Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO KNEW MY NAME
By sunrise, the Vale estate no longer felt like a home.
It felt like a fortress.
Men in dark coats stood outside the main entrance. Another guarded the driveway. Two black SUVs arrived before breakfast, and Dominic spent most of the morning in a room I had never been allowed to enter.
Ellie noticed none of it.
She sat at the kitchen table eating strawberries and drawing pictures with a purple crayon.
“This is Daddy,” she announced.
I looked down.
She had drawn a stick figure with dark hair.
“And this is Uncle Dominic.”
The second figure was almost twice as tall.
“And this is Mommy.”
“That looks like a potato.”
She frowned.
“Mommy is pretty.”
“I am very pretty.”
She nodded seriously.
“Daddy said so.”
My smile vanished.
“What else did Daddy say?”
She continued coloring.
“He said you were brave.”
I stared at her.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“When I was little.”
“You were always little.”
She giggled.
I wanted to laugh with her.
Instead, I felt a familiar ache in my chest.
Gabriel had been gone six years.
Yet somehow, his voice still lived inside my daughter.
At ten in the morning, Dominic entered the kitchen.
Every employee became silent.
He walked directly toward us.
Ellie lifted her purple crayon.
“Uncle Dominic!”
He stopped.
Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.
It was brief.
Almost invisible.
But it was there.
“Good morning.”
“Did you sleep?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Too many questions.”
Ellie considered this.
“Mommy asks lots of questions.”
“I know.”
He looked at me.
“Can we talk?”
I nodded.
He waited until Ellie was distracted by her drawing before lowering his voice.
“The photograph came from a private courier.”
“Can you trace it?”
“I'm trying.”
“Who was the woman?”
“I don't know.”
“You're Dominic Vale. You know everything.”
“Not everything.”
He placed another photograph on the table.
This one showed Gabriel standing beside a dock.
He was older.
Thinner.
But alive.
The date was printed on the bottom.
Two years after his supposed death.
My hands began shaking.
“Where?”
“Portland.”
I looked at Gabriel’s face.
He wasn't smiling.
He was looking directly toward the camera.
As though he knew someone was taking his picture.
“Why would he let someone photograph him?”
“Maybe he didn't.”
Dominic pointed toward the background.
A warehouse.
A red shipping container.
And a small white number painted on the door.
“That's one of our old facilities.”
I looked at him.
“Your brother was working for your company?”
“According to our records, he never went near it.”
“Then the records are wrong.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“That's what worries me.”
He sat across from me.
“I need you to tell me everything Gabriel said before he disappeared.”
“I already told you.”
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
“You told me what you were willing to tell me.”
I looked away.
He wasn't wrong.
There were things I had buried so deeply that speaking them aloud felt dangerous.
“Gabriel was afraid.”
“Of whom?”
“I don't know.”
“Did he mention my father?”
I hesitated.
“Yes.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“What did he say?”
“He said your father wasn't the man you believed he was.”
The room went silent.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
“I know.”
“What did Gabriel mean?”
“I don't know.”
Dominic stared at me.
“Clara, I need the truth.”
“So do I.”
Before he could respond, one of the guards rushed into the kitchen.
“Boss.”
Dominic turned.
“What?”
“We found something at the north gate.”
The guard held out a small envelope.
My stomach tightened.
Dominic took it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Ellie.
Taken yesterday.
She was standing beside the mansion fountain.
My blood went cold.
There was writing on the back.
SHE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO REACH YOU.
Dominic read it.
His expression became terrifyingly calm.
“Lock the property down.”
The guard nodded.
“Already done.”
“No one leaves.”
The man hesitated.
“Boss, what about Mrs. Bennett and the child?”
Dominic looked at me.
“They stay with me.”
The guard left.
I stood.
“No.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“No?”
“I am not keeping Ellie inside a locked mansion because your enemies are interested in her.”
“They aren't interested in her.”
“Then why take her photograph?”
He said nothing.
I stepped closer.
“Tell me what you aren't telling me.”
Dominic looked toward the window.
“Gabriel was involved in something before he disappeared.”
“What?”
“I don't know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it's true.”
He turned back.
“My brother wasn't simply killed. Someone erased him.”
I felt a chill.
“Why?”
“Because he discovered something.”
“What?”
Dominic's phone rang.
He answered.
“Speak.”
A pause.
Then his expression changed.
“Where?”
Another pause.
“Don't touch anything.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“They found Gabriel's car.”
My knees nearly gave out.
“Where?”
“Underwater.”
“That's impossible.”
“It was recovered this morning.”
“Was there a body?”
“No.”
Relief hit me so hard it hurt.
Dominic saw it.
“You still believe he's alive.”
“I have to.”
“Why?”
Because I remembered the last thing Gabriel had said to me.
Not goodbye.
Not I love you.
Not take care of our daughter.
He had kissed my forehead and whispered,
“If they tell you I'm dead, don't believe them.”
I had forgotten that sentence for six years.
Or maybe I had forced myself to forget.
I looked at Dominic.
“He told me not to believe it.”
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“When?”
“The night before he disappeared.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I was trying to survive.”
He stared at me for several seconds.
Then he said something that frightened me more than any threat could have.
“I think someone has been waiting for you to remember.”
That afternoon, Dominic moved Ellie and me into the private wing of the mansion.
I hated it.
But I accepted it.
Because for the first time since Gabriel disappeared, I wasn't the only person searching.
At dusk, a storm rolled across the coast.
The lights flickered.
Ellie was asleep beside me when I heard footsteps outside.
I opened the door.
A man stood at the end of the hallway.
I had never seen him before.
He wore a gray coat and held a gun low beside his leg.
He looked directly at me.
Then he smiled.
“Clara Bennett.”
I froze.
Nobody had called me that in years.
He lifted the gun.
Before he could raise it, Dominic appeared behind me.
A single command cut through the hallway.
“Run.”
I grabbed Ellie.
And the mansion exploded into chaos.
Dominic moved faster than I had ever seen him.
He shoved me back into the bedroom and slammed the door.
“Stay inside.”
“Dominic—”
“Lock it.”
Then he disappeared.
I locked the door and pulled Ellie into my arms.
She woke crying.
“Mommy?”
“Shh. We're okay.”
A gunshot cracked somewhere downstairs.
Ellie screamed.
I covered her ears.
Another shot.
Then another.
Men shouted.
Glass shattered.
I backed away from the door.
My phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Then I saw the message.
LOOK UNDER THE BED.
I stared at the screen.
Someone had access to my phone.
Another message appeared.
THEY HID IT FROM YOU.
I looked beneath the bed.
There was nothing.
Then I noticed a loose floorboard near the wall.
I pulled it up.
A small metal box was hidden beneath it.
My hands trembled as I opened it.
Inside was a key.
And a note.
The handwriting was Gabriel's.
Clara,
If you're reading this, Dominic knows.
Do not trust anyone who tells you I died.
Not even him.
My heart stopped.
A second note was underneath.
The truth about the Vale family is inside Warehouse 17.
Go there only if you are ready to learn why I disappeared.
I heard footsteps outside.
“Clara!”
Dominic.
I shoved the box under my shirt just as the door opened.
He entered, breathing hard.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Ellie?”
“She's scared.”
He looked at my face.
Then his eyes dropped to my hands.
“What happened?”
I couldn't answer.
Because Gabriel's warning was still burning inside my mind.
Do not trust anyone.
Not even him.
Dominic stepped closer.
“Clara?”
I looked at the man who had protected my daughter.
The man who had promised to find his brother.
The man who might be part of the secret Gabriel died trying to expose.
And for the first time, I wondered whether the greatest danger in the mansion was standing right in front of me.
Dominic reached for my shoulder.
I stepped away.
He noticed.
Something painful crossed his face.
“Why did you move?”
I forced myself to breathe.
“Because I don't know who to trust anymore.”
He went still.
Outside, the storm struck the windows.
And somewhere beneath the thunder, my daughter's small voice whispered from the bed.
“Mommy…”
She was holding Gabriel's old photograph.
“Daddy told me Uncle Dominic would save us.”
Dominic looked at her.
Then at me.
Neither of us spoke.
May you like
Because suddenly, that promise sounded less like comfort.
It sounded like a message.
