Chapter 5 - The Woman in the PhotographThe next morning, Dominic moved Lily to a private apartment owned by the family.
He doubled security.
Changed drivers.
Changed phones.
And trusted nobody.
Except Marco.
They searched for Evelyn everywhere.
Hospitals.
Train stations.
Shelters.
Private clinics.
Security footage.
Nothing.
Then a photograph arrived.
No return address.
It showed Evelyn sitting inside a small diner.
Alive.
Tired.
Looking directly into the camera.
On the table beside her was the missing shoebox.
Dominic stared at the picture.
On the back was a message.
Come alone. Pier 17. Midnight.
Marco immediately said, “It's a trap.”
“I know.”
“You're not going.”
“I am.”
“Then I'm coming.”
“No.”
“Dominic—”
“No.”
Marco looked furious.
Dominic softened slightly.
“If they're watching you, they won't watch Lily.”
Marco understood.
Someone wanted Dominic isolated.
Someone who knew how he thought.
At midnight, Dominic arrived at Pier 17.
Snow fell harder than before.
The waterfront was nearly empty.
He walked toward the end of the pier.
“Evelyn?”
A figure stepped from behind a warehouse door.
Dominic stopped.
She looked exactly as he remembered.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably Evelyn.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then she whispered:
“You came.”
Dominic's voice broke.
“You disappeared.”
“I was taken.”
“By who?”
“Victor.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“What did he want?”
“The letters.”
“Why?”
“Because they prove your father tried to expose him.”
Dominic froze.
Evelyn continued.
“Your father wasn't running the operation.”
“Then who was?”
“Victor.”
Dominic stared.
“He manipulated your father into approving the shell companies. Then he moved the money through businesses your father never knew existed.”
“Why would my father cover for him?”
“He didn't.”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“He discovered the truth. That's why he wrote the letters.”
Dominic remembered the sentence.
The person who destroyed your mother's life is still inside my family.
“Why didn't you come back?”
Evelyn looked down.
“I tried.”
“Eighteen years.”
“I wrote you.”
“I never got them.”
“I know.”
“Victor intercepted them.”
Evelyn nodded.
“And when Lily was born, he threatened me.”
“With what?”
“He said if I told you about her, she would disappear.”
Dominic's face went pale.
Evelyn touched his arm.
“I was twenty-one. I was terrified.”
“You should have trusted me.”
“I didn't know who you were anymore.”
That hurt.
Because it was true.
Dominic had spent years becoming exactly the man Evelyn had feared.
Then she handed him the shoebox.
“Take it.”
Dominic took it.
“Why now?”
“Because Victor is running out of time.”
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn looked toward the city.
“He knows the investigation is getting close.”
“Where is the evidence?”
She hesitated.
“Not in the box.”
Dominic stared.
“Then where?”
Evelyn whispered:
“Inside your father's old house.”
Dominic remembered the abandoned mansion in Westchester.
He hadn't visited since the funeral.
“What evidence?”
“The original ledger.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“Why didn't Victor destroy it?”
“Because he couldn't find it.”
“And you can?”
Evelyn nodded.
“I know where your father hid it.”
Before Dominic could answer, headlights appeared.
Evelyn's face changed.
“They found us.”
A black SUV raced toward the pier.
Dominic grabbed Evelyn's hand.
“Run.”
They sprinted toward the warehouse.
The SUV stopped.
Two men jumped out.
Dominic pushed Evelyn behind him.
“Stay down.”
One man shouted:
“Give us the box!”
Dominic smiled coldly.
“No.”
The man raised his weapon.
A gunshot cracked through the night.
Dominic shoved Evelyn aside.
The bullet struck the wooden railing.
Then Marco appeared from the darkness.
He had followed after all.
The attackers fled.
Marco ran toward them.
“Are you both okay?”
Dominic nodded.
Then Evelyn whispered:
“Where is Lily?”
Dominic froze.
Marco's face changed.
The private apartment was supposed to be secure.
Dominic pulled out his phone.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
Then a message appeared.
A photograph.
Lily sitting in the back seat of a car.
Her rabbit beside her.
And beneath the photograph:
BRING THE LEDGER. COME ALONE.
Dominic stared at the screen.
For the first time in his life, fear was stronger than anger.
May you like
Because someone had taken his daughter.
And he knew exactly what he was willing to do to bring her home.
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