Chapter 12 - SWALLOW IT
Everyone froze.
Richard Thorne stared at Mara.
“What did you just do?”
Mara swallowed.
The senator’s face twisted.
“You stupid little—”
Dominic stepped in front of her.
“Finish that sentence.”
Thorne’s hand shook.
“You think this protects you?”
Mara wiped her mouth.
“No.”
She smiled.
“It buys time.”
Bianca suddenly laughed.
Not kindly.
Her father turned.
“What?”
She held up her phone.
“I recorded you.”
His face changed.
Bianca’s hand trembled, but she kept the phone raised.
“You admitted Mom’s foundation was funded with dirty money. You admitted what happened to Eleanor.”
Thorne lunged.
Price blocked him.
Bianca backed away.
“You stupid girl!” Thorne shouted.
The warm public mask shattered completely.
“You had everything because of me!”
“I had everything except a decent father.”
He slapped her.
The sound cracked through the room.
Mara moved before she thought.
She shoved herself out of bed.
Dominic caught her.
“Mara!”
Bianca straightened slowly.
Blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.
For one strange second, she and Mara looked at each other.
Same injury.
Same man’s kind of cruelty.
Different graves.
Different cages.
Bianca smiled through the blood.
“You know what’s funny, Dad?”
Thorne stared.
“I slapped Mara this morning because I thought being powerful meant never letting anyone embarrass you.”
Her voice shook.
“But that wasn’t power.”
She wiped her lip.
“That was you.”
Sirens sounded outside.
Lots of them.
Thorne turned toward the window.
Price smiled.
“My old friends came quickly.”
Dominic looked at Mara.
“You called them?”
Price shook his head.
Mara raised a hand.
“I did.”
Everyone stared.
She smiled weakly.
“Before the warehouse.”
Dominic blinked.
“You contacted the FBI?”
“I contacted six people.”
“When?”
“While you were arguing with Marco.”
Dominic looked almost offended.
Mara shrugged.
“You weren’t the only one with a plan.”
The hallway filled with federal agents.
Weapons raised.
Thorne’s security men dropped theirs.
Senator Richard Thorne stared around him as if the laws of gravity had betrayed him personally.
“This is political persecution!”
Price laughed.
“I missed politicians.”
An agent cuffed Thorne.
He twisted toward Mara.
“You have no recording!”
Bianca lifted her phone.
“I do.”
“It won’t be admissible!”
Price smiled.
“We’ll let a judge decide.”
Thorne was dragged toward the door.
He stopped.
Looked back.
Then grinned.
A terrible grin.
“Mara.”
Dominic moved closer to her.
Thorne said, “Ask Vale why Eleanor was watching his family in the first place.”
Mara’s skin went cold.
Thorne laughed.
“Ask him what his father promised her.”
Dominic’s face changed.
Mara saw it.
“You know,” she whispered.
Thorne continued.
“Tell her, Dominic.”
“Shut up.”
“Oh, she deserves to know.”
Mara looked at Dominic.
“Know what?”
Thorne smiled as agents pulled him away.
“Eleanor Whitfield wasn’t just his mother’s friend.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Mara’s pulse pounded.
“What does that mean?”
Dominic opened his eyes.
“My father had another son.”
Mara stared.
“So?”
Dominic looked toward the hallway where Preston was being wheeled past in a hospital chair.
May you like
Then he said,
“Preston.”
