Chapter 7 - THE DAUGHTER NOBODY KNEW
They found the second chamber behind a concrete panel.
Empty.
A mattress lay on the floor.
Food wrappers.
A blanket.
A chain bolted to the wall.
Claire covered her mouth.
“Emily.”
Dominic found strands of long brown hair caught in the chain.
Claire began crying.
“My sister has brown hair.”
Daniel searched the room.
“Someone moved her recently.”
He touched a coffee cup.
“Still smells fresh.”
Dominic turned toward Claire.
“Start telling the truth.”
Claire lowered her hands.
“My full name isn’t Claire Bennett.”
Vincent rolled his eyes.
“Of course it isn’t.”
She glared at him.
“My name is Claire Cross.”
Silence.
Dominic felt the floor shift beneath him.
“Cross?”
“Nathan is my father.”
Dominic stared at her.
Harper was upstairs.
Mia safe with the doctor.
Yet somehow the danger beneath his roof kept growing.
“You’re Nathan’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“And you were going to marry me.”
“He ordered me to.”
Vincent whispered, “That’s sick.”
Claire’s eyes filled with anger.
“You think I don’t know that?”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Why?”
“To control your estate after your death.”
Dominic said nothing.
“Your marriage agreement included survivorship rights to several holding companies.”
Dominic remembered his lawyers pushing back.
Nathan had insisted it simplified succession.
Dominic wanted to punch a wall.
Claire continued.
“Nathan planned to kill you sometime after the wedding.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“He never told me everything.”
“Yet you helped him.”
“Yes.”
At least she did not hide from it.
“I helped him because he had Emily.”
“Your sister.”
“My half sister.”
Claire looked toward the chain.
“Nathan had affairs my entire childhood.”
“He abandoned Emily and her mother years ago. Then Emily contacted me five months ago saying she had evidence about him.”
“What evidence?”
Claire looked at Dominic.
“The real reason Nathan wanted control of the Vale organization.”
Daniel found a small carved mark on the wall.
Three lines.
A triangle.
Dominic recognized it.
The Moretti syndicate.
His family’s oldest enemy.
“Nathan works for the Morettis,” Dominic said.
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“He owns them.”
Vincent laughed in disbelief.
Claire continued.
“Nathan built their current network using Vale money he stole over fifteen years.”
Dominic felt sick.
Every war.
Every retaliation.
Every dead soldier.
Nathan had been feeding both sides.
“Where would he take Emily?”
Claire wiped her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
A voice crackled through Daniel’s radio.
“Boss, we found something in Cross’s office.”
They returned upstairs.
Inside Nathan’s desk was a satellite phone.
One recent message remained.
PACKAGE MOVED TO CHAPEL.
SECOND PACKAGE PENDING.
Dominic frowned.
“What’s the second package?”
Mia appeared in the doorway.
Harper held her hand.
“Me.”
Everyone turned.
Mia’s face had gone white.
She pointed toward the photograph board Daniel had carried upstairs.
One photograph showed Mia leaving a hospital years earlier.
Pregnant.
On the back someone had written:
M.C. - CONFIRM PATERNITY BEFORE DISPOSAL.
Dominic looked at her.
“Mia…”
She closed her eyes.
“I never told Harper who her father was.”
Harper looked up.
“Mommy?”
Mia’s voice broke.
“Because I was afraid he’d find us.”
Dominic studied the photograph.
Then the dates.
Then Nathan’s obsession with Mia.
His chest tightened.
“Mia.”
She looked at him.
“Who is Harper’s father?”
May you like
Mia whispered the name.
“Nathan Cross.”
