Chapter 11 - BRING LILY
BRING LILY.
COME ALONE.
OR HE DIES.
Dominic stared at the six words until they blurred.
Ethan looked tiny in the photograph.
His injured arm was still wrapped.
His eyes were open.
He was not crying.
That frightened Dominic more.
Lily stepped closer.
“Let me see.”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“No.”
He locked the phone.
Lily stared at him.
“They want me.”
“They’re not getting you.”
“They already had me.”
“And I got you back.”
“And while you were getting me back, they took Ethan.”
The words hit harder than Lily intended.
Dominic’s expression changed.
She immediately regretted them.
“I didn’t mean—”
“You’re right.”
His voice was quiet.
Lily shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked toward the dark corridor.
“They moved me exactly where they wanted me.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“They couldn’t have known we would find North Ridge.”
“They wanted us to.”
Dominic turned toward him.
“The letters.”
“The tunnel.”
“Lily.”
“Everything.”
Marcus frowned.
“You think North Ridge was staged?”
“Not all of it.”
Dominic looked toward the room where Evelyn’s name had been carved into the wall.
“But enough.”
Lily rubbed her wrists.
“Victor knew you would come.”
“Yes.”
“He knew Serena would lead you here.”
Serena looked up.
“I didn’t know.”
Dominic’s eyes settled on her.
“I believe you.”
Serena seemed surprised.
It was perhaps the first time he had said those words to her all night.
Dominic continued.
“Because you’re not important enough for Victor to trust with the full plan.”
Her face tightened.
Under different circumstances, the insult might have angered her.
Now it only seemed to frighten her.
Marcus looked at the message.
“We need the location.”
“He’ll send it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he wants Lily.”
Lily stepped closer.
“Then use me.”
Dominic turned.
“No.”
“Stop saying no before I finish.”
“No.”
Lily’s eyes flashed.
“He has a fourteen-month-old baby.”
“My son.”
“I know exactly who Ethan is.”
Her voice broke.
“I’m the one who held him through fevers.”
“I’m the one who sat beside his crib when he couldn’t sleep.”
“I’m the one who learned that he hates mashed peas but will eat sweet potatoes until he makes himself sick.”
Dominic stared at her.
Lily continued.
“I know the sound he makes when he’s scared.”
Her eyes filled.
“And in that picture, he is terrified.”
Dominic looked away.
Lily lowered her voice.
“So don’t tell me to sit here while someone uses him to control us.”
Dominic looked back.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Take me.”
“No.”
“You asked.”
“I asked what you wanted.”
“And I answered.”
Marcus stepped between them.
“We may not need to choose.”
Dominic looked at him.
Marcus held up his tablet.
“The photograph has metadata.”
“Location?”
“Scrubbed.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“But whoever scrubbed it missed something.”
Marcus enlarged the image.
Behind Victor was a narrow window.
Beyond it, barely visible, stood a red light.
Lily leaned closer.
“What is that?”
“Aircraft warning beacon.”
Marcus zoomed farther.
“Mounted on a water tower.”
Dominic studied it.
“There are hundreds.”
“Not with that paint pattern.”
Marcus pulled up an infrastructure map.
Red and white stripes.
A narrow platform.
Two antennas.
Dominic recognized it first.
“Blackwood Harbor.”
Marcus nodded.
“The old shipyard.”
Serena’s face changed.
Dominic noticed.
“You know it.”
She hesitated.
“Julian took me there once.”
“Why?”
“He said it belonged to a holding company.”
“It does.”
Dominic looked at Marcus.
“My father bought it thirty years ago.”
Marcus checked the map.
“Main warehouse has been abandoned since 2011.”
Dominic’s phone vibrated.
Another message.
An address.
Blackwood Harbor.
Lily looked at Dominic.
“You see?”
“He wants us there.”
Marcus read the second line.
“Six fifteen.”
Dominic looked at the time.
5:26.
Fifty minutes.
Then another message arrived.
NO POLICE.
NO MARCUS.
LILY WALKS IN WITH THE AGREEMENT.
Dominic looked toward the folder Serena had brought from the mansion.
The succession agreement.
Marcus frowned.
“Why does he need the physical copy?”
“He doesn’t.”
Dominic answered immediately.
“He needs my signature.”
Lily looked at him.
“And me?”
Dominic stared at the agreement.
“You’re the problem.”
“What does that mean?”
Dominic opened the document.
“If Victor is telling the truth and your mother was my father’s daughter, you have a blood claim.”
“To what?”
“The trust.”
Lily shook her head.
“I don’t want it.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Dominic turned pages.
“If Ethan dies, my spouse becomes beneficiary under the forged amendment.”
“But if the amendment fails?”
Marcus understood.
“Then the original bloodline provisions apply.”
Dominic nodded.
“Which means Lily could challenge the transfer.”
Lily stared at him.
“So Victor needs both of us.”
“And Ethan.”
Serena suddenly spoke.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
Her face had gone pale.
“That’s not all.”
Dominic stared at her.
“What?”
Serena looked toward the agreement.
“There was another page.”
Marcus frowned.
“What page?”
“Julian showed it to me once.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“What did it say?”
Serena struggled to remember.
“It was about a direct descendant.”
Dominic waited.
“Whose descendant?”
Serena looked at Lily.
“Evelyn’s.”
Lily froze.
Serena continued.
“If Evelyn had a living child, something changed.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic moved closer.
“Think.”
Serena closed her eyes.
Then opened them.
“The trust couldn’t transfer through marriage.”
Dominic became still.
Marcus looked at Lily.
Serena nodded.
“That was why Julian was so angry when they found her.”
Lily stared at her.
“When they found me?”
Serena’s eyes filled.
“You weren’t supposed to work for Dominic.”
“Then why did you have my file?”
“Because they were trying to keep you away from him.”
Silence.
Lily shook her head.
“That makes no sense.”
Serena looked at Dominic.
“Her application wasn’t planted.”
“It was intercepted.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“By Julian?”
“Yes.”
“Then why was she hired?”
Serena swallowed.
“Because somebody put it back.”
Dominic looked toward Marcus.
Marcus slowly lowered the tablet.
Someone else had been involved.
Someone had deliberately brought Lily into Blackwood Mansion.
Not Victor.
Not Julian.
Not Serena.
Someone who knew who Lily really was.
Dominic’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Victor’s voice came through.
“Time is moving, nephew.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“I want to hear Ethan.”
Victor laughed softly.
“You’re not negotiating.”
“I hear my son or there’s no agreement.”
Silence.
Then a small cry came through the phone.
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Ethan.”
The baby whimpered.
“Da…”
Dominic’s face broke for half a second.
Lily covered her mouth.
Then Victor returned.
“Six fifteen.”
“If he has another injury—”
“You’re wasting time.”
“Victor.”
“Yes?”
Dominic’s voice became deadly calm.
“If my son dies, there will be nowhere on this planet you can hide.”
Victor laughed.
“You sound exactly like your father.”
Then another voice came through the phone.
Older.
Weak.
But unmistakably commanding.
“Enough, Victor.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
Victor went silent.
The older man spoke again.
“Bring the papers, son.”
Dominic’s face lost all color.
He knew that voice.
He had heard it in nightmares for eighteen years.
The call ended.
Lily stared at him.
“Dominic?”
He lowered the phone.
Marcus already knew.
Serena did too.
But Lily needed to hear it.
May you like
Dominic looked toward the first gray light appearing beyond the cellar window.
“My father is alive.”
