Chapter 11 - The Night Someone Came for the Bluebird
Cassidy refused to believe Jerry had betrayed her.
“No.”
Dominic remained silent.
Mara's voice came through the phone.
“The witness declaration carries his signature.”
“Then somebody forged it.”
“We're checking.”
Cassidy grabbed her coat.
Dominic blocked the doorway.
“Where are you going?”
“To Jerry.”
“No.”
“Move.”
“He may be cooperating with Richard.”
“Jerry gave me extra shifts when Mom was sick.”
“That does not make him incapable of betrayal.”
“He let Emily sleep in the office when childcare fell through.”
“Cassidy.”
“He paid me cash when the bakery fired me.”
Dominic lowered his voice.
“Good people can still become frightened.”
She stared at him.
“Is that what happened to your father?”
Something flashed in Dominic's eyes.
Cassidy regretted it.
But he stepped aside.
“I'll come with you.”
“You think Jerry is dangerous?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because somebody is watching the diner.”
Cassidy hated that he was probably right.
They drove through heavy rain.
The Bluebird's neon sign was dark.
That was wrong.
The diner never closed before three.
Cassidy got out before the driver fully stopped.
Dominic followed.
The front door was unlocked.
Inside, chairs were overturned.
Not destroyed.
Moved.
Files from Jerry's tiny office were scattered across the floor.
“Jerry?”
Cassidy ran toward the kitchen.
“Jerry!”
A sound came from the pantry.
She opened the door.
Jerry sat on the floor.
Alive.
Furious.
His wrists were free.
There was no visible injury beyond a red mark on his forehead.
“About damn time.”
Cassidy dropped beside him.
“What happened?”
“Two men came asking about old property records.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Did they hurt you?”
“Mostly my dignity.”
“What did they take?”
Jerry looked at him.
“Evelyn's letters.”
Dominic's face went cold.
Cassidy helped Jerry stand.
“What letters?”
“Things she sent me over the years.”
“About the trust?”
“Some.”
“Why didn't you tell us?”
Jerry glared.
“Because your mother told me not to hand family secrets to any Vale until I knew which kind he became.”
Dominic absorbed that.
“And?”
Jerry looked him up and down.
“Jury's still out.”
Cassidy almost laughed.
Then she remembered the declaration.
“Jerry, did you sign something for Richard?”
His face hardened.
“What?”
“A statement saying I called the marriage fake.”
“I didn't sign anything.”
“Are you sure?”
“Kid, I may be sixty-one, but I know whether I testified against you.”
Dominic called Mara immediately.
“Forgery.”
Mara responded.
“We need proof.”
Jerry pointed toward his office.
“Security camera.”
Cassidy frowned.
“You said the Bluebird cameras didn't record audio.”
“They don't.”
“Can they show who came?”
“If they didn't steal the recorder.”
They had.
Of course.
Jerry cursed creatively.
Dominic examined the office.
“They knew what they wanted.”
“Yes,” Jerry said.
“Letters and the recorder.”
“Yes.”
“What did Evelyn write?”
Jerry hesitated.
“Mostly warnings.”
“About Richard?”
“About your father.”
Dominic stiffened.
Cassidy watched him.
Jerry went behind the counter and opened an old metal cash box hidden beneath receipts.
He removed one envelope.
“They missed one.”
Dominic took it.
His mother's handwriting covered the front.
Jerome Moreland—private.
Inside was a three-page letter dated seven years earlier.
Dominic read silently.
Cassidy watched his face lose color.
“What?”
He handed it to her.
Evelyn had written about suspicious property transfers.
Shell companies.
Funds removed from charitable holdings.
And one sentence underlined twice.
If Richard ever seeks Franklin Street, it is because he believes the original ledgers remain beneath it.
Cassidy looked at Dominic.
“The archive.”
“Yes.”
Jerry poured himself coffee despite the chaos.
“She knew.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
Jerry answered.
“Maybe she tried.”
Dominic stared at him.
Jerry continued.
“You spent those years running from this family.”
Cassidy turned toward Dominic.
He said nothing.
Jerry sighed.
“Your mother used to sit right there.”
He pointed toward the booth where Dominic had been sitting the night Cassidy met him.
“She'd drink coffee and complain about you.”
Dominic almost smiled.
“What did she say?”
“That you thought distance made you different from your father.”
The smile disappeared.
Jerry continued.
“She said being different isn't about how far you run.”
Dominic looked toward the window.
“It is about what you do when the same power lands in your hands.”
Cassidy felt the words settle over the diner.
Jerry looked at her.
“And she would've liked you.”
“Why?”
“You yell at him.”
Dominic muttered, “Everyone appears to enjoy that.”
Jerry smiled.
Then sirens sounded outside.
Cassidy turned.
Two police cars pulled up.
Someone had reported the break-in.
Officers entered.
Statements followed.
Photographs.
Questions.
Dominic's security team arrived.
Mara came personally.
By three in the morning, the diner looked exhausted.
So did Cassidy.
She sat in the same spot where everything had started.
Dominic slid a fresh coffee toward her.
“It's still bad,” he said.
“It's comforting now.”
Jerry overheard.
“Both of you are banned.”
Cassidy smiled.
Then Mara approached.
“I have news.”
They looked up.
“The forged declaration was emailed from a law office subcontractor connected to Halden Urban.”
“Richard?”
“Not enough proof.”
“But?”
“Enough to challenge admissibility.”
Cassidy exhaled.
“And the trust hearing?”
“Still tomorrow.”
Dominic checked the clock.
It was already tomorrow.
Mara continued.
“There's another issue.”
Cassidy groaned.
“Of course.”
“The family court received an anonymous complaint tonight.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What complaint?”
“That Emily is living in a home associated with criminal activity.”
Dominic's expression became dangerous.
“Based on what?”
“The break-in here and allegations about Vale family businesses.”
Cassidy stood.
“This has nothing to do with Emily.”
“I agree.”
“Will they remove her?”
“No immediate order.”
The words immediate order were enough.
Cassidy's hands began shaking.
Dominic saw.
“Cassidy.”
“I can't do this.”
He moved closer.
“I can't keep making her sleep somewhere and then wondering whether somebody is going to take her again.”
“They won't.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
He corrected himself.
“I don't know that.”
Cassidy breathed.
Good.
Truth.
Dominic continued.
“But I know what I can do.”
“What?”
“Tomorrow I can choose how much of my family's history becomes public.”
Cassidy stared.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Richard keeps using secrecy as a weapon because he believes I'll protect the Vale name.”
“Will you?”
Dominic looked around the old diner his mother had secretly saved.
Then at Jerry.
Then at Cassidy.
“No.”
He took out his phone.
“I'm ordering an independent forensic audit of every Vale Meridian charitable and real-estate subsidiary for the last twenty-five years.”
Mara's eyebrows rose.
“That could expose your father too.”
“I know.”
“It could damage the company.”
“I know.”
“It could cost you control even if you win tomorrow.”
Dominic looked at Cassidy.
“Then maybe control isn't the thing I should be trying hardest to keep.”
Cassidy felt something in her chest shift.
The man she had met four nights earlier had needed a wife to protect an empire.
The man standing before her now seemed prepared to tear open that empire to protect the truth.
May you like
Neither of them knew what it would cost.
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