Chapter 3 - The Woman at the Gate
Norah refused the bodyguard.
Then she refused the second bodyguard.
Then she told Dominic she would rather walk through Chicago alone at midnight than have a six-foot man in a black suit follow her to the grocery store.
Dominic listened.
He didn't argue.
He simply assigned someone to watch from a distance.
Norah discovered this when she left work the following evening.
“You're terrible at being subtle,” she told the man sitting in the parked SUV.
He lowered his newspaper.
“I wasn't trying to be.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Of course not.”
She walked home.
Halfway there, her phone rang.
Unknown number.
“Hello?”
Nothing.
Then a woman's voice whispered:
“Your mother lied to you.”
Norah stopped.
“Who is this?”
“You should ask Dominic Mercer what happened at the Bellmont Hotel.”
The call ended.
Norah immediately called Dominic.
He answered on the first ring.
“What happened?”
“Someone called me.”
“What did they say?”
Norah repeated the message.
There was silence.
Then Dominic said:
“Go inside the nearest business.”
“Why?”
“Now.”
His voice was different.
Not commanding.
Afraid.
Norah entered a pharmacy.
Ten minutes later, Dominic arrived himself.
He didn't bring his usual entourage.
He came alone.
“What happened at the Bellmont Hotel?” Norah asked.
Dominic looked at her.
“My uncle wasn't murdered there.”
“I thought you said—”
“He was killed three blocks away.”
“Then why is the hotel important?”
“Because that's where the ledger disappeared.”
Norah stared at him.
“And my mother?”
“She was the last person seen with my uncle.”
“Did she kill him?”
“No.”
“You sound very certain.”
“I found the police report.”
“And?”
“She was protecting someone.”
“Who?”
Dominic hesitated.
“Me.”
Norah blinked.
“What?”
“My uncle knew someone was coming for me.”
“Why?”
“Because I was seventeen.”
Norah stared at him.
Dominic continued.
“My father wanted me out of the family business. My uncle agreed. He was going to send me away.”
“What happened?”
“He died before he could.”
Norah looked down.
For the first time, she saw something beneath Dominic's cold exterior.
Not weakness.
Grief.
“You were just a kid.”
“So was Lily.”
Norah looked at him.
He knew exactly why she had refused Valerie.
Dominic continued.
“That night changed my life.”
“Why didn't you leave the family?”
“I tried.”
“And?”
“They wouldn't let me.”
Norah's phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
COME TO 918 WABASH. ALONE.
Dominic saw it.
His face went blank.
“Delete it.”
“No.”
“Norah.”
“I want answers.”
“You'll get them.”
“When?”
“When it's safe.”
She looked at him.
“Then it will never happen.”
Dominic reached for the phone.
Norah pulled it away.
“I said no.”
He stopped.
Something changed between them.
Respect.
He nodded.
“Fine.”
“You'll let me go?”
“No.”
She sighed.
“I knew it.”
“I'll go with you.”
“The message said alone.”
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“Then whoever sent it doesn't understand me.”
They arrived at 918 Wabash twenty minutes later.
The building had been abandoned for years.
Norah entered first.
The hallway smelled of dust.
Then she saw the door.
Someone had written her mother's name across it.
ELENA BENNETT.
Norah's hand trembled.
She opened it.
Inside was a small wooden box.
Nothing else.
Dominic approached.
“Don't touch it.”
Norah opened the box anyway.
Inside was a key.
A photograph.
And a handwritten note.
She read it aloud.
“If my daughter ever finds this, tell her the truth.”
Norah's breath caught.
The next line was smeared.
But the final sentence was clear.
Dominic Mercer is not the man you should fear.
Norah looked at Dominic.
He stared at the note.
Then a gunshot shattered the window.
Dominic grabbed Norah and pulled her to the floor.
Glass exploded across the room.
Norah screamed.
Dominic covered her with his body.
“Stay down.”
Another shot.
Then silence.
Norah looked up at him.
For one strange second, the world disappeared.
May you like
Then Dominic whispered:
“They knew we would come here.”
