Chapter 2 - THREE DAYS BENEATH THE HOUSE
Doctor Russo treated Mia inside one of the estate’s secure guest rooms.
Dominic placed Daniel outside the door.
Marcus was ordered to collect every employee’s phone.
Nobody was allowed to call the police, leave the grounds, or warn anyone beyond the gates.
Dominic did not trust local law enforcement.
Too many officers owed favors to men like him.
Some owed favors to Nathan.
Harper sat on the bed beside her mother.
She held a glass of water with both hands and carefully lifted it toward Mia’s mouth.
“Small sips,” Doctor Russo said.
Harper nodded solemnly.
Mia drank.
Her entire body shook.
Dominic waited until the doctor finished examining her.
Then he knelt beside the bed.
“Tell me what happened downstairs.”
Mia looked toward Harper.
Dominic understood.
“Daniel will take her to the kitchen.”
“No,” Harper said immediately.
She wrapped her arms around Mia.
“I am not leaving Mommy again.”
Mia touched her daughter’s tangled hair.
“Go eat something, baby.”
“I’ll still be here.”
Harper studied her face.
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
Daniel offered his hand.
After a moment, Harper accepted it.
She looked back three times before leaving the room.
When the door closed, Mia’s composure broke.
She covered her face.
“I thought she believed I abandoned her.”
“She did not,” Dominic said.
“She knew something was wrong.”
Mia lowered her hands.
“Claire came to the laundry room on Monday afternoon.”
“She said you had called from Atlantic City.”
“She told me you wanted three bottles from the reserve collection selected for a private dinner.”
“I never called.”
“I know that now.”
Mia explained that Claire led her to the cellar.
The new padlock was not on the door yet.
Claire asked her to search the far wine racks.
While Mia checked the labels, she noticed fresh scratches on the stone wall.
One of the wooden racks had recently been moved.
Behind it was a narrow steel compartment.
Claire told her not to touch it.
That warning came too late.
Mia had already seen a black ledger and a stack of passports inside.
One passport carried Dominic’s photograph.
The name beneath it was different.
Another carried Nathan’s face.
A third belonged to a man Mia recognized from the news.
He had been found dead in the Hudson two months earlier.
“Claire grabbed me,” Mia said.
“She told me I had seen nothing.”
“I tried to leave.”
“Nathan was standing at the door.”
Dominic’s face revealed nothing.
“What did he say?”
“He asked where I got the pendant.”
Mia touched the silver bird.
“I told him it was mine.”
“He said it belonged to Elena.”
“How did he know?”
“I don’t know.”
“Nathan tore the chain from my neck.”
“He pressed something beneath the bird’s wing.”
“It opened.”
Mia looked at Dominic.
“There is a tiny card inside it.”
“A memory card?”
“Yes.”
“Did he take it?”
“No.”
“I bit his hand.”
“The pendant fell beneath a wine rack.”
“He searched for it, but the lights went out.”
“I found it before he came back.”
“You hid it?”
Mia nodded.
“In my shoe.”
“Then Claire injected me.”
“When I woke up, my hands were tied.”
“They asked where the bird was.”
“I told them I had lost it.”
Nathan returned several times during the next three days.
He brought water and small amounts of food.
Claire wanted to kill Mia.
Nathan refused.
He believed she had hidden the memory card somewhere inside the cellar.
“He said you would come home on Friday,” Mia whispered.
“He said they had until then to find it.”
Dominic stood.
It was Thursday morning.
He had returned one day early because Harper’s preschool had sent an automated message about three consecutive absences.
Nathan had told the school the family was traveling.
Dominic had not authorized any trip.
“Did they say what was on the card?”
“No.”
“But Nathan said Elena had ruined everything by giving it to the wrong woman.”
Dominic looked at the pendant.
Elena had worn a silver bird during the final year of her life.
He remembered touching it the night she died.
He remembered Nathan pulling him from the burning car.
He remembered asking where Elena was.
Nathan had held him back while flames consumed the passenger side.
“She was already gone,” Nathan had said.
Dominic had believed him.
For five years, he had called Nathan the man who saved his life.
Now Mia placed the pendant in Dominic’s palm.
His thumb found the tiny button beneath the bird’s wing.
May you like
The pendant opened.
A black memory card rested inside.
