Chapter 3 - THE SECRET HIS BROTHER TOOK TO THE GRAVE
Dominic stared at the screen until the letters blurred.
LAST VALE HEIR.
The phrase was deliberate.
Cruel.
Victor knew exactly what Lucy was.
And now he knew Dominic knew too.
Marcus moved first.
“Disconnect the network.”
The technician yanked cables.
The message remained.
A third line appeared.
YOUR BROTHER STOLE SOMETHING FROM ME.
A fourth.
THE CHILD WILL GIVE IT BACK.
Then the screen died.
Dominic turned toward Elena.
“Explain everything.”
She backed against the wall, one arm around Lucy.
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“She’s listening.”
Dominic looked at the child.
He wanted answers immediately.
But Elena was right.
Lucy had already hidden from an armed man, survived a gunfight, and discovered that half the adults around her had been keeping secrets about her life.
Dominic crouched.
“Lucy.”
She looked at him cautiously.
“Marcus is going to take you somewhere safe.”
She shook her head.
“I want Mommy.”
“I know. She’ll come in a few minutes.”
“No.”
Elena kissed her forehead.
“Sweetheart, remember the movie room?”
“The one with the popcorn machine?”
“Yes.”
Lucy looked suspiciously at Dominic.
“Can I have popcorn?”
“As much as you want.”
“Chocolate too?”
Marcus said, “Absolutely.”
Dominic glanced at him.
Marcus shrugged.
“Hostage negotiations.”
Lucy took Marcus’s hand.
Before leaving, she turned toward Dominic.
“Don’t yell at Mommy.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
“I won’t.”
Lucy narrowed her eyes.
“Promise?”
Dominic Vale had promised men nothing throughout most of his adult life.
Yet he said, “I promise.”
Satisfied, she left.
The moment the door closed, Dominic faced Elena.
“Start.”
Elena wiped her cheeks.
“Gabriel and I met six years before he died.”
Dominic frowned.
“You knew him that long?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I was working nights at a restaurant in Queens while taking nursing classes during the day. Gabriel came in after closing because he knew the owner.”
Dominic remembered his brother at twenty-six.
Restless.
Funny.
Reckless in ways Dominic had never allowed himself to be.
“He kept coming back,” Elena continued. “At first I thought he liked the coffee.”
“He hated coffee.”
“I learned that later.”
Despite herself, Elena smiled faintly.
“He liked terrible hot chocolate with too much whipped cream.”
Dominic almost laughed.
Gabriel had loved that.
Nobody in the family knew.
“He didn’t tell me who he was for months,” Elena said. “He said he worked in imports.”
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
“That sounds like Gabriel.”
“When I found out his last name, I tried to end it. I knew what people said about your family.”
“What do people say?”
Elena met his eyes.
“You really want the list?”
“Maybe another day.”
“He promised he wasn’t like that.”
Dominic looked away.
Gabriel had always wanted to escape the Vale organization.
Dominic had stayed because someone had to control what their father created.
Gabriel had dreamed of leaving.
“He asked me to marry him,” Elena said.
Dominic snapped his gaze back.
“What?”
“Three weeks before he died.”
“You were engaged?”
“No. I told him I needed time.”
“Why?”
“Because he was scared.”
“Gabriel?”
“Yes. I had never seen him scared before.”
Elena walked to a chair and sat.
“He said he discovered something inside your father’s organization. Something old. Something involving Victor Sloane and several companies.”
Nathan leaned against the table, holding gauze to his forehead.
Dominic turned.
“You knew this.”
Nathan nodded.
“Some.”
“How much?”
“Enough to regret staying quiet.”
Dominic looked back at Elena.
“What did Gabriel discover?”
“He wouldn’t tell me details. He said knowing would put me in danger.”
“Apparently he was right.”
“He gave me the necklace.”
Elena touched Lucy’s pendant.
“He told me if anything happened to him, I should disappear.”
“And you did.”
“Yes.”
“Then how did you end up working in my house?”
Elena’s expression hardened.
“Because hiding stopped working.”
Dominic waited.
“Five months ago someone broke into my apartment.”
“Victor?”
“I don’t know. Nothing was stolen. But Lucy’s bedroom had been searched.”
“And you came here?”
“I thought the safest place might be the one place nobody expected me to go.”
“Why not tell me who you were?”
“Because I didn’t know if you were part of what killed Gabriel.”
The accusation hurt more than Dominic wanted to admit.
“My brother was murdered in a car bombing. I spent years looking for the person responsible.”
“I know.”
“Then why would you think I helped?”
“Because Gabriel told me never to trust anyone with the last name Vale.”
Silence.
Dominic felt anger rise.
Not at Elena.
At Gabriel.
At the dead.
At secrets buried too deep to confront.
Nathan lowered the gauze.
“Dominic, there’s more.”
“Of course there is.”
“The necklace isn’t jewelry.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Dominic removed the pendant carefully.
Lucy had given it to Elena before leaving.
He examined the silver disc.
“No seam.”
Nathan pointed.
“Press the middle star.”
Dominic did.
Click.
The back released.
Inside was a tiny brass key.
Dominic stared at it.
“What does this open?”
Nathan answered.
“A safety deposit box.”
“Where?”
“First National Trust.”
Dominic laughed without humor.
“My family owns part of that bank.”
“Exactly.”
“What’s inside?”
“I never saw it.”
“Elena?”
She shook her head.
“Gabriel said I wasn’t supposed to open it unless someone came after our child.”
Dominic stared at her.
“You knew you were pregnant before he died?”
“Yes.”
“Did Gabriel?”
Her lips trembled.
“I told him the night before.”
Dominic looked away.
The last night of his brother’s life.
Gabriel had called Dominic four times.
Dominic had ignored every call because they had argued that morning.
He had spent nine years wondering what Gabriel wanted to say.
Now he knew at least part of it.
He was going to become a father.
Dominic sat heavily.
Nathan’s voice softened.
“He wanted out, Dom.”
“I knew.”
“No. He really wanted out. He had documents ready. New identities. He was going to leave everything.”
“With Elena.”
“And their baby.”
Dominic stared at the floor.
His final words to Gabriel returned with perfect clarity.
You’ll come crawling back when the real world breaks you.
Gabriel had laughed.
Maybe I won’t.
Six hours later, he was dead.
Dominic pressed both hands together.
“We open the box.”
Marcus reentered.
“Not tonight.”
Dominic looked up.
“Why?”
“Because the city is crawling with Victor’s people.”
“Then we take more men.”
“Which advertises exactly where we’re going.”
Nathan straightened.
“There’s another problem.”
Dominic was getting tired of that sentence.
“The key isn’t enough.”
“What else?”
“A code phrase.”
“Do you know it?”
“No.”
“Elena?”
She shook her head.
“Gabriel said I would know it when I needed it.”
Marcus frowned.
“That’s useless.”
Elena thought for a moment.
Then looked toward the door.
“Lucy.”
Dominic stood.
“What about her?”
“Gabriel used to sing to my stomach.”
Nathan stared.
“Seriously?”
“He was terrible.”
Dominic almost smiled again.
“That sounds accurate.”
“He always sang the same song. Not a real song. Something he made up.”
“What words?”
Elena’s face changed.
“I don’t remember all of it.”
“Try.”
She closed her eyes.
“Little bird, little bird, three stars in the sky. If the night gets dark…”
She stopped.
Dominic’s pulse changed.
“What?”
“My father used to say something similar.”
Nathan looked at him.
“What?”
Dominic barely heard him.
A childhood memory surfaced.
Gabriel at seven.
Dominic at eleven.
Their mother sitting beside the piano.
Three stars in the sky.
He walked out of the security room without explaining.
Elena followed.
“Where are you going?”
“The music room.”
They crossed the secured hallway.
The gunfire had stopped.
The attackers had retreated after failing to reach their target.
Dominic entered the music room.
Glass covered part of the floor.
The piano remained untouched.
He knelt.
Lucy had pointed toward the device under it.
But Gabriel had loved this piano.
He had practiced here as a child.
Hidden beneath it during thunderstorms.
Dominic ran his hand along the carved wooden frame.
“What are you looking for?”
Elena asked.
“I don’t know.”
Then he found it.
Three tiny stars carved into the wood.
Old.
Childish.
Gabriel’s work.
Dominic pressed the center star.
Nothing happened.
He pressed all three.
Click.
A narrow compartment opened.
Inside lay a folded piece of paper.
Elena covered her mouth.
Dominic unfolded it.
The handwriting was Gabriel’s.
Only one sentence.
DOM, IF YOU FIND THIS, I FAILED.
Dominic’s throat tightened.
Below it was another line.
THE CODE IS THE NAME MOM GAVE THE PLACE WHERE WE WERE SAFE.
Dominic knew immediately.
“Blue Harbor.”
Nathan nodded.
“That’s the code.”
But Dominic kept reading.
There was one final sentence.
AND IF ELENA IS WITH YOU, TELL HER I WAS COMING BACK.
Elena broke.
She sat on the piano bench and covered her face.
For years she had believed Gabriel died while trying to escape her.
Now the truth was in his handwriting.
Dominic stood beside her without touching her.
He had no words big enough for nine years of grief.
Eventually Elena whispered, “What’s in that box?”
Dominic folded the note.
“Whatever Gabriel died protecting.”
Marcus entered.
“Movement outside. We found Victor’s abandoned vehicle two blocks away.”
Dominic looked toward the window.
The rain had become heavier.
Victor had failed tonight.
But he now knew Lucy existed.
He knew the pendant existed.
And he had made something else painfully clear.
He was willing to come inside Dominic’s own home to get it.
Dominic looked at Elena.
“You and Lucy are no longer employees here.”
Elena stared at him.
“What?”
“For security purposes.”
“I need that job.”
“You misunderstand.”
His voice softened.
“You’re family.”
Elena’s eyes filled again.
Dominic continued.
“And whether you like me or not, I’m going to protect both of you.”
She studied him.
“You can’t lock us in this house forever.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Dominic looked at Gabriel’s letter.
“Tomorrow morning, we open the box.”
Nathan frowned.
“That’s exactly what Victor expects.”
“Yes.”
Marcus smiled slowly.
May you like
Dominic folded the key into his palm.
“So we make sure he gets exactly what he expects.”
