owns construction companies in New Jersey.”
“He asked whether we planned on having children.”
Dominic’s expression sharpened.
“What exactly did he say?”
Evelyn searched her memory.
“He said, ‘A house this big needs little feet someday.’ Then Adrian laughed and said, ‘Dominic has plenty of time for heirs.’”
Marco swore.
Dominic stood.
“When was this?”
“December.”
“Before anyone supposedly knew about Camille,” Marco said.
Everyone became quiet.
Camille whispered, “Maybe Adrian knew longer than six months.”
Dominic reached for his phone.
Then gunfire exploded outside.
Evelyn flinched.
Marco drew his weapon.
Dominic crossed the room in two strides and pushed Evelyn behind the stone fireplace.
“Stay down.”
More shots.
Glass shattered somewhere downstairs.
Camille screamed.
“Safe room,” Marco ordered.
A guard burst through the library door.
“West gate breach.”
“How many?”
“At least six.”
Dominic pulled a handgun from a drawer Evelyn hadn’t known contained one.
She stared.
“Dominic—”
“Marco gets you downstairs.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
His eyes locked onto hers.
“For once in your life, do exactly what I say.”
“No.”
He stepped close.
His voice lowered.
“They came to my home knowing my wife is pregnant. Whatever argument we were having is over. You are going downstairs.”
Something about his expression silenced her.
Not dominance.
Fear.
He kissed her forehead once.
Then he turned toward the door.
Marco guided Evelyn and Camille through a hidden panel behind the bookshelves.
The passage led downstairs.
Halfway there, the lights went out.
Camille grabbed Evelyn’s hand.
“Is that supposed to happen?”
“No.”
Marco’s radio crackled.
Then a voice came through.
“Marco, don’t bring them to the safe room.”
It was Dominic.
Static followed.
Marco pressed the radio.
“Why?”
No answer.
Then another voice.
A guard.
“Safe room compromised.”
Marco stopped.
“How?”
The reply came.
“Someone entered the access code from inside the house.”
Evelyn’s blood went cold.
The estate code had been changed yesterday.
Only six people knew it.
Dominic.
Evelyn.
Marco.
Two senior guards.
May you like
And Dominic’s mother.
Somebody inside the Vale family had opened the door for the attackers.
Related Stories
