Chapter 12 - THE NIGHT DOMINIC FORGOT
Dominic remembered smoke.
He remembered shouting.
He remembered waking on the lawn with blood on his hands.
But he had never remembered starting the fire.
Sebastian did.
“You were drunk,” Sebastian said.
“Liar.”
“You found your father beating Elena.”
Dominic looked at her.
She lowered the gun.
“You remember?”
Fragments returned.
Elena crying.
Their father shouting.
A lamp breaking.
Gasoline.
Dominic’s hands shaking.
“I…”
Norah moved closer.
“Dominic.”
He looked at her.
“I set the study on fire.”
Elena nodded.
“You were trying to scare him.”
“What happened?”
“The fire spread.”
Dominic’s face twisted.
“Father died.”
“No,” Elena said.
Everyone stared.
She continued.
“He escaped.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
“Sebastian killed him outside.”
Sebastian’s smile disappeared.
Elena raised the gun again.
“You shot him and dragged him back inside.”
Julian looked at Sebastian.
“Why?”
“Because my brother had become inconvenient.”
Norah understood.
Sebastian had used Dominic’s fire to cover murder.
He had spent years controlling Dominic through guilt.
“You let him believe he killed his father,” Norah said.
“Yes.”
“You’re sick.”
Sebastian smiled.
“I’m practical.”
Dominic stepped toward him.
Norah caught his hand.
“Evidence.”
He stopped.
Barely.
Sebastian glanced at the hard drive.
“Give me that and everyone walks away.”
Elena laughed.
“You’ve been saying that for twenty years.”
Suddenly the theater lights went out.
Gunfire erupted.
Norah dropped.
Dominic covered her with his body.
Mateo shouted.
Julian fired back.
When emergency lights flickered on, Sebastian was gone.
And Elena lay bleeding on the floor.
“Mom!”
Julian ran to her.
The bullet had entered her shoulder.
Not fatal.
But painful.
Dominic knelt beside her.
For a second, they looked like the siblings they had once been.
Elena touched his face.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Everything.”
Sirens sounded outside.
Mateo had called federal agents using evidence from the drive.
Dominic looked at him.
“You planned this?”
Mateo nodded.
“Norah did.”
Dominic turned.
Norah shrugged.
“You said no war.”
Despite everything, he laughed.
Then Elena grabbed his wrist.
“Sebastian won’t run.”
“What?”
“He has one last place.”
“Where?”
“The Castile mausoleum.”
Dominic frowned.
“Why?”
Elena looked at Norah.
“Because Thomas Hastings hid the original ledgers there.”
“How do you know?”
“He told me.”
Norah’s pulse jumped.
“Why would my father hide them inside the Castile family tomb?”
Elena’s answer came quietly.
“Because the safest place to bury the truth was beside the man Sebastian murdered first.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Who?”
May you like
Elena swallowed.
“Our mother.”
