Chapter 10 - THE HEARTBEAT
The hospital room was too quiet.
Mara hated quiet rooms now.
Quiet meant waiting for bad news.
Dominic stood beside the window with blood on his cuff.
Harlan’s blood.
Preston was being treated two floors down.
Bianca had disappeared behind a wall of federal agents after giving a statement.
Mara did not care about any of them.
A doctor moved an ultrasound wand across her stomach.
Mara held her breath.
Dominic did too.
The screen flickered.
Then—
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.
Mara broke.
She covered her face and cried.
The baby was alive.
The doctor smiled.
“Strong heartbeat.”
Dominic looked away quickly.
Too quickly.
Mara saw him wipe at one eye.
She almost teased him.
Instead she reached out.
“Come here.”
He approached the bed.
She took his hand.
His fingers closed around hers with surprising caution.
The doctor explained that stress had triggered bleeding, but the pregnancy remained viable.
Rest.
Monitoring.
No heroics.
Mara looked at Dominic.
He raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“You heard her.”
“I did.”
“No heroics.”
“That was directed at you.”
“Pretty sure it was both of us.”
For the first time in days, they smiled.
It lasted until Agent Samuel Price walked into the room.
He was smaller than Mara expected.
Seventy-something.
White hair.
Sharp blue eyes.
“I’m sorry about your mother.”
Mara’s smile vanished.
“You knew she was in danger.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t save her.”
Price accepted that without argument.
“No.”
Dominic moved closer to the bed.
Price looked at him.
“Vale.”
“Agent.”
“Still pretending you’re a businessman?”
“Still pretending the Bureau never used criminals when convenient?”
Mara snapped, “Enough.”
Both men stopped.
She looked at Price.
“What did my mother know?”
Price pulled up a chair.
“Your mother discovered that Senator Thorne and Dominic’s father had created a slush fund twenty-five years ago.”
“For bribes?”
“Bribes. Campaign money. Payoffs.”
“And Harlan?”
“Administrator.”
“After Dominic’s father died?”
“Harlan kept using the account.”
Dominic swore.
Price nodded.
“He forged your family’s internal approvals. That’s why you never noticed.”
Dominic’s face was stone.
“How much?”
“Over sixty million dollars.”
Mara stared.
Price continued.
“Eleanor had records linking Thorne directly to the money. She also had a recording.”
“What recording?”
“Thorne ordering Harlan to ‘solve the Eleanor problem.’”
Mara’s hands went cold.
“Where is it?”
“We don’t know.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Your mother hid it.”
Price nodded.
“We believe so.”
Mara stared at the ceiling.
Her mother loved puzzles.
Hated banks.
Distrusted computers.
Where would she hide something dangerous?
Then Mara thought of the bracelet.
The bracelet Eleanor always told her never to lose.
She lifted her wrist.
The repaired silver chain gleamed under hospital lights.
Dominic noticed.
“What?”
Mara touched the tiny oval charm.
It had always felt heavier than it looked.
“My mother said I would remember who I was as long as I had this.”
She pulled at the charm.
Nothing.
Then she twisted it.
A seam appeared.
Dominic stepped closer.
Mara’s breath caught.
Inside the charm was something black.
Tiny.
A microSD card.
Price stood.
“Oh my God.”
May you like
Mara stared at the final secret her mother had carried beside her skin for years.
Then the hospital lights went out.
