Chapter 3 - THE NORTH WING
Dominic unlocked the north wing himself.
Nobody knew where he had gotten the key.
Clara suspected he had carried it all these years.
The doors opened with a soft scrape.
Dust floated through the beam of afternoon light.
Nothing inside looked frightening.
That somehow made it worse.
The corridor beyond was beautiful.
White walls.
Framed photographs.
A long runner carpet patterned with pale roses.
At the far end, afternoon sun spilled through tall windows overlooking Lake Michigan.
Dominic stood motionless.
Clara realized he had not entered this part of the house since his wife died.
A framed photograph rested on a console.
Dominic with a younger face.
A dark-haired woman beside him.
Noah as a baby between them.
The woman was laughing.
Not politely smiling for a camera.
Laughing.
“This was Elena?” Clara asked.
Dominic nodded.
Noah pressed against her leg.
Dominic glanced down.
“He won’t remember most of this.”
Clara wasn’t sure.
Children remembered strange things.
Not always as stories.
Sometimes as smells.
Sounds.
A pattern of light beneath a door.
Fear.
Noah pulled Clara forward.
Dominic followed.
They reached Elena Vale’s bedroom.
The door was unlocked.
Everything had been preserved.
A silk robe hung on the chair.
Books remained stacked beside the bed.
Perfume bottles stood untouched on a vanity.
Clara could almost believe Elena might return from downstairs at any moment.
Noah stared at the room.
Then went to the closet.
He crouched.
Pointed.
Clara bent down.
There were faint scratches on the wood near the bottom.
“What is that?”
Dominic crouched beside her.
The marks were narrow and uneven.
Almost like fingernails.
Noah touched them.
Then he put his hands over his ears.
“No.”
Dominic’s voice was careful.
“Noah, did something happen here?”
Noah began rocking.
Clara lifted her hand.
“Stop.”
Dominic turned.
“He needs to tell me.”
“He needs to feel safe first.”
“My wife may have—”
“I know.”
Clara softened her tone.
“But if you scare him, he’ll disappear again.”
Dominic looked at his son.
Then he stood.
Noah pulled Clara toward the bathroom.
Nothing.
Then a sitting room.
Nothing.
Finally he led her to a smaller dressing room.
At first Clara saw only clothing racks covered in fabric sheets.
Then Noah pointed at the wall.
A narrow section of paneling sat slightly crooked.
Dominic pulled it.
Nothing happened.
Elias appeared behind them with two guards.
Dominic looked at him.
“Tool.”
Within minutes they removed the panel.
Behind it sat a small electronic safe.
Dominic stared.
“I didn’t know this existed.”
Elias examined it.
“Keypad.”
Dominic entered his wedding anniversary.
Red light.
Elena’s birthday.
Red.
Noah’s birthday.
Green.
The lock clicked.
Dominic stopped moving.
Clara looked at him.
“She used his birthday.”
He opened the safe.
Inside were three things.
A flash drive.
A sealed envelope.
And a cheap disposable phone.
Dominic lifted the envelope.
His name was written across the front.
DOMINIC.
His fingers tightened.
Clara stepped back.
“That’s private.”
He looked at her.
For once, there was no authority in his face.
Only fear.
“Stay.”
Clara did.
Dominic opened the envelope.
He unfolded two pages.
The room stayed silent as he read.
His face changed halfway through.
Then changed again.
“What does it say?” Elias asked.
Dominic didn’t answer.
He read the first page twice.
Then handed it to Elias.
Clara tried not to look.
Elias read aloud anyway.
“Dominic, if you find this, then either I finally became brave enough to tell you everything or I am no longer here to do it myself.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Elias continued.
“For almost a year, someone inside this house has been helping people outside your organization access your schedule. I thought at first they were watching you. I was wrong. They were watching Noah and me.”
Clara felt Noah’s hand tighten around hers.
“There have been small things. Medication moved. Cameras disabled. Staff records altered. Noah waking after being put to bed in rooms where I did not leave him. Mrs. Hargrove says I am exhausted. Dr. Mercer says I am becoming paranoid.”
Dominic’s head snapped up.
“Mercer.”
Elias continued.
“I have begun recording everything because I no longer trust my own memory.”
Dominic looked toward the flash drive.
Elias reached the final lines.
“If anything happens to me, do not assume the attack came from outside. And please, Dominic, listen to Noah. He sees more than we think.”
Silence.
Clara’s stomach turned.
Dominic took the letter back.
“When was this written?”
Elias checked.
“Eleven days before Elena died.”
Dominic crossed the room and punched the wall.
Noah screamed.
Dominic froze.
Blood appeared across his knuckles.
Clara dropped immediately beside Noah.
“Look at me.”
The boy was shaking.
Dominic backed away as if he had been struck.
“I’m sorry.”
Noah buried his face against Clara.
Dominic turned away.
Elias inserted the flash drive into a secure laptop.
The first folders contained photographs.
License plates.
Staff schedules.
Copies of medical documents.
Then videos.
Elena had recorded herself.
In the first, she sat at the vanity.
Tired.
Beautiful.
Terrified.
“If Dominic sees this,” she said, “I need him to understand I’m not imagining it.”
Dominic moved closer.
Elena held up a medicine bottle.
“This is supposed to be Noah’s allergy medication. I sent samples privately. It contains a sedative.”
Dr. Mercer.
Mrs. Hargrove.
Both names appeared repeatedly.
Then Elena lowered her voice.
“Noah has been waking with bruises I cannot explain.”
Dominic turned gray.
“He was two.”
Elias said nothing.
Another recording.
Elena whispering inside a car.
“Hargrove keeps insisting I stop sleeping in Noah’s room. She says I’m making him dependent. Last night I pretended to leave. At 2:14 a.m., somebody entered.”
The video cut.
Next recording.
Elena’s hands shook.
“I saw her.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“She had Noah.”
Clara whispered, “Who?”
Elena looked into the camera.
“Margaret Hargrove.”
Dominic’s expression became terrifying.
Elias immediately said, “Boss.”
“Where is she?”
“We confined her to the downstairs sitting room.”
“Bring her.”
“No.”
Everyone turned.
Clara had spoken.
Dominic’s eyes hardened.
“She drugged my son.”
“Maybe.”
“She drugged my wife.”
“Maybe.”
“She helped kill Elena.”
“You don’t know that yet.”
Dominic stepped toward her.
Clara’s heart hammered.
But she didn’t move.
“If you hurt her now,” she said, “and she knows who else was involved, you lose the answers.”
His jaw tightened.
“She touched my child.”
“And Noah needs answers more than he needs revenge.”
That stopped him.
Not because Clara had won.
Because she had said Noah’s name.
Dominic looked down.
Noah had moved away from Clara.
He was staring at the laptop.
At his mother’s frozen face.
Slowly, he reached toward the screen.
“Mommy.”
Dominic knelt beside him.
Noah did not retreat this time.
Dominic swallowed.
“Yes.”
Noah touched Elena’s face.
Then he looked at Dominic.
“Mommy cry.”
Dominic’s eyes filled.
Clara looked away to give him privacy.
Noah continued.
“Bad lady.”
Dominic’s gaze sharpened.
“Hargrove?”
Noah shook his head.
“No.”
Everybody froze.
Dominic glanced at Clara.
“Noah, who was the bad lady?”
The child looked around the room.
Then toward a framed family photograph on the dresser.
He walked over.
The photograph showed Dominic and Elena at a charity event.
Several people stood around them.
Noah pointed.
Not at Mrs. Hargrove.
At another woman.
Young.
Blonde.
Smiling with one hand on Elena’s shoulder.
Dominic’s face emptied of color.
Clara asked quietly, “Who is she?”
Dominic stared at the photograph.
“My sister.”
May you like
He picked it up.
“Victoria.”
