Chapter 4 - The Ghost Who Owned Half the CityVincent Valtieri was alive.
He had spent ten years in hiding.
Dominic never knew where.
Now he had returned.
They met in an abandoned church.
Vincent stood beneath a stained-glass window.
He was older.
But his eyes were unchanged.
“You look like your mother.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“You don't get to talk about her.”
Vincent looked at Evelyn.
“So this is Gabriel's daughter.”
Evelyn stepped forward.
“You killed my father.”
Vincent nodded.
“Yes.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You admit it.”
“I was protecting the organization.”
“You were protecting yourself.”
Vincent smiled.
“Same thing.”
Evelyn asked:
“Who is Subject Zero?”
Vincent's smile disappeared.
“A mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“Kline.”
“The doctor?”
“He began the testing program.”
Evelyn's stomach turned.
“On patients.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Money.”
“That's all?”
“No.”
Vincent stared at her.
“Power.”
He revealed that Holloway had built an illegal network using hospitals.
The Valtieri family provided transportation.
Kline provided medical access.
Politicians provided protection.
The system generated billions.
Gabriel discovered it.
He tried to stop it.
Vincent ordered him killed.
But Gabriel hid evidence.
The bracelet was one piece.
The trust was another.
The ledger was the final piece.
Evelyn asked:
“Where is the ledger?”
Vincent looked at her.
“With your grandmother.”
“She is dead.”
“She left instructions.”
Evelyn remembered the old piano.
The hidden compartment.
The journal.
There was more.
They returned to the house.
Behind a false wall, they found a safe.
Inside was the ledger.
But it was empty.
Someone had removed the pages.
Then they found the message:
ASK DOMINIC WHAT HE DID WITH THE LAST FILE.
Evelyn looked at him.
“What last file?”
Dominic went pale.
He knew.
Years earlier, his father had given him a file.
He had burned it.
Or thought he had.
He returned to his estate.
The file was missing.
Then he remembered.
He had given it to his mother.
His mother had disappeared.
Which meant someone else had it.
They located her old lawyer.
He was dead.
But his office contained a recording.
Dominic's mother spoke.
“Dominic, if you hear this, I failed you.”
She explained that Vincent wanted Dominic to inherit the organization.
She had tried to stop it.
She had discovered Claire was alive.
She had hidden her.
She had helped Gabriel's daughter survive.
Then she disappeared.
Evelyn cried.
“Your mother protected me.”
Dominic nodded.
“She did.”
The recording ended.
A door opened behind them.
Morgan Reed stood there.
She raised her hands.
“I didn't betray you.”
Evelyn stared.
“Then why did you work for Kline?”
“To survive.”
“What did they threaten?”
“My daughter.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Where is she?”
“Dead.”
Silence.
Morgan began crying.
“They killed her six years ago.”
Evelyn felt something break inside her.
Morgan had not been helping Holloway.
She had been trapped.
Dominic lowered his weapon.
“Tell me everything.”
Morgan did.
She gave them the missing ledger pages.
Names.
Accounts.
Locations.
One name appeared at the bottom.
Grant Holloway.
Not a shadow executive.
Not a businessman.
The architect.
The most powerful man in the region's medical logistics industry.
The one who had ordered the attack.
The one who had arranged Gabriel's death.
The one who had spent twenty years building the network.
Evelyn looked at Dominic.
“We can stop him.”
Dominic nodded.
“But he knows we have this.”
Morgan looked terrified.
“Then you need to move.”
“Why?”
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“Because Holloway has someone inside the house.”
Dominic's security chief suddenly drew his weapon.
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