Chapter 5 - SOMEONE CAME FOR CLAIRE
Dominic did not shout.
Claire almost wished he had.
Anger was easier to understand when it made noise.
Instead, he became completely still.
“Where is Nico?”
Daniel checked his phone.
“Still on the property.”
Dominic reached for the study door.
Daniel caught his arm.
“No.”
Every guard in the hallway seemed to stop breathing.
Dominic looked down at Daniel’s hand.
Daniel released him.
“If Nico knows we recovered the backup, he runs. If he doesn’t know, he leads us somewhere.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Claire understood what Daniel was saying.
“Let him think the frame worked.”
Dominic looked at her.
Claire continued.
“He thinks I’m the problem because I noticed the bracelet. If he believes you suspect me, he may get careless.”
“No.”
“Mr. Romano—”
“No.”
“You need evidence.”
“I have evidence.”
“You have enough to know he lied. Not why.”
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“I am not using you as bait.”
Claire looked directly at him.
“Someone already did.”
That ended the argument.
By sunrise, Daniel had created a plan.
Nothing about the recovered footage would be revealed.
Officially, Claire had been suspended.
She would pack a bag and leave through the employee entrance at eight.
Unofficially, Dominic’s men would follow at a distance.
Claire hated it.
Dominic hated it more.
Lily had been discharged from the hospital shortly before seven.
The little girl arrived home wrapped in Dominic’s coat.
The moment she saw Claire carrying a suitcase, she stopped.
“Where are you going?”
Claire’s throat tightened.
“It’s only for a little while.”
“Did Daddy fire you?”
Dominic stood behind Lily.
Claire looked at him.
He looked miserable.
“No,” Claire said.
Lily’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m protecting something important.”
“What?”
Claire crouched.
“You.”
Lily stared at her.
Then she threw her arms around Claire’s neck.
Claire closed her eyes.
“Don’t go.”
“I’ll come back.”
“You promise?”
“Yes.”
“Mommy said promises are serious.”
Claire pulled back.
“This one is serious.”
Lily took the pink ribbon from her hair and tied it awkwardly around Claire’s wrist.
“So you remember.”
Claire looked at the ribbon.
“I won’t forget.”
Dominic drove Claire to the employee gate himself.
That was not part of Daniel’s plan.
“You’re supposed to make it look like you fired me,” Claire said.
“I did.”
“In your own car?”
“I’m an unpredictable employer.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
It surprised both of them.
At the gate, Dominic put the vehicle in park.
Claire reached for the door.
“Claire.”
She turned.
His expression had changed.
“If anything feels wrong, you call me.”
“I have Daniel’s number.”
“I didn’t say Daniel.”
Claire’s hand paused on the handle.
Dominic stared ahead through the windshield.
“Call me.”
She nodded.
Then left.
Her apartment was twenty-five minutes from the estate.
Dominic’s car disappeared around the corner before Daniel’s unmarked sedan picked up the surveillance.
Claire entered her building.
Nothing happened.
She climbed the stairs.
Still nothing.
For the first time since the birthday party, she wondered whether the entire strategy had been useless.
She unlocked her apartment.
The smell hit her first.
Gasoline.
Claire froze.
Then she heard movement behind her.
She turned.
A man wearing a black baseball cap rushed up the stairwell.
Claire slammed the door.
His shoulder struck it.
The chain snapped.
Claire grabbed the ceramic lamp from the table and swung.
It shattered against his arm.
He cursed.
She ran toward the fire escape.
The man caught the back of her sweater.
Claire twisted violently.
Fabric tore.
She kicked backward.
Her heel connected with his knee.
He fell.
Claire reached the window.
Then another man appeared outside on the fire escape.
Her blood ran cold.
Two.
The first man rose behind her.
“You should’ve taken the money.”
Claire grabbed a kitchen knife.
“Come closer.”
He smiled.
“You won’t use that.”
“Try me.”
Then the apartment door exploded inward.
Daniel Keane entered with two security agents.
The first attacker lunged toward the kitchen.
One guard tackled him.
The second escaped down the fire stairs.
Claire backed against the counter, still gripping the knife.
Daniel approached slowly.
“It’s over.”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“It isn’t.”
The captured attacker refused to speak.
At least at first.
Then Daniel found the prepaid phone in his pocket.
There was only one recent message.
CLEAN THE ROOM.
The sender had used an anonymous number.
But Claire noticed something in the attacker’s jacket pocket.
A gold matchbook.
ROMANO VISTA CLUB.
Dominic’s private social club.
She knew those matchbooks.
She had placed hundreds beside cigar trays during parties.
“You work for Nico,” Claire said.
The attacker looked at her.
Only for a fraction of a second.
It was enough.
Daniel saw it.
Three hours later, Claire was back at the Romano estate.
This time Dominic was waiting at the front door.
He saw the torn sweater.
The scrape on her cheek.
Something frightening passed across his face.
“I’m fine,” Claire said.
“That sentence has become annoying.”
“It’s still true.”
He touched her cheek with two fingers.
The gesture was so gentle that Claire forgot how to breathe.
Then he removed his hand.
“Lily can’t see you like this.”
Claire frowned.
“Why?”
“She will think it was her fault.”
Claire looked toward the staircase.
He was right.
Mrs. Hargrove brought her upstairs through a side corridor.
Twenty minutes later Claire entered Lily’s room wearing clean clothes.
Lily sat cross-legged on the bed surrounded by stuffed animals.
When she saw Claire, she launched herself forward.
“You came back!”
Claire caught her.
“I promised.”
Lily hugged her tightly.
Then she whispered, “Daddy was scary while you were gone.”
Dominic stood in the doorway.
“I’m always scary.”
“Not like that.”
Claire almost smiled.
Lily pulled back.
“Can Claire sleep here tonight?”
Dominic looked at Claire.
“That is Claire’s decision.”
Claire glanced toward the tiny sofa beside the window.
“I’ve slept in worse places.”
Lily clapped.
Dominic sighed.
“Traitor.”
That night, long after Lily fell asleep, Claire stepped into the hallway.
Dominic was sitting outside the bedroom.
Not a guard.
Dominic himself.
“You’re still awake?”
“So are you.”
Claire sat beside him.
For a while neither spoke.
Finally she said, “The man who attacked me said I should have taken the money.”
Dominic nodded.
“He was told you were offered payment.”
“To make the planted cash believable.”
“Yes.”
“Whoever planned this expected me to survive the birthday party.”
Dominic looked at her.
“At first.”
Claire’s voice dropped.
“But after I saved Lily, I became dangerous.”
“Yes.”
She leaned her head against the wall.
“What does Vanessa gain if Lily dies?”
Dominic’s expression became distant.
“I have been asking myself that.”
“And?”
He looked toward Lily’s bedroom door.
“Rebecca created a trust.”
Claire waited.
“Forty-one percent of Romano Holdings belongs to Lily. I control it until she turns twenty-five.”
“That doesn’t explain Vanessa.”
“If Lily dies before twenty-five without children, the shares return to my estate.”
Claire understood.
“And if you marry Vanessa…”
“She becomes eligible under my current estate plan.”
Claire felt sick.
“But only if something happens to you too.”
Dominic’s eyes met hers.
Exactly.
A door opened downstairs.
Daniel appeared at the end of the corridor.
His expression was grim.
“We searched Calder’s office.”
Dominic stood.
“What did you find?”
Daniel held up a plastic evidence pouch.
Inside were medication records.
Dominic’s name appeared across the top.
Daniel spoke carefully.
“Calder has been altering your prescriptions for nine months.”
Claire stood too.
“What kind of alterations?”
“Blood-pressure medication. Sedatives. Dosages that could create arrhythmia under the right conditions.”
Dominic went silent.
Daniel handed him another page.
“And there’s a life-insurance policy application.”
Dominic read it.
Claire watched his face.
The beneficiary line was blank.
But attached to the application was a draft estate amendment.
It had never been signed.
At the bottom, one sentence had been highlighted.
IN THE ABSENCE OF A SURVIVING DESCENDANT, PRIMARY CONTROL SHALL PASS TO THE LEGAL SPOUSE.
Dominic looked toward Lily’s closed door.
Then down at the page.
“This wasn’t an attempt to kill my daughter.”
Claire understood before he finished.
“It was the first murder.”
May you like
Dominic nodded.
“And I was supposed to be the second.”
