Chapter 11 - Chloe Finally Told Me the Truth
“You’re not going alone.”
Dominic barely looked at me.
“Yes, I am.”
“Reed specifically told you to.”
“Correct.”
“Which is usually evidence that you shouldn't.”
“Harper.”
“No.”
He turned.
I understood why people feared him.
For one second every wall inside him disappeared, revealing something sharp and dangerous beneath the control.
“Evelyn is alive because they need the ledger,” he said. “If I turn this into a rescue operation, she becomes disposable.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No.”
His voice lowered.
“But I won’t gamble with her life to protect mine.”
That ended my argument.
Not because I agreed.
Because I understood him.
Dominic’s loyalty was the flaw everyone used against him.
Nicholas.
Evelyn.
Marco.
Now maybe me.
Chloe stepped forward.
“There’s another way.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Reed expects the original drive.”
“Yes.”
“He doesn’t know there are two.”
Everyone turned.
Chloe swallowed.
“I made a copy before the warehouse.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“And you were planning to mention this when?”
“When I stopped believing everyone wanted to kill me.”
“Fair,” Marco muttered.
Chloe retrieved a tiny drive sewn inside her coat lining.
I stared.
“You had that the whole time?”
“I learned from Caleb.”
“That isn't reassuring.”
Dominic examined it.
“We give Reed the original.”
Marco nodded.
“And keep the copy.”
“No,” Chloe said.
She looked at me.
“We give him neither.”
Dominic waited.
Chloe explained.
“The ledger has an authentication sequence. Without it, Reed can claim the files were manipulated.”
“Where’s the sequence?”
“Caleb has it.”
Of course he did.
“Can you contact him?”
“No.”
My phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A message.
YOU NEED THE AUTHENTICATION KEY.
I held up the screen.
Dominic frowned.
Another message.
COME TO THE PLACE WHERE I FIRST ASKED YOU TO STAY.
I knew instantly.
Lakeview Café.
Our third date.
Caleb had asked whether I wanted to stay for dessert.
It became a joke between us because we ended up talking until closing.
Dominic read my face.
“You know where.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not going.”
I stared.
“We have returned to this argument.”
“This time I’m winning.”
“No.”
“Harper.”
“Dominic.”
Marco rubbed his forehead.
Chloe almost smiled.
Dominic looked genuinely annoyed.
Then something changed.
He stepped closer.
“You don’t understand what happens to me when you walk into danger.”
Everything stopped.
His words seemed to surprise even him.
I forgot Caleb.
Reed.
The ledger.
For one heartbeat there was only Dominic standing too close, looking at me with a vulnerability he probably hated.
I whispered, “Then come with me.”
He looked at my mouth.
Then my eyes.
“That is a terrible compromise.”
“It’s still a compromise.”
Twenty minutes later, we entered Lakeview Café through separate doors.
Dominic sat at the counter.
I took the booth where Caleb and I had spent that third date.
A man wearing a baseball cap approached.
My heart jumped.
Not Caleb.
He placed an envelope on the table.
“For Harper.”
Then left.
Dominic immediately moved.
Inside the envelope was a key.
A storage locker number.
And a handwritten note.
I’m sorry the only honest thing I can give you now is the truth.
The locker stood inside a train station three blocks away.
Inside we found a phone.
It rang the moment I lifted it.
“Harper.”
Caleb.
My throat tightened.
“Where are you?”
“Safe enough.”
“Ethan?”
“With Vincent.”
“Evelyn?”
“With Reed.”
“So help us.”
“I am.”
“By hiding?”
Caleb went silent.
Then:
“I deserve that.”
“Yes.”
Dominic stood close enough to hear.
Caleb continued.
“The authentication key is inside the phone.”
“Then why call?”
“Because there’s something I need to tell you before Dominic sees it.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“What?”
“My relationship with Chloe.”
I closed my eyes.
“Please don't make me hear more details.”
“There aren’t any.”
“What does that mean?”
“When Chloe ended our engagement, it ended. Completely.”
I looked toward her absence.
“The kiss?”
“Staged.”
“It still happened.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew what it would do to me.”
His voice cracked.
“Yes.”
“Then you betrayed me.”
A long pause.
“Yes.”
The admission hurt, but it also freed me.
He didn’t excuse it.
For once.
“I loved you, Harper.”
“You keep saying loved.”
“Because I lost the right to use present tense.”
Tears filled my eyes.
Dominic looked away to give me privacy.
Caleb whispered, “I hope someday somebody loves you without asking you to pay for it.”
My eyes moved toward Dominic.
He was staring through the station windows.
I said quietly, “Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because Reed thinks I’m still working for him.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“He’s inside Reed’s organization.”
Caleb heard.
“Yes.”
“You’re feeding him false information?”
“When I can.”
Dominic’s voice sharpened.
“Where is Evelyn?”
“Old courthouse annex on Canal.”
Marco, listening through Dominic’s earpiece, was already mobilizing.
Caleb continued.
“But don’t rush it. Reed has cameras.”
“What does he want?”
“The ledger.”
“Why?”
“Because Nicholas’s files prove Reed created the federal protection side of the network.”
I stared.
“A federal agent helped launder money?”
“He sold information. Investigations. Warrants. Witness identities.”
Dominic’s expression became lethal.
Caleb spoke faster.
“Vincent handled money. Reed handled law enforcement. Anthony Vale funded the beginning.”
Dominic flinched at his father’s name.
“But your father tried to leave the network before he died,” Caleb added.
Dominic froze.
“What?”
“Nicholas found that too.”
Dominic stepped toward the phone.
“My father knew?”
“He knew enough to be afraid.”
“Why didn’t Nicholas tell me?”
“Because he thought protecting you meant keeping you ignorant.”
I watched Dominic absorb the same poisoned gift everyone had given me.
Protection through deception.
Caleb whispered, “Families repeat their mistakes.”
Dominic looked at me.
Something passed between us.
A promise, maybe.
No more lies disguised as protection.
Then Caleb said:
“Harper, there’s one last thing.”
“What?”
“Vincent moved Ethan thirty minutes ago.”
“To where?”
“The Grand Ashford.”
My wedding venue.
Again.
“Why?”
“Because he knows you’ll come.”
I closed my eyes.
Dominic cursed quietly.
Caleb continued.
“And this time, Harper, he isn’t trying to frame you.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“What does he want?”
“You.”
The call ended.
And across the station, a digital advertising screen suddenly went black.
White letters appeared.
FORTY DAYS UNTIL THE WEDDING.
Then the number changed.
0.
Underneath appeared:
May you like
LET’S MOVE THE DATE UP.
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