Chapter 7 - WHEN DOMINIC FINALLY LEARNED MY NAME
By morning, Dominic had done something stupid.
He came to my father’s residence.
Not because he knew Dad was General Brooks.
Because he had followed Natalie.
Dominic stood at the private gate shouting into the intercom.
“Audrey! Bring me my son!”
I watched the security feed from upstairs.
He looked furious.
Then confused.
The building wasn’t what he expected.
This was not my childhood home.
Dad used it when he was in New York for private family matters and official travel, with strict separation between the two.
Dominic jabbed the buzzer again.
“Open the gate!”
Dad walked into the room wearing jeans and a gray sweater.
“You want me downstairs?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“This is impressive restraint on my part.”
I almost smiled.
Rebecca joined us.
“Police have been notified that there is an unwanted visitor. Let security handle it.”
Dominic called.
I answered from upstairs.
“Leave.”
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“You followed a pregnant woman across Manhattan.”
“She stole corporate documents.”
“No, she brought her own documents to my attorney.”
“You’re destroying my company.”
“I didn’t make your company insolvent.”
“You don’t know anything about my company.”
“I know you moved almost half a million dollars from accounts containing my inheritance.”
“That money was invested.”
“Without authorization.”
“Stop repeating what lawyers tell you.”
I looked at Rebecca.
She raised an eyebrow.
Then Dominic said, “And what is this place? Who are these people?”
“My family.”
He laughed.
“Your father’s some retired desk jockey. He can’t afford this.”
Dad’s smile disappeared.
I stepped closer to the window.
“You never asked what my father actually did.”
“I know what he did.”
“No. You assumed.”
“Here we go.”
“My father spent forty-one years in the United States Army.”
Dominic fell silent.
I continued.
“He commanded troops overseas.”
Nothing.
“He worked at the Pentagon.”
Still nothing.
“And when he retired from active duty, he retired as a four-star general.”
The line went completely quiet.
Then Dominic laughed.
Not because he thought it was funny.
Because he thought it was impossible.
“Your father is not a four-star general.”
Behind the gate, my father stepped into view.
Dominic stopped laughing.
Dad had been photographed enough over his career that recognition took only seconds.
I watched my husband’s face change.
Anger.
Confusion.
Calculation.
Fear.
Then something even uglier.
Opportunity.
“General Brooks,” Dominic said immediately.
Dad did not approach the gate.
He didn’t even acknowledge him.
Dominic straightened his coat.
“Sir, there’s obviously been a misunderstanding.”
I almost felt sick.
Ten seconds earlier, my father was a desk jockey.
Now he was sir.
Dad finally looked toward the security camera.
“Audrey.”
“Yes?”
“Remember this.”
“What?”
“A man who respects rank but not people does not understand respect.”
Then he walked back inside.
Dominic heard every word.
His face twisted.
“Audrey, open the gate.”
“No.”
“We need to talk privately.”
“No.”
“About Leo.”
“Through attorneys.”
“You’re going to let your father control our marriage?”
I felt anger rise.
“My father didn’t put me on a bus.”
“Audrey—”
“My father didn’t forge my signature.”
Silence.
Then Dominic said something I wasn’t expecting.
“I didn’t forge it.”
My skin prickled.
“Then who did?”
Another pause.
And for the first time, Dominic sounded afraid.
May you like
“You need to ask Paige.”
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