Chapter 5 - The Brother Who Started the War
Ethan Hayes disappeared before sunrise.
Clara learned at 6:12 a.m.
His phone went directly to voicemail.
His apartment was empty.
His car remained in the garage.
A cup of coffee sat unfinished on the kitchen counter.
Dominic’s security team found no signs of forced entry.
That disturbed Clara more than broken furniture would have.
“Maybe he left voluntarily.”
Dominic stood beside her in Ethan’s apartment.
His injury had been bandaged under a fresh shirt.
Clara had argued for forty minutes against him coming.
She lost.
“You shouldn’t even be standing.”
“Noted.”
“That isn’t compliance.”
“It’s acknowledgment.”
She glared.
Dominic ignored it.
Arthur examined the desk.
“Laptop is gone.”
“Passport?” Dominic asked.
Clara checked the bedroom safe.
“Missing.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“He planned to leave.”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
“You said yourself he’s been hiding things.”
“That doesn’t mean he abandoned everything.”
Dominic studied her.
“You’re defending him.”
“He’s my brother.”
“He put you into a fifteen-million-dollar nightmare.”
“That does not erase thirty years of being my brother.”
Dominic said nothing.
That was one difference between them.
Dominic treated betrayal like death.
Permanent.
Clara treated family wounds like fractures.
Painful.
Complicated.
Sometimes repairable.
She searched Ethan’s bedroom.
A framed photograph sat beside the bed.
Clara and Ethan at Navy Pier as children.
Their mother stood between them.
Their father behind.
Four people smiling before life taught them how temporary happiness could be.
Clara picked up the frame.
Something rattled.
She turned it over.
A key fell into her palm.
Dominic noticed.
“What is it for?”
“No idea.”
Arthur examined it.
“Bank box.”
Clara looked up.
“You can tell from a key?”
“I’m old.”
“That does not explain it.”
“It explains more than you think.”
Despite everything, Dominic almost smiled.
Two hours later, they entered a private bank downtown.
Ethan had rented a safety deposit box nine months earlier.
Clara’s name was listed for emergency access.
Inside were documents.
Hundreds.
Loan agreements.
Shipping manifests.
Photographs.
Emails printed on paper.
Dominic’s businesses appeared repeatedly.
So did Victor Hale.
Clara found a handwritten letter.
Her name was on the front.
She opened it.
Clara,
If you are reading this, I probably ran out of time.
Her stomach tightened.
Dominic watched from across the small room.
She continued.
I know you think I borrowed money because I was desperate to save Dad’s company. That’s only part of it. I found evidence that Dad had been moving money for someone before he died. At first I thought it was Rossi money. It wasn’t.
Clara looked at Dominic.
He gestured for her to continue.
The name Victor Hale kept appearing. He invested through shell companies. Dad discovered something he wasn’t supposed to discover. After Dad died, I started digging. Victor noticed.
Clara’s hands trembled.
The fifteen million wasn’t really a loan. It was bait.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
I let him think I was greedy and stupid because I wanted access to his network. Then I borrowed from Rossi companies because I needed Dominic involved. I knew once Rossi money crossed Victor’s operation, Dominic would investigate.
Clara lowered the letter.
Anger burned through shock.
“My brother deliberately created the debt?”
Arthur said nothing.
Dominic looked equally furious.
Clara continued.
I never expected Dominic to propose marriage. I swear to you.
A broken laugh escaped her.
“At least there’s that.”
When he did, I wanted to refuse everything and tell you the truth. But Victor had started watching you. He knew who you were. I realized Rossi security might be the safest place in Chicago.
Clara stopped.
Dominic’s face changed.
The marriage she believed Ethan had allowed out of selfish desperation suddenly looked different.
Not better.
But different.
I’m sorry. I used Dominic without telling him, and I let you believe I was only trying to save the company. Hate me if you need to. But please believe one thing: I never wanted you hurt.
Below that was one final line.
Ask Dominic what happened to Daniel Hale.
Clara looked at him.
“Who is Daniel?”
Dominic’s expression went blank.
Arthur turned away.
Clara’s patience broke.
“Does everyone in this room know secrets about my life except me?”
“Daniel Hale was Victor’s son,” Dominic said.
“Was?”
“He died.”
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
Clara’s skin prickled.
“The same year as the alley.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Dominic took the letter.
“He was caught in the conflict between our families.”
“That’s vague.”
“It’s intentional.”
“Try again.”
Dominic’s voice hardened.
“Daniel worked with me.”
Arthur looked sharply at him.
Dominic continued.
“He believed his father was preparing to betray several organizations. Daniel contacted me. He arranged the meeting behind the diner.”
Clara understood.
“The meeting where you were attacked.”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Daniel?”
Dominic looked toward the door.
“He was killed before he arrived.”
“By your people?”
“No.”
“Victor?”
“We believed so.”
Clara felt pieces moving.
“Victor killed his own son?”
“We never proved it.”
She thought about the photograph from the alley.
Victor watching.
Her father moving money for him.
Ethan deliberately drawing Dominic into the financial network.
Everything connected to one night seven years earlier.
“What did Daniel know?”
Dominic looked at Arthur.
Arthur answered.
“He believed Victor was planning to create a conflict between the Rossi family and several rivals. If enough leaders eliminated each other, Victor could absorb what remained.”
“Did he?”
“Partially.”
Clara whispered, “And Dominic survived because I happened to walk through that alley.”
“Yes.”
A horrifying possibility occurred to her.
“If Dominic had died…”
“Victor’s plan probably would have succeeded,” Arthur said.
Clara sat back.
Her twenty-one-year-old self had believed she was saving one stranger.
She might have changed an entire power struggle without knowing it.
Dominic took her hand.
She almost pulled away.
Then she noticed how careful his touch was.
“Ethan knew this?”
“Some of it.”
“Enough to disappear?”
“Apparently.”
Arthur’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression hardened.
“Where?”
Dominic stood.
“What?”
Arthur ended the call.
“We found Ethan’s car.”
Clara stood quickly.
“Where?”
“Near the river.”
Her face drained.
Dominic caught her shoulders.
“No assumptions.”
“Was he inside?”
“No.”
Relief barely arrived before Arthur continued.
“But there was a message.”
“What message?”
Arthur showed them a photograph from the car windshield.
Three words were written across the glass.
BRING ME CLARA.
Dominic’s face became colder than Clara had ever seen.
Underneath the message was an address.
An abandoned warehouse.
And a time.
Midnight.
Clara already knew what Dominic would say.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“He has my brother.”
“Probably.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“You don’t control me.”
“Tonight I do.”
Her anger ignited.
“You forced me into a marriage. You will not force me to sit quietly while Ethan disappears.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“I can survive you hating me.”
Clara looked up at him.
“I cannot survive losing another person because someone told me to stay away.”
That stopped him.
Seven years earlier, he had told her to run.
She had stayed.
Now the roles were reversed.
Dominic closed his eyes.
When he opened them, the fight had changed.
“You don’t leave my sight.”
Clara nodded.
“Fine.”
“And you do exactly what I say.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“I’ll take reasonable medical instructions.”
“I’m not negotiating.”
“You married the wrong woman.”
Arthur muttered something resembling a prayer.
Midnight was sixteen hours away.
Victor Hale wanted Clara.
Ethan might already be his prisoner.
And for the first time, Dominic understood the terrifying disadvantage of caring whether someone returned home.
Because once Victor realized Dominic Rossi would risk anything to protect Clara Hayes, the war stopped being about fifteen million dollars.
May you like
It became personal.
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