Chapter 6 - What Dominic Had HiddenDominic didn’t sleep.
Evelyn saw it in the man’s hands.
He kept adjusting his tie.
Kept touching his pen.
Kept saying, “Mr. Vale, there must be some misunderstanding.”
Dominic sat across from him.
Evelyn sat beside Dominic despite his objection.
Camille and Marco waited outside.
“There is,” Dominic said. “You allowed someone using my dead father’s credentials to access a private vault.”
The manager swallowed.
“The authorization was valid.”
“My father has been buried for eight years.”
“Yes.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“Do you understand why that makes your sentence stupid?”
Evelyn touched Dominic’s knee under the table.
Not affection.
A warning.
He exhaled.
The manager opened a computer record.
“The person accessing the vault did not claim to be your father.”
“Who did they claim to be?”
“An authorized representative.”
“Name.”
“Samuel Crowe.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Evelyn noticed.
“You know him.”
“My father’s attorney.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
Of course.
Everyone connected to this secret seemed to be dead.
“When?” Evelyn asked.
“Five years ago.”
The manager looked increasingly ill.
“The documents included a perpetual access authorization signed by Antonio Vale and Samuel Crowe.”
“Can signatures be forged?” Evelyn asked.
“Yes.”
“Was identification required?”
“Yes.”
“Whose identification?”
The manager hesitated.
Dominic said, “You have five seconds.”
“Daniel Crowe.”
Dominic frowned.
“Samuel’s son.”
Evelyn remembered the name from charity events.
Daniel Crowe was a respected attorney.
Clean reputation.
Immaculate suits.
Family man.
He had represented several Vale companies.
Dominic stood.
“Get him.”
Marco made one phone call.
Daniel Crowe was found two hours later at JFK Airport.
He had purchased a ticket to Zurich.
He never boarded.
They brought him to one of Dominic’s legitimate office buildings rather than some dark warehouse Evelyn imagined criminals used.
Daniel entered angry.
Then saw Camille.
His anger disappeared.
“Oh God.”
Dominic closed the conference-room door.
“You took something from Box 417.”
Daniel looked at Evelyn.
“I want an attorney.”
“You are an attorney.”
“A different one.”
“Tell me what you took.”
Daniel said nothing.
Dominic’s voice became colder.
“My pregnant wife was attacked today.”
Daniel’s gaze snapped toward Evelyn.
For the first time, she saw real fear.
“I didn’t know she was pregnant.”
“Somebody did.”
“I swear to God, Dominic.”
“Then talk.”
Daniel collapsed into a chair.
“My father left instructions.”
“What instructions?”
“If Camille Laurent ever appeared publicly, I was supposed to access Box 417.”
“Why?”
“He said it contained information that could destroy the family.”
Dominic looked at Camille.
“What did you find?”
“A ledger.”
“What ledger?”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“Payments.”
“To whom?”
“Judges. Police officers. Union representatives. Politicians. Businesses.”
Dominic swore.
Evelyn understood immediately.
Antonio Vale’s insurance policy.
A record capable of blackmailing half the city.
“Where is it?” Dominic asked.
“I don’t have it.”
Dominic’s hand curled into a fist.
Daniel hurried on.
“Vincent Moretti took it.”
“Why would you give it to Vincent?”
“He threatened my children.”
Dominic went still.
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“He sent photographs of my daughter walking into school. My son playing soccer. My wife at the grocery store. He told me if I didn’t deliver the ledger, they’d disappear.”
The room became quiet.
Evelyn felt her anger shift.
Fear made people do terrible things.
Dominic knew that better than anyone.
“When?” he asked.
“Yesterday.”
“Where?”
“A parking garage in Queens.”
“Was Adrian there?”
“No.”
“Did Vincent mention him?”
“No.”
Evelyn spoke.
“Did Vincent say anything about me?”
Daniel hesitated.
Dominic noticed.
“What?”
“He asked whether the rumor about Evelyn was true.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What rumor?”
Daniel looked embarrassed.
“That she was pregnant.”
Dominic’s face became dangerous.
“What did you say?”
“I said I didn’t know.”
“How did Vincent know enough to ask?”
“I don’t know.”
Evelyn thought about everyone who had access to her pregnancy information.
The doctor.
Nurses.
Laboratory technicians.
Insurance.
Then something clicked.
“Insurance.”
Everyone looked at her.
“My bloodwork.”
She turned toward Dominic.
“The pregnancy was confirmed through bloodwork two days ago. The clinic billed our insurance.”
Marco was already typing.
“The Vale employee health plan?”
“Yes.”
Dominic’s face changed.
Their insurance wasn’t managed by a random national provider.
One of the Vale companies administered executive health benefits internally.
Only a handful of employees could access those claims.
“Find everyone who viewed Evelyn’s file,” Dominic ordered.
Marco made calls.
Twenty minutes later, he returned.
“Three people.”
“Names.”
“The benefits director. Evelyn’s doctor’s billing coordinator.”
“And?”
Marco looked at Dominic.
“Natalie Moretti.”
Evelyn stared.
“Moretti.”
“Vincent’s daughter.”
She worked in Vale Holdings.
Evelyn had met her.
A quiet woman with brown hair.
Thirty, maybe.
She handled compliance paperwork.
Dominic’s mouth hardened.
“Bring her in.”
Natalie Moretti was gone.
Her apartment had been emptied.
Her phone disconnected.
Security footage showed her leaving the building with a suitcase twelve hours earlier.
But she had left something behind.
On her office computer, investigators found a draft email she had never sent.
It contained only one sentence.
He knows about the baby, and he says this time Dominic will surrender willingly.
No recipient.
No signature.
Nothing else.
Evelyn reread it.
“Why would my pregnancy make Dominic surrender?”
Nobody answered.
Then Camille whispered, “Because they don’t want his empire.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What?”
Camille pointed toward the ledger photocopies Daniel had described.
“Maybe they want something else.”
Evelyn understood first.
“They want Dominic to give something up.”
“What?” Marco asked.
Evelyn looked at her husband.
“Something he would never surrender for money.”
Dominic became very still.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A distorted male voice spoke.
“Mr. Vale.”
Dominic placed the call on speaker.
“Who is this?”
“You have something that belongs to us.”
“What?”
“Your father’s ledger was only half the archive.”
Dominic looked at Camille.
The voice continued.
“Your wife is carrying the reason you’re finally going to give us the other half.”
Evelyn’s skin prickled.
Dominic said nothing.
“Tomorrow. Noon. You will receive instructions.”
“If anyone touches my wife—”
The caller laughed.
“We already have.”
The line disconnected.
Evelyn’s face drained of color.
Dominic grabbed her shoulders.
“What does that mean?”
She didn’t know.
Then she remembered the doctor’s appointment.
The nurse.
The parking garage.
The man who had bumped into her while she was getting into the car.
Her hand flew to her purse.
Inside, beneath her wallet, she found something she had never seen before.
A tiny black device.
Marco stared at it.
“GPS tracker.”
Dominic’s face went white.
They hadn’t been guessing where Evelyn went.
For days, someone had known every place she had been.
Including the estate.
May you like
Including the hotel.
Including exactly where Dominic’s unborn child slept.
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