Chapter 5 - The Woman They Tried to Blame
Dominic wanted Elena upstairs.
Elena refused.
“I’m the one who knows where the compartment is.”
“You can tell me.”
“No.”
“You were poisoned twelve hours ago.”
“And you’re impossible twenty-four hours a day.”
Theo looked between them.
“I’m going to stand over here.”
Dominic ignored him.
“Elena.”
“My mother built this breadcrumb trail for me. Not you.”
“This is my house.”
“And apparently my inheritance.”
That stopped him.
Not because she was wrong.
Because she was learning when to use the sharpest possible sentence.
He almost respected it.
Almost.
They descended beneath the library together.
Theo followed with two guards.
The brass key fit a narrow lock beneath one of the floorboards.
Inside was a metal box.
No ledger.
No journal.
Only a sealed envelope.
Elena opened it.
Her mother’s handwriting filled six pages.
Elena read silently.
Her face changed halfway through.
“What?”
She handed Dominic the pages.
Amelia Kane had written the letter sixteen years earlier.
She described Gabriel not as a grieving father cheated by the Vale family, but as a manipulative man obsessed with control.
He had used Amelia’s trust as leverage.
When she tried to leave, he threatened everyone around her.
Vincent Vale had helped her disappear.
The forty-percent trust had not been stolen.
It had been deliberately hidden to protect her.
Dominic read the final paragraph twice.
If Gabriel ever finds Elena, do not believe what he tells her about the Vales. Vincent did terrible things in his life, but saving me from my father was not one of them.
Elena sat down slowly.
“My mother knew your father.”
Dominic handed the letter back.
“Better than I did, apparently.”
Theo found another envelope inside the box.
Financial documents.
Original trust agreements.
Signatures.
Forty percent ownership.
Valid.
Dominic looked at Elena.
She stared at the papers.
“I don’t want this.”
“You don’t know what it is.”
“I know enough.”
“You own part of Vale Holdings.”
“I clean rooms.”
“Not anymore.”
She looked at him.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Before the argument could continue, a guard’s radio crackled.
“Boss. You need to come upstairs.”
Dominic reached the main hall to find four federal agents standing inside Vale House.
Elena stopped behind him.
The lead investigator produced a warrant.
“Dominic Vale?”
“You know who I am.”
“We’re executing a search warrant related to financial fraud, racketeering, and the attempted murder of Elena Hart.”
Elena stared.
Dominic’s expression barely changed.
“Attempted murder?”
The agent looked at Elena.
“Ms. Hart, we need to speak privately.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“No.”
Elena touched his arm.
“I can answer.”
The agent showed her a folder.
Inside were photographs.
Bank transfers.
Messages.
All connected to Elena.
One payment showed $250,000 transferred to an account under her name.
Another document showed communication between Elena and Gabriel Kane.
Dominic looked at her.
Elena went pale.
“I’ve never seen that account.”
The agent continued.
“We have evidence suggesting Ms. Hart entered Vale House to obtain confidential documents.”
“That part is true,” Dominic said.
Elena looked at him.
He continued.
“She came looking for information about her mother.”
The agent raised an eyebrow.
“We also have evidence that she contacted Gabriel Kane repeatedly.”
“No.”
Elena shook her head.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Then someone using your phone did.”
The agent placed printed messages on the table.
The final one made Dominic’s jaw tighten.
Tonight. I’ll drug myself. Sophie will get Vale. Once he opens the west corridor, your man can enter.
Elena stared at it.
“That’s insane.”
Dominic said nothing.
The evidence was designed well.
Too well.
The federal agent looked at him.
“You see the problem.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
Her eyes met his.
Fear.
Anger.
And something worse.
Expectation.
She expected him not to believe her.
That realization disturbed him.
“Dominic,” she said quietly, “I didn’t write those.”
He turned toward the agent.
“Neither did she.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Dominic looked at Sophie across the hall.
“She would never use her daughter.”
The agent’s expression hardened.
“That isn’t evidence.”
“It is to me.”
Elena looked away quickly.
Dominic saw her wipe her eyes.
The agents searched the mansion.
They found more.
A laptop under Elena’s bed.
Documents connected to Gabriel.
A burner phone.
A vial containing traces of the same sedative found in her blood.
Every piece had been planted.
Every piece pointed toward one conclusion:
Elena had staged the attack.
Theo approached Dominic privately.
“It looks bad.”
“I know.”
“Federal prosecutors won’t care about your instincts.”
“I know.”
“Then we need proof.”
Dominic looked toward Marcus Reed’s empty office.
“Find Marcus.”
By nightfall, the pressure became unbearable.
Elena made a decision.
She packed Sophie’s clothes.
Dominic found her near the private elevator.
“No.”
She kept packing.
“You don’t get to say that.”
“I just did.”
“Agents are searching your house because of me.”
“Because someone framed you.”
“They’re investigating your companies.”
“They’ve done that before.”
“Sophie is scared.”
Dominic looked toward the child.
She sat on the bed holding her rabbit.
He understood.
“You think leaving makes her safer?”
“I think being near you makes her a target.”
The words hurt.
Not visibly.
But Elena saw something shift.
“I didn’t mean—”
“You did.”
She closed the suitcase.
“Dominic, people are getting hurt.”
“Then we stop the people hurting them.”
“You can’t control everything.”
He looked at her.
Nobody spoke to him like that.
Maybe because everyone else knew it was the one accusation that mattered.
Elena softened.
“You protected her.”
Dominic said nothing.
“You protected both of us.”
Still nothing.
“But I’m her mother.”
“I know.”
“And I need to choose her.”
Dominic stepped aside.
Elena blinked.
She had expected a fight.
“You’re letting us go?”
“No.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“I’m coming with you.”
“That defeats the purpose.”
“Probably.”
“Dominic.”
“Sophie sleeps better when she can find me.”
The sentence left his mouth before he could stop it.
Elena stared.
He looked away.
From the bed came Sophie’s voice.
“I do.”
Elena covered her face for a second.
Despite everything, she laughed.
Dominic almost did too.
Almost.
They never reached the elevator.
The lights went out.
Not only in the suite.
Across the entire western wing.
Emergency lights should have activated.
They did not.
Dominic pulled Elena behind him.
“Sophie.”
“I’m here.”
A sound came from the hallway.
Glass breaking.
Then footsteps.
Fast.
Dominic grabbed Sophie and put her into Elena’s arms.
“Bathroom. Lock it.”
“What about you?”
“Go.”
Elena obeyed.
Dominic stepped into the corridor.
A figure rushed from the darkness.
Dominic caught the man’s wrist.
A blade clattered onto the marble.
The intruder drove a shoulder into Dominic’s chest.
They struck the wall.
Dominic hit back once.
Hard.
The man staggered.
Theo appeared from the staircase with a flashlight and weapon.
“Down!”
The attacker ran.
Not toward the exits.
Toward the library.
Dominic followed.
By the time he reached the old corridor, the man had vanished.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dominic answered.
Gabriel Kane’s voice came clearly this time.
“No distortion.”
Dominic knew instantly.
“You’re getting slow.”
“Come say that to my face.”
Gabriel laughed softly.
“You sound like Vincent.”
“My father beat you once.”
“No. Your father hid what belonged to me.”
“Amelia didn’t belong to you.”
Silence.
That struck something.
Gabriel’s voice changed.
“You’ve been reading.”
Dominic looked toward the hidden staircase.
“What do you want?”
“My granddaughter.”
Elena.
Dominic’s body went still.
“You’re not getting near her.”
“Then perhaps I’ll take the little one.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
Gabriel continued.
“She trusts strangers who offer sugar.”
Dominic’s hand tightened around the phone.
“You made one mistake.”
“Did I?”
“You used Sophie.”
Silence.
Dominic’s voice became almost calm.
“You could have stolen from me. Lied to me. Come after my companies. I might have negotiated.”
A pause.
“But you used a three-year-old child to poison her mother.”
Gabriel laughed.
Dominic continued.
“So now there’s nothing to discuss.”
The call ended.
Theo reached him.
“We traced it.”
“Where?”
Theo looked unsettled.
“Inside the property.”
“Where?”
“The old guesthouse.”
Dominic turned.
Theo grabbed his arm.
“Wait.”
Dominic looked at him.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“The burner phone we found under Elena’s bed?”
“Yes.”
“It has Marcus Reed’s fingerprints on it.”
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
Theo continued.
“And we just found Marcus.”
“Where?”
“In the guesthouse.”
Dominic stared.
“Alive?”
Theo hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Then why do you look like that?”
“Because he says Gabriel Kane isn’t running this.”
Dominic felt the room grow colder.
“Who is?”
Theo looked toward the north wing.
“Julian.”
Dominic said nothing.
Theo continued.
“Marcus says your uncle has been working with Kane for years.”
At that moment, a scream echoed from upstairs.
Elena.
Dominic ran.
He reached the suite.
The bathroom door stood open.
Elena was on the floor.
Conscious.
Terrified.
“Sophie,” she gasped.
Dominic looked around.
Empty.
The rabbit lay on the marble.
The child was gone.
And taped across the bedroom mirror was a single handwritten note.
BRING THE TRUST DOCUMENTS TO THE GREENHOUSE.
May you like
COME ALONE.
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