Chapter 5 - The Father at the Door
Anaëlle did not remember leaving Grand Central.
One moment she was holding the phone.
The next she was inside Dominic’s SUV, speeding through Manhattan.
“My mother said he came home.”
Dominic sat beside her.
“I heard.”
“Twelve years.”
“I know.”
“She knew where he was.”
“We don’t know that.”
“She knew enough.”
Anaëlle looked out the window.
Rain began striking the glass.
“What if this is another trap?”
Dominic did not answer immediately.
“That’s possible.”
She turned.
“You think Gabriel arranged it.”
“Gabriel didn’t look like a man whose plan was succeeding.”
Anaëlle almost laughed.
“You read criminals for a living?”
“No.”
His expression remained serious.
“I grew up with them.”
They reached Anaëlle’s mother’s townhouse twenty minutes later.
Dominic’s security arrived first.
No forced entry.
No suspicious vehicles.
Lights glowed behind the curtains.
Anaëlle reached for the door.
Dominic stopped her.
“Wait.”
She looked at his hand.
He removed it.
“Sorry.”
Anaëlle stepped outside.
Dominic followed at a distance.
She entered with her old key.
“Mom?”
No answer.
“Mom!”
Footsteps.
Then Claire appeared.
Anaëlle had never seen her mother look so afraid.
Her face was pale.
Her hands shook.
“Annie.”
Anaëlle’s anger dissolved for half a second.
“Where is he?”
Claire looked toward the living room.
Anaëlle walked past her.
A man stood by the fireplace.
Older.
Thinner.
Silver threaded through his brown hair.
A scar crossed the left side of his neck.
He turned slowly.
Anaëlle stopped breathing.
Time collapsed.
She was sixteen again.
Standing beside a piano.
Waiting for her father to come home.
The man’s eyes filled with tears.
“Hello, Annie.”
Anaëlle slapped him.
The sound cracked through the room.
Dominic remained in the doorway.
Julien did not move.
Anaëlle slapped him again.
Then she began crying.
“How could you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Twelve years!”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t know!”
She shoved him.
He staggered.
“You don’t know what birthdays were like! You don’t know what graduation was like! You don’t know how Mom cried every Christmas!”
Julien cried openly.
“I know.”
“You were alive.”
“Yes.”
“You could have called.”
“No.”
“You could have written.”
“I did.”
“One letter inside a piano!”
“I wrote hundreds.”
Anaëlle froze.
“What?”
Julien looked at Claire.
Anaëlle followed his gaze.
Her mother’s face collapsed.
“Mom?”
Claire whispered, “I never gave them to you.”
Anaëlle stepped backward.
“You had letters?”
“Gabriel’s people were watching us.”
“So?”
“He said if Julien contacted you—”
“Stop blaming Gabriel for every lie!”
Claire began crying.
“He showed me photographs of you leaving school. Of you sleeping through your bedroom window.”
Anaëlle’s anger disappeared.
Claire continued.
“He knew everything.”
Julien whispered, “I had to disappear.”
Anaëlle looked at her father.
“Why come back now?”
“Because you opened locker 317.”
“How did you know?”
“The storage system sent an alert.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“You built an alert twelve years ago?”
Julien looked at him.
“Hello, Dominic.”
Dominic went still.
“You knew I was looking for you.”
“Yes.”
“And you stayed hidden.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Julien’s expression became hard.
“Because I didn’t know whether you had become your uncle.”
Dominic accepted that.
“Fair.”
Anaëlle looked between them.
“Who ordered the explosion?”
Julien’s face changed.
Claire gripped the chair.
“Anaëlle—”
“No more delays.”
Julien sat slowly.
“The explosion was ordered by Dominic’s father.”
Dominic froze.
“My father?”
“Victor Vale.”
Dominic stared.
“My father was dying.”
“He was dying. He was also terrified.”
“Of what?”
“You.”
Dominic laughed once.
“My father wanted me to inherit everything.”
“No.”
Julien’s answer was gentle.
“He wanted you obedient.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
Julien continued.
“When you started investigating Gabriel, Victor realized you might expose the entire family.”
“So he ordered you killed.”
“Me and you.”
Dominic looked toward the floor.
“My father.”
Julien nodded.
“Gabriel was corrupt. Victor was worse.”
Anaëlle looked at Claire.
“And Mom?”
Claire sat down.
“I worked with Gabriel because he promised to keep you safe from Victor.”
Julien added, “Gabriel actually did.”
Dominic looked surprised.
“So Gabriel protected Anaëlle.”
“In his own way.”
Anaëlle rubbed her temples.
“Nothing is what I thought.”
“No,” Julien said.
“But now we can finish it.”
He opened his coat.
Dominic tensed.
Julien removed a small USB drive.
“The tapes were backups.”
“What’s on that?” Anaëlle asked.
“Everything.”
“Everything?”
“Accounts. Recordings. Names.”
Dominic stared.
“Why didn’t you release it years ago?”
“Because there was one problem.”
Julien looked at Anaëlle.
“The files are encrypted.”
Anaëlle laughed in disbelief.
“Music again.”
“Yes.”
“You built the encryption around my memory.”
“I needed something Gabriel and Victor could never predict.”
“And you used your sixteen-year-old daughter.”
Julien’s face filled with shame.
“Yes.”
Anaëlle walked away.
Julien did not follow.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“You all keep saying that.”
She turned.
“Protection without truth is just another kind of prison.”
No one answered.
Anaëlle looked at Dominic.
“You knew less than I thought.”
“Yes.”
“Gabriel knew more.”
“Yes.”
“My mother lied.”
Claire lowered her head.
“My father disappeared.”
Julien closed his eyes.
“And now everyone expects me to fix it.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“No.”
Anaëlle looked at him.
“I don’t expect anything from you.”
“Then why did you bring me to the piano?”
“Because your father asked me to.”
“No. You had a choice.”
Dominic nodded.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at her for a long moment.
“Because I wanted you to know the truth even if the truth made you hate me.”
Anaëlle did not know what to say.
Julien watched them.
Something almost amused passed through his eyes.
Then the front door opened.
Marco entered.
“Dominic.”
Everyone turned.
“We found Gabriel.”
Dominic frowned.
“Where?”
“Outside.”
Anaëlle looked toward the window.
A black sedan waited across the street.
Gabriel Vale stepped out.
Alone.
He walked toward the house.
Dominic moved to intercept him.
Julien stopped him.
“Let him in.”
Dominic stared.
“Why?”
“Because he came for the same reason I did.”
Gabriel entered two minutes later.
He saw Julien.
For the first time, the powerful Gabriel Vale looked speechless.
“You survived.”
Julien smiled faintly.
“Disappointed?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
Something genuine entered his expression.
“Relieved.”
Dominic watched his uncle carefully.
Gabriel looked at the USB drive.
“So it exists.”
“Yes.”
“And you brought it here.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel laughed.
“You always were sentimental.”
Julien handed the drive to Anaëlle.
“She decides.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“If those files are released, people will fall who had nothing to do with Victor.”
“Then help me separate the guilty from everyone else.”
Dominic turned.
“You expect us to trust you?”
Gabriel looked at him.
“No.”
Then at Anaëlle.
“But Julien does.”
Dominic looked toward her father.
Julien nodded.
“Gabriel is many things. But he kept Claire and Anaëlle alive.”
Anaëlle stared at Gabriel.
“Why?”
Gabriel’s face softened.
“Because I loved your mother.”
The room went completely silent.
Claire closed her eyes.
Julien looked unsurprised.
Anaëlle whispered, “What?”
Gabriel smiled sadly.
“Long before she chose your father.”
Anaëlle stared at her mother.
Claire looked away.
May you like
Then Gabriel added:
“And because for twelve years, I believed you might actually be my daughter.”
