Chapter 12 - The Price of Calling the Police
Paramedics carried Mia from the cellar.
Harper refused to release her hand.
Dominic walked beside the stretcher until they reached the ambulance.
“I’ll keep Harper safe.”
Mia looked at him through half-closed eyes.
“Not Nathan.”
“He won’t reach her.”
“Claire too.”
“Neither of them.”
Only then did Mia allow the doors to close.
Sheriff’s deputies separated Claire and Nathan.
Claire requested an attorney.
Nathan demanded to speak privately with Dominic.
Dominic refused.
Investigators searched the cellar.
They collected the ropes, padlock, phone and wine bottles listed in the transfer documents.
One bottle contained traces of a heart medication Dominic did not take.
The amount was not immediately lethal.
But combined with alcohol, it could cause a dangerous medical crisis.
Nathan had planned to serve it after Dominic signed the succession papers.
Claire would call for help too late.
Doctors would assume stress, alcohol and an undiagnosed heart condition.
The engagement celebration would become a funeral.
Dominic read the preliminary report in silence.
Nathan’s plan had relied on the Vale family’s reputation for secrecy.
No independent autopsy.
No public questions.
No police inside the estate.
Dominic’s decision to call the sheriff destroyed that protection.
It also placed his own organization under scrutiny.
The district attorney requested records from Vale Maritime, estate security and multiple family companies.
Dominic’s attorney warned him.
“If we cooperate fully, they will uncover older crimes.”
“Did I authorize them?”
“Some occurred before you took control.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
The attorney remained silent.
Dominic looked through the hospital window at Harper sleeping beside Mia’s bed.
“Lucas tried to expose Nathan. My family buried the accusation because Nathan was useful.”
“Your father made that decision.”
“And I inherited the benefits.”
Dominic ordered every record surrendered.
His captains protested.
Investors threatened to abandon him.
Several longtime allies called cooperation weakness.
Dominic answered them the same way.
“A child found the door we refused to open.”
At the hospital, Mia woke after receiving fluids.
Harper was curled beside her.
Dominic remained outside the room until Mia invited him in.
He placed the silver bird and brass key on the table.
“The memory card is missing.”
“Nathan took it.”
“Then we need another copy.”
Mia looked toward the pendant.
“Lucas never trusted one hiding place.”
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Inside the bird’s hollow body was a second compartment neither Claire nor Nathan had found.
👉 The tiny compartment contained a storage code leading to the bank box where Lucas had preserved proof of Nathan’s first murder.
