Chapter 16 - THE MAN WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD|
Three days passed without a word from Vincent.
The police searched warehouses, private garages, and properties associated with the Vale family. Dominic's security team examined every camera along the route of the missing transport.
Nothing.
Then Emma received a text from an unknown number.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO REALLY KILLED YOUR FATHER, COME ALONE. MIDNIGHT. OLD PIER 19.
Dominic refused to let her go.
“You can't walk into an obvious trap.”
“Then come with me.”
“The message says alone.”
“It's from the same people who have been lying to me for fourteen years. I'm done letting them decide where I can go.”
Dominic studied her.
Finally, he nodded.
“You won't see me. But I will be there.”
At midnight, Emma reached Pier 19. Rain swept across the water, and the old warehouse lights flickered above the dock.
A figure stepped out from behind a stack of crates.
He was tall and lean, with a scar along his jaw and gray beginning to show in his dark hair.
Emma recognized him from the photograph.
Anthony Vale.
“You look like your mother,” he said.
Emma didn't move.
“Are you the one who sent the message?”
“Yes.”
“Did you kill my father?”
Anthony's expression tightened.
“No.”
“Did you help?”
He looked toward the river.
“I helped your mother hide. I helped her move the records. But I was supposed to meet Daniel that night, and I never arrived.”
“Why?”
“Arthur's men caught me before I reached the docks. They held me for two days. When I escaped, Daniel was dead and Margaret had vanished.”
Emma's voice shook.
“Why didn't you come forward?”
“Because Vincent told me the police had already been paid. He said if I returned, everyone connected to me would be killed.”
“So you disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother spent years thinking you were dead.”
“I thought she was dead, too.”
Emma stared at him.
“Why contact me now?”
“Because Vincent is preparing to leave the country. He has the original ledger, and he knows the recording from the gala can only take him so far. He needs the original documents destroyed.”
“Where is he?”
Anthony handed her a photograph.
It showed Vincent entering a private hangar beside a small aircraft.
“Tonight. He's meeting someone who can get him out.”
“Who?”
Anthony hesitated.
“Someone Dominic trusts.”
A movement sounded behind the crates.
Anthony turned.
“Get down!”
A gunshot cracked across the pier.
Anthony shoved Emma behind a concrete barrier. A second shot struck the metal railing. Men emerged from the darkness, their faces obscured by rain.
Dominic's security team rushed in from the opposite side.
“Emma!” Dominic shouted.
She crawled toward the nearest support beam.
Anthony returned fire long enough for Victor to reach the attackers. Within seconds, two men were on the ground and the others were fleeing toward the road.
Dominic reached Emma and pulled her into his arms.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He checked her anyway, his hands trembling with barely controlled anger.
Then he looked toward Anthony.
His brother stood beneath a broken lamp, breathing hard.
For a long moment, the two men stared at each other.
“You're alive,” Dominic said.
Anthony gave a tired laugh.
“Apparently.”
Dominic approached him slowly.
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“I thought you were part of Father's operation.”
“I was a teenager.”
“So was I.”
The anger between them was old, but beneath it lay something neither had been allowed to feel.
Grief.
Dominic pulled Anthony into a rough embrace.
Emma watched them, realizing that the truth had not merely destroyed a family.
It had scattered one.
Then Anthony stepped back.
“There's something else you need to know.”
He looked at Emma.
“Your mother didn't just hide the ledger. She hid a second copy with someone she believed could never be bought.”
“Who?”
May you like
Anthony's answer came quietly.
“Sal Murphy.”
