Chapter 3 - THE MAN WHO KNEW BOTH DEATHS
Victor Hale looked worse than a dead man.
That was Dominic’s first thought when security brought him into the old billiard room.
His second was that Victor deserved to.
He had lost at least thirty pounds.
Gray showed through his beard.
One side of his face carried a healing cut.
His expensive habits had been replaced by motel clothes and the exhausted posture of a man who had spent too long checking mirrors.
Dominic stood across from him.
Clara sat near the fireplace with Ellie asleep against her shoulder.
She had refused to stay in the safe room.
Dominic had argued once.
She had said, “He knew Gabriel. I stay.”
That ended it.
Victor looked at Clara.
Then Ellie.
His expression changed.
“God.”
Dominic stepped between them.
“Start talking.”
Victor laughed weakly.
“Still efficient.”
“You broke into my property.”
“I came through the gate after Helena’s men found me.”
“You expect gratitude.”
“No.”
“Good.”
Dominic remained standing.
Victor looked toward the blanket folded over the arm of Clara’s chair.
“You found the card.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know.”
“I know enough to dislike you more accurately.”
Victor nodded.
“Fair.”
Dominic hated that word tonight.
“Gabriel is alive.”
Clara’s arms tightened around Ellie.
“You told security.”
“Yes.”
“I saw him die.”
Victor looked at her.
“No. You saw a body after a collision.”
“I held his hand before the ambulance.”
Victor stopped.
Clara’s face broke.
“I held him.”
Dominic turned.
She had never said that.
Clara swallowed.
“He was trapped. He was conscious for maybe thirty seconds.”
“What did he say?”
Her voice shook.
“He told me to protect the baby.”
Dominic’s throat tightened.
“Then?”
“Paramedics pulled me away. I lost consciousness.”
Victor nodded slowly.
“That part is real.”
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
“What happened after?”
Victor looked at him.
“Helena’s private medical team arrived before the county transport.”
“How?”
“She knew the crash was coming.”
Silence.
Clara stood.
Ellie stirred.
Dominic raised one hand.
Not at Clara.
At Victor.
“Choose the next sentence carefully.”
Victor’s face went pale.
“I’m not saying Helena ordered it.”
“Then who?”
“I did.”
The room became very still.
Clara stopped breathing.
Dominic heard the old clock down the hall.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Victor continued before anyone moved.
“I hired the truck.”
Clara made a sound.
Not a scream.
Something lower.
Dominic crossed the room.
He did not remember deciding to.
One second Victor sat in the chair.
The next Dominic had him against the wall.
Security moved.
Then stopped.
Nobody touched Dominic unless necessary.
Victor did not fight.
“Do it,” he whispered.
That sentence stopped Dominic more effectively than resistance.
Victor looked at him.
“I’ve expected it for four years.”
Dominic’s fist tightened.
Behind him, Ellie made a sleepy sound.
Then Clara said:
“No.”
One word.
Dominic looked over his shoulder.
She was crying.
Not for Victor.
For herself.
For Gabriel.
“No,” she repeated.
Dominic released him.
Victor slid back into the chair.
Dominic walked away.
His hands shook.
He hid them behind his back.
Clara noticed anyway.
“Why?” she asked.
Victor looked at her.
“Gabriel was going to Dominic.”
“So you tried to kill us.”
“Yes.”
“Me too.”
“No.”
Clara laughed in disbelief.
“The truck crossed into our lane.”
“I told the driver to force Gabriel’s car off the road. Not hit the passenger side.”
“That distinction should comfort me?”
“No.”
At least he knew.
Victor rubbed his face.
“I thought Gabriel had the original ledger.”
“He did.”
“Yes. And he planned to give it to Dominic.”
Dominic said:
“Helena told you to stop him.”
“Yes.”
“How far?”
“She said use judgment.”
“You chose murder.”
“Yes.”
“Why save Clara and the child?”
Victor looked toward Ellie.
“Helena’s order.”
“Because of the trust.”
“Yes.”
Dominic’s voice hardened.
“How did she know about the trust?”
“Gabriel used Vale counsel to create the shell documents before disappearing the first time.”
“Which lawyer?”
“Shaw.”
Of course.
The dead attorney.
Victor continued.
“Helena discovered it. She knew Gabriel’s shares would pass to a child if he died.”
“Not if he lived.”
“No.”
Dominic understood.
The trust activated only upon Gabriel’s legal death.
That meant Helena had competing interests.
A living Gabriel held shares himself.
A dead Gabriel transferred them to Clara’s control on Ellie’s behalf.
Either way, Helena did not control them.
“Then why rescue him after you hit him?”
Victor’s face twisted.
“I called her.”
“Before police.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I panicked.”
Dominic laughed without humor.
“The most honest thing you’ve said.”
“Helena sent a helicopter team through a private trauma service.”
Clara stared.
“There was no helicopter.”
“Not at the crash site. They moved him from the first hospital.”
“What hospital?”
“Mercy North.”
Clara frowned.
“I was at Maine Medical.”
“You were transferred separately.”
Her face drained.
“They told me Gabriel went into surgery.”
“He did.”
“Then told me he died.”
“Because Helena had him moved.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“To where?”
Victor looked at the floor.
“Saint Orison.”
Dominic frowned.
“Never heard of it.”
“You’re not supposed to.”
“What is it?”
“Private neurological recovery facility.”
“Where?”
Victor hesitated.
Dominic’s stare answered for him.
“An island off Penobscot Bay.”
Clara’s face emptied.
“Four years.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“You knew where he was for four years.”
“Not continuously.”
“You let me bury him.”
“Yes.”
“There was a funeral.”
“I know.”
“Who was in the coffin?”
Victor looked sick.
“A John Doe from another accident.”
Clara sat down.
Dominic felt something inside him go cold.
This family had buried strangers under its own name twice.
“What condition is Gabriel in?”
Victor looked at Dominic.
“That is complicated.”
“Make it simple.”
“Brain injury.”
Clara covered her mouth.
“He had swelling. memory loss. confusion.”
“Does he know who he is?”
“Now? Mostly.”
“Now.”
Victor nodded.
“For the first year he knew Clara but not where she was. Then pieces returned.”
Clara whispered:
“Why didn’t he come for us?”
Victor looked ashamed.
“Helena told him you died in the crash.”
Clara went completely still.
Dominic swore.
Victor continued.
“She showed him a death certificate.”
Clara laughed once.
Broken.
“And Ellie?”
“He thought the baby died too.”
Ellie shifted in Clara’s arms.
Her mother began crying harder.
Dominic looked away.
Cruelty is not always pain.
Sometimes it is information arranged to make hope impossible.
“Why is he still there?” Dominic asked.
“He tried to leave twice.”
“And?”
“Helena had him declared medically incompetent.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“Legal guardian?”
“Private conservator.”
“Name.”
Victor swallowed.
“Helena Vale.”
Of course.
Dominic pulled out his phone.
Victor said:
“Don’t.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Explain why that word should save you.”
“If Helena knows you found Saint Orison, she moves him.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do we get there?”
Victor looked at the microSD card.
“Open DOMINIC.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Gabriel said not to open it first.”
“You already opened the others.”
“Yes.”
“He made DOMINIC for the point when you knew he might be alive.”
Clara looked at Dominic.
“Open it.”
He did.
One video.
No ledger.
No documents.
Gabriel appeared sitting beside a lake.
Date: November 2022.
“If Victor ever tells you Saint Orison, assume he wants something.”
Victor laughed once.
“Still knew me.”
Gabriel continued.
“Do not trust his route.”
Dominic looked at Victor.
Victor raised both hands.
“I was going to tell you.”
“Helpful.”
Gabriel said:
“There are two ways to reach the island. Helena controls the dock. The second is an old Coast Guard landing on the north side.”
A map appeared.
Coordinates.
Then Gabriel’s face returned.
“Dom, if you got this far, you probably want to arrive with twenty men and make everyone regret being born.”
Clara looked at Dominic.
He ignored her.
Gabriel almost smiled.
“Don’t.”
Dominic muttered:
“Everyone has advice.”
“Bring Clara if she wants to come.”
Clara stopped breathing.
“And if Ellie exists by then—”
Gabriel’s voice broke.
He looked away from camera.
When he looked back, his eyes were wet.
“Do not bring her to the island.”
Clara held her daughter tighter.
“Let her meet me somewhere with sunlight.”
Ellie stirred.
Gabriel continued.
“I don’t want her first memory of me to be behind a locked door.”
Dominic swallowed.
Then Gabriel said:
“One more thing.”
His expression changed.
“Helena is not the only person keeping me here.”
Victor went still.
Dominic noticed.
Gabriel leaned toward the camera.
“Someone inside your house reports to her.”
The file ended.
Silence.
Dominic looked toward the door.
His estate.
His guards.
His staff.
Eight months of Clara living under his roof.
Someone had known.
Maybe someone had watched Ellie every day.
Dominic called security.
“Lock internal exits.”
His chief, Marcus Cole, answered.
“Boss?”
“Nobody leaves.”
“Reason?”
Dominic looked at Victor.
Victor’s face had turned pale.
Then Dominic heard a click through the phone.
Not Marcus’s voice.
Another line joining.
A woman.
Helena.
“Dominic.”
He went cold.
“Aunt.”
Clara stood.
Helena’s voice was calm.
“You always were dramatic when Gabriel was involved.”
Dominic looked toward the ceiling camera.
Then at Victor.
“You’re inside my system.”
Helena sighed.
“No. Someone else is.”
“Who?”
“Bring me Victor and the card.”
“Where?”
“And I will bring you Gabriel.”
Clara’s breath caught.
Dominic said nothing.
Helena continued:
“Tomorrow. Noon. Portland Observatory.”
“Public.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because despite what you think, I have no desire to start a war with my nephew.”
Dominic looked at Ellie.
“Then stop threatening children.”
Helena’s voice changed.
“I have never threatened Ellenora.”
“You let Victor hit her mother’s car.”
“I did not know until after.”
Victor looked down.
Helena continued.
“And Dominic?”
“What?”
“You should ask Clara why she applied to work in your house eight months ago.”
Every head turned toward her.
Clara went white.
Helena hung up.
Dominic stared at Clara.
She closed her eyes.
He felt the ground shift again.
“You chose this house.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Clara looked at Ellie.
Then at him.
“Because Gabriel told me to.”
The room went silent.
May you like
And Dominic understood the little girl with the yellow stars had not wandered into his life by accident.
Her mother had been walking toward him for eight months.
