Chapter 6 - The Night Dominic Chose Clara Over His Empire
Elias did not carry a visible weapon.
That somehow made the moment worse.
Dominic stood between him and Clara.
Marco rose slowly despite his injuries.
Elias sighed.
“You boys were always dramatic.”
Dominic’s voice was flat.
“You worked for my father.”
“Yes.”
“You worked for the Circle.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Before you were born.”
Dominic absorbed it.
“Vincent?”
“Useful.”
“His father?”
“More useful.”
“Did you kill Salvatore?”
Elias looked toward the photograph on the laptop.
“No.”
“Did Vincent’s father?”
“Yes.”
“On whose orders?”
Elias smiled.
“Everyone wants one villain, Dominic.”
He walked toward the kitchen.
“The world rarely gives you one.”
Marco stepped in front of him.
“Stop moving.”
Elias stopped.
“You kidnapped me.”
“No.”
Marco frowned.
“Vincent did.”
“Same thing.”
“Not anymore.”
Dominic understood.
“You’re turning on him.”
“I’m correcting a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“Thinking Vincent could control himself.”
Elias looked at Clara.
“He was told to frighten you.”
Her face tightened.
“He pushed my car through a guardrail.”
“Yes.”
“Your definition of frightening needs work.”
For the first time, Elias smiled genuinely.
“Thomas’s daughter.”
Clara hated how warmly he said it.
Elias continued.
“Your father had the same mouth.”
“What do you want?”
“The files.”
“No.”
Dominic answered before Clara could.
Elias looked at him.
“If you release them, everything collapses.”
“Good.”
“You’ll lose everything.”
Dominic’s face remained expressionless.
“Maybe.”
“Your companies.”
“Maybe.”
“Political protection.”
“Yes.”
“Contracts.”
“Yes.”
“Half the men who work for you.”
Dominic nodded.
Elias looked fascinated.
“All for her?”
Clara’s heart stopped.
Dominic said:
“No.”
Something inside her dropped.
Then he continued.
“For myself.”
He looked at the files.
“I’ve spent eleven years protecting something built on lies.”
His voice was quieter now.
“My father tried to escape it.”
He glanced at Clara.
“Her father died because of it.”
Then Marco.
“You lied because of it.”
Finally Elias.
“And you’ve been using my life to preserve it.”
Dominic shook his head.
“I’m done.”
Elias stared at him.
“That sounds noble.”
“It isn’t.”
“No?”
“No.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“I’m just tired.”
That honesty was stronger than any threat.
Elias looked old suddenly.
Older than Clara had ever seen him.
“You release those names,” he said, “you don’t control what happens next.”
“I know.”
“Good men will fall with bad ones.”
“Then we verify everything.”
“That could take years.”
“Then it takes years.”
Vincent called.
Elias’s phone rang first.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Dominic.
“He knows.”
“Knows what?”
“That you found the hidden files.”
Clara whispered:
“How?”
Elias looked at the safehouse cameras.
Dominic’s blood went cold.
Vincent had been watching.
The phone in Dominic’s pocket rang.
He answered.
Vincent’s voice.
“Pier Seventeen.”
Dominic said nothing.
“One hour.”
“What do you want now?”
“Clara.”
Dominic looked at her.
Vincent continued.
“She has the encryption phrase Thomas never recorded.”
Clara frowned.
“I don’t know any phrase.”
Vincent laughed through the speaker.
“Yes, you do.”
He began reciting words.
A bedtime rhyme.
Clara’s face changed.
Her father used to say it whenever she was afraid.
“Silver moon, quiet sea...”
She whispered the next line automatically.
“Seven stars will carry me.”
Dominic looked at her.
Vincent heard.
“There it is.”
The line went dead.
Clara sat down.
“My father made the encryption key something I’d remember.”
Marco nodded.
“He knew you’d forget numbers.”
“He knew I’d remember a story.”
Dominic paced.
Vincent had the physical ledger.
They had the missing digital pages.
Neither side had everything.
But Clara connected both.
Pier Seventeen became unavoidable.
They went after sunset.
Not with an army.
Not with a convoy.
Dominic brought Marco.
Clara insisted on coming.
Elias came too.
Dominic did not trust him.
But Elias knew the Circle.
The pier was nearly empty.
Warehouse lights reflected across black water.
Vincent waited inside an abandoned shipping terminal.
He stood near a steel table.
The ledger rested on it.
Three other men stood nearby.
None wore masks.
Power no longer cared about secrecy.
Vincent smiled when Clara entered.
“You look better.”
Dominic moved slightly in front of her.
Vincent laughed.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The problem.”
Vincent looked at Clara.
“He cares.”
Dominic remained still.
“That makes men predictable.”
Clara said:
“You ran me off a bridge because you wanted a password?”
“No.”
Vincent’s smile faded.
“I ran you off the bridge because Dominic needed motivation.”
“You nearly killed me.”
“You survived.”
“That’s not an excuse.”
“No.”
Vincent looked genuinely indifferent.
“It’s an outcome.”
Dominic’s fists tightened.
Clara touched his arm.
A reminder.
Control.
Vincent noticed.
“Interesting.”
“What?” Clara asked.
“You control him better than his father could.”
Dominic’s voice became dangerous.
“Careful.”
“There.”
Vincent pointed.
“That.”
He looked at Clara.
“You are the only thing in the room that can change his decisions.”
Dominic responded:
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
Vincent raised an eyebrow.
Dominic continued.
“She doesn’t control me.”
He looked at Clara.
“She reminds me I still have choices.”
For once, Vincent had no response.
Elias stepped forward.
“This ends tonight.”
Vincent laughed.
“You’re obsolete.”
“Probably.”
“You think giving him the Circle saves you?”
“No.”
Elias’s voice was calm.
“I’m not expecting to be saved.”
He tossed a small device onto the floor.
Every phone in the warehouse began vibrating.
Vincent’s expression changed.
Elias had transmitted the documents.
To federal investigators.
Journalists.
Attorneys.
Multiple independent servers.
The Circle’s secrets were now impossible to contain.
Vincent lunged toward Elias.
Marco intercepted him.
Chaos broke out.
Clara moved behind a steel support.
Dominic stayed beside her instead of pursuing Vincent.
Again.
He chose her.
Always her.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Vincent stared toward the entrance.
“You called them?”
Elias smiled.
“Everybody.”
Vincent looked at Dominic.
“You destroyed your father’s empire.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
He looked toward Clara.
“I stopped inheriting it.”
Police lights flooded the pier.
Vincent ran.
He made it twenty yards before officers surrounded him.
Marco raised his hands.
Elias did too.
Dominic remained beside Clara.
She looked at him.
“It’s over?”
“No.”
“Comforting.”
He smiled.
“But it’s ending.”
Elias was arrested.
So was Vincent.
Several members of the Circle were detained within hours.
Others fled.
Dominic voluntarily surrendered documents.
His lawyers nearly had heart attacks.
His businesses froze.
Accounts were investigated.
Board members resigned.
For the first time in Dominic Romano’s adult life, he did not know what he would own the following morning.
Clara sat beside him in the back of a federal vehicle.
Not arrested.
Interview witnesses.
Her shoulder rested against his.
“You may lose everything,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Do you regret it?”
“No.”
“Not even a little?”
Dominic thought.
“I regret buying that ugly building in Jersey.”
She laughed.
“So your criminal empire collapses and real estate remains your biggest disappointment?”
“It was terrible property.”
Clara looked at him for a long moment.
Then whispered:
“Why did you stay beside me in the warehouse?”
“What?”
“You could’ve gone after Vincent.”
“He wasn’t important.”
“He tried to destroy you.”
Dominic turned toward her.
“You were important.”
Clara’s breath caught.
He continued.
“I spent my life chasing men who wanted to hurt me.”
His voice softened.
“Tonight I realized protecting what matters is more important than punishing what doesn’t.”
Their faces were close.
Clara looked at his mouth.
Then his eyes.
Dominic noticed.
Neither moved.
The vehicle stopped.
A federal agent opened the door.
“Mr. Romano?”
Dominic looked away.
The agent’s expression was serious.
“There’s a problem.”
Clara felt her heart sink.
“What now?”
The agent handed Dominic a document.
A warrant.
Not for Dominic.
For Clara.
She stared at her name.
“Why am I being arrested?”
The agent looked almost apologetic.
“Because Thomas Bennett’s accounts show that twenty-two million dollars were transferred into a trust under your name.”
Clara stopped breathing.
Dominic stood.
“That’s impossible.”
The agent shook his head.
“The transfer was made yesterday.”
Dominic looked at Clara.
Someone had made one final move.
May you like
And this time, they had put the target directly on her.
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