Chapter 4 - The Woman They Buried
Dominic didn't move.
Neither did the woman.
Fifteen years stood between them.
Elena watched her husband become seventeen again without changing anything except his eyes.
"Sofia?" Victor whispered.
The woman stepped from the elevator.
Older now.
Her dark hair threaded with silver.
A pale scar crossed her throat.
But the resemblance to the portrait in Dominic's study was unmistakable.
Dominic's mother was alive.
Marco lowered his weapon first.
He had known Sofia as a boy.
"Mrs. Vale?"
She looked at him.
"Marco."
His face crumpled for half a second before discipline returned.
Dominic still hadn't moved.
"You died."
Sofia looked at him.
"No."
"I saw you."
"You saw what they wanted you to see."
Dominic took one slow step.
"The body."
"Wasn't mine."
"DNA."
"Changed."
"Funeral."
"Closed coffin."
Dominic's voice became rough.
"I stood beside that coffin."
Sofia closed her eyes.
"I know."
"You let me."
"I had no choice."
"Everyone has a choice."
Elena heard pain beneath the anger.
Sofia did too.
She stepped closer.
Dominic stepped back.
That hurt her visibly.
"You don't get to walk toward me," he said.
Sofia stopped.
Elena had never seen Dominic refuse touch.
She had certainly never imagined him afraid of receiving it.
Sofia looked at the emerald pendant.
"Gabriel's key."
Elena held it tightly.
"You knew my father?"
"He saved my life."
Victor stared.
"You told Dominic I betrayed you."
"I believed you had."
Sofia looked at Victor.
"I was wrong."
Victor laughed bitterly.
"Fifteen years late."
"I know."
Dominic's patience broke.
"Enough."
Everyone became silent.
"Who is the Steward?"
Sofia looked at her son.
"Your father."
The answer landed like an explosion.
Dominic didn't react immediately.
His father, Anthony Vale, had died seven years earlier.
Unlike Sofia, Dominic had personally watched him take his final breath in a hospital.
"Impossible."
Sofia shook her head.
"Not Anthony."
Dominic frowned.
Sofia continued.
"The title passes."
"To whom?"
"I don't know."
Dominic gave a humorless laugh.
"You return from the dead and know nothing."
"I know enough."
She pointed to Elena's chip.
"Gabriel recorded the succession ledger."
Elena stared at it.
"The names?"
"Every Steward going back forty years."
Marco stepped closer.
"Then we open it."
Sofia shook her head.
"Encrypted."
Dominic looked at Elena.
"Password?"
She thought.
Her father had always been obsessed with puzzles.
Birthdays would be too obvious.
Her mother's name.
Her childhood home.
Her first dog.
Nothing felt right.
Then she remembered a phrase he used whenever she was afraid.
Keep the green light on.
As a child, Elena hated darkness.
Her father bought a tiny emerald-colored night-light.
Years later, he still joked about it.
She looked down at the necklace.
"Green light."
Marco typed it.
Wrong.
Elena frowned.
"Maybe Spanish."
"Luz verde?"
Wrong.
Dominic watched her.
"What exactly did he say?"
Elena closed her eyes.
"Keep the green light on, Lena."
Marco entered:
GRENLIGHTONLENA
Wrong.
She shook her head.
"Wait."
Her father never called her Elena when he said it.
He called her Ellie.
Marco tried again.
KEEPGREENLIGHTONELLIE
The screen unlocked.
A folder appeared.
Seventeen files.
Sofia exhaled.
Victor whispered, "Gabriel, you paranoid genius."
The first sixteen files contained financial records.
The seventeenth contained video.
Dominic clicked.
Gabriel Serrano appeared on screen.
Older than in the photograph.
Tired.
Alive.
Elena covered her mouth.
"Ellie," the recording began, "if you're watching this, I failed."
Elena's eyes filled.
Dominic reached for her hand.
She took it.
Gabriel continued.
"I spent years trying to uncover a network inside the Vale organization. Sofia found it first. Victor found part of it. I found the rest."
Documents appeared behind him.
"The Steward isn't one person. It's a position passed from adviser to adviser. Each Steward controls the families by manipulating their conflicts."
Dominic stared.
Gabriel continued.
"Anthony Vale believed he controlled his empire. He didn't."
Sofia looked away.
"The Steward during Sofia's disappearance was a man named Charles Mercer."
Marco inhaled.
Dominic turned.
"Mercer?"
Luca looked equally stunned.
Elena didn't understand.
"Who?"
Dominic answered.
"My father's attorney."
Gabriel continued.
"Mercer arranged Sofia's kidnapping after she discovered the accounts. He intended to kill her, but I moved her before his men arrived."
Sofia nodded slowly.
"Gabriel hid me."
Elena watched her father on the screen.
"I couldn't return her to Dominic. Mercer controlled police, hospitals, judges, everything. So we created a death."
Dominic's eyes burned.
Gabriel looked directly into the camera.
"I'm sorry, son."
Dominic flinched.
"I know what losing her did to you. But keeping her alive meant making you believe she was gone."
Elena squeezed his hand harder.
Gabriel continued.
"Mercer eventually discovered I helped her. He threatened Elena."
Elena's eyes filled.
"I walked away. I buried the evidence in places connected to both our families."
The video flickered.
"Mercer died eight years ago."
Dominic frowned.
Gabriel continued.
"But the Steward position passed to someone younger."
A photograph appeared.
The face was blurred.
"That person's identity is in File Seventeen."
Marco opened it.
Password protected again.
Elena whispered, "Of course."
Gabriel continued.
"Only Sofia knows the second key."
Everyone looked at her.
Sofia looked uncomfortable.
Dominic noticed.
"What is it?"
She hesitated.
"Your childhood nickname."
Dominic stared.
Marco coughed into his fist.
Luca suddenly became interested in the ceiling.
Elena almost smiled.
"You have a childhood nickname?"
"No."
Sofia raised an eyebrow.
"Dominic."
"Mother."
It was the first time he called her that.
Everyone heard it.
Sofia's eyes filled.
Dominic looked away.
Elena nudged him.
"What's the nickname?"
"No."
"Dominic."
"Absolutely not."
Victor smiled.
Sofia finally said it.
"Mimi."
Silence.
Elena stared at her terrifying husband.
Dominic looked ready to dismantle the entire building.
Marco's shoulders shook.
"Are you laughing?" Dominic asked.
"No, boss."
"You are."
"I'm grieving."
"Your employment?"
"Possibly."
Elena laughed.
She couldn't help it.
Even Sofia smiled through tears.
For ten precious seconds, danger disappeared.
Dominic glared at everyone.
Then typed MIMI.
File Seventeen opened.
The current Steward's identity appeared.
Nobody laughed anymore.
Elena stared at the name.
Marco whispered, "That's impossible."
Luca took one step backward.
Dominic's face became unreadable.
The current Steward was not an enemy.
Not a politician.
Not a rival.
The name belonged to someone Dominic trusted with every door, every vehicle, every schedule and every weapon in his organization.
Elena looked toward the hallway.
Dominic did too.
May you like
Because the man whose name was on the screen had come with them tonight.
And he was standing just outside the room.
