Chapter 14 - THE COUSIN'S CHOICE
Celeste's hand slipped from Vincent's sleeve.
The paramedic adjusted her oxygen and told everyone to give her space.
Vincent ignored the order long enough to ask one more question.
"Where did Charles take Sofia?"
Celeste closed her eyes.
"The river."
"Which direction?"
"South."
"Boat?"
She nodded.
Marco moved to the window and spoke into his radio.
The river unit answered immediately.
A small cabin cruiser had left the property twelve minutes before the tactical team reached the dock.
It had run without navigation lights.
Fog along the Hudson had swallowed it within minutes.
Vincent swore.
Grace looked at Celeste.
"You said Dominic came to stop it."
Celeste opened her eyes again.
"He came through the kitchen door about five minutes before Charles arrived."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Celeste's mouth trembled.
"To get Sofia out."
Vincent shook his head.
"He had three years."
"I know."
"Seven visits."
"I know."
"He signed her transfer."
"I know."
Celeste's voice sharpened despite her weakness.
"None of that means he wanted Charles to keep her forever."
Vincent laughed bitterly.
"That is a very low bar for loyalty."
"Dominic failed her."
Celeste looked directly at him.
"So did I."
"So did you."
The words hurt because she did not say them cruelly.
Vincent absorbed them in silence.
Grace asked, "What happened when Dominic came in?"
Celeste looked toward the doorway.
"He said the engagement signing had gone wrong."
"He said Emily found Sofia's phone."
Grace's face tightened.
"How did he know?"
"He got a message from Charles."
Vincent frowned.
"Charles was locked in my library."
"He had another phone hidden in his shoe."
Marco closed his eyes.
"We searched his jacket and trousers, not his shoes."
Vincent looked at him.
Marco did not defend the mistake.
Celeste continued.
"Charles told Dominic that if the phone was played, he would move Sofia permanently."
"Dominic left the estate to stop him."
Grace asked, "Then why free Charles from the library?"
Celeste shook her head.
"He did not."
Vincent looked at Marco.
"The window was forced from outside."
Marco nodded slowly.
"Meaning someone else entered the grounds."
Celeste whispered, "Charles has people who have worked around your family longer than some of your guards have been alive."
Vincent hated how plausible that sounded.
"What happened here?"
Celeste swallowed.
"Dominic arrived first."
"He told me he had finally found the original schedule."
Vincent leaned closer.
"Where?"
"He did not say."
"He said it proved Anthony intended him to inherit the archive, but not the companies."
Grace frowned.
"Why would that matter?"
"Because Dominic spent years believing Anthony chose him as the real successor."
Vincent's face changed.
Celeste saw it.
"You did not know."
"No."
"Anthony told Dominic he had a stronger stomach than you."
Vincent gave a humorless smile.
"My father considered conscience a digestive weakness."
Celeste continued.
"Dominic thought the archive was his inheritance."
"Then Sofia found the schedule and realized it was not a gift."
"It was a trap."
Marco asked, "How?"
"Anyone who accessed the archive accepted legal responsibility for the companies and operations listed inside."
Vincent understood first.
"My father built a dead man's chain."
Celeste nodded.
"The archive did not just contain leverage on other people."
"It contained proof of the family's old crimes."
"If Dominic claimed it, Charles could own him forever."
Grace looked toward the window.
"And if Vincent claimed it?"
"Same result."
Vincent's expression darkened.
"So my father left poison and called it an inheritance."
Celeste closed her eyes again.
"Dominic came here because he finally understood that."
"He wanted Sofia to show him where the archive was."
"Then Charles arrived."
"With two men."
"They fought."
"Dominic got Sofia out the back door."
Vincent leaned forward.
"Then why did Charles leave with her?"
Celeste opened her eyes.
"Because Dominic went back for me."
The room became silent.
"He could have kept running with Sofia."
"He heard me calling from upstairs."
"He came back."
Celeste's voice broke.
"Charles caught Sofia at the dock while Dominic was cutting my restraints."
Grace looked toward the hallway.
"Where is Dominic now?"
Celeste shook her head.
"Charles hit him and left him outside."
Marco was already moving.
Officers searched the property again.
Five minutes later, a shout came from behind the warehouse.
Dominic was found in a drainage ditch near the dock.
He was conscious, bleeding from a cut above his eye, and furious that the paramedics would not let him stand.
Vincent reached him as they lifted him onto a stretcher.
Dominic looked up.
"You found Celeste."
"Yes."
"Sofia?"
"Charles took her south."
Dominic closed his eyes.
"Damn it."
Vincent stood over him.
"You called me and said Isabella was the danger."
Dominic's eyes opened.
"I was wrong."
"That is not enough."
"Charles sent me photographs of Emily in the safe suite."
Grace stepped closer.
"What?"
"He said Isabella was working with him and had locked Emily inside to trade her for Celeste."
Grace's face hardened.
"You believed him."
Dominic gave a bitter laugh.
"Apparently that is my defining skill."
Vincent stared at him.
"Why did you not call Marco?"
"Because Charles told me every estate radio was compromised."
Marco said, "Some were."
Dominic looked at Vincent.
"I called you because I knew Grace was with you and she would move Emily."
Grace did not thank him.
"Where is the original schedule?"
Dominic's face changed.
Vincent noticed.
"Celeste said you found it."
"A copy."
"Where?"
Dominic looked toward the orchard above them.
"Under Anthony's old hunting cabin."
Vincent frowned.
"There is no hunting cabin here."
"There was."
Dominic breathed through the pain as the paramedic wrapped his ribs.
"It burned when we were kids."
"Only the foundation remains."
Vincent remembered.
A stone rectangle half buried among the apple trees.
His father had forbidden them to play there.
Of course that was where Anthony hid something.
"What did you find?"
"A metal tube inside the cistern."
"The schedule was inside."
"Where is it now?"
Dominic reached slowly toward the lining of his coat.
Marco stopped him and searched the pocket himself.
He removed a folded sheet sealed in plastic.
Vincent took it.
The paper was old.
Anthony Moretti's signature appeared at the bottom.
The heading read CONFIDENTIAL SCHEDULE R - LEGACY RESERVE.
Below it, a paragraph named Dominic as successor custodian of the reserve archive upon Anthony's death.
A second paragraph stated that the custodian did not gain ownership of corporate assets.
Dominic had been heir to the secrets, not the empire.
His face twisted when Vincent read it aloud.
"He spent years making me think you stole what was supposed to be mine."
Vincent looked at him.
"Who did?"
"Charles."
"And you believed that too."
Dominic shut his eyes.
"Yes."
Vincent continued reading.
A final notation appeared beneath the signature.
ARCHIVE ACCESS: LOWER CISTERN - ORCHARD FOUNDATION.
Marco looked up the hill.
"We are standing on top of it."
Dominic grabbed Vincent's wrist.
"Do not open it."
Vincent looked down at him.
"Why?"
"Because Charles wants you to."
"He already has Sofia."
"That is not enough."
Dominic's fingers tightened.
"The archive is designed to log the identity of whoever enters."
"If you open it, Bellamy can say you accepted custody of everything inside."
Vincent almost laughed.
"You think I care about legal exposure right now?"
"You will if opening it makes every old crime legally yours."
Vincent pulled his wrist free.
"My wife is on a boat with the man who built this lie."
"Then we find her without giving him the last thing he needs."
Grace looked at Dominic.
"What does he need?"
Dominic's face went still.
"Vincent's signature on Amendment Seven."
Vincent stared at him.
Dominic continued.
"The amendment does not just give Isabella temporary trust authority."
"It merges the legacy reserve with the modern continuity trust."
Marco understood.
"Which launders the archive into legitimate governance records."
"Exactly."
"Charles could then control it through delegated counsel authority."
Dominic nodded.
Vincent looked toward the river.
A gray strip of dawn had appeared beyond the trees.
Somewhere south, Sofia was moving farther away.
"Then he will call."
Dominic nodded.
"Yes."
"And when he does, he will ask you to finish signing."
Vincent looked down at the old schedule in his hands.
"Good."
Grace frowned.
"Good?"
Vincent folded the paper carefully.
"Because now we know what he needs."
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone froze.
Vincent answered.
Charles Bellamy spoke without greeting.
"Bring the schedule and the engagement packet to Saint Michael's Chapel at noon."
Vincent looked at the gray river.
"Let me hear Sofia."
A rustling sound followed.
Then Sofia's voice came through.
"Vince."
Three years disappeared inside one syllable.
Vincent could not speak for a second.
Sofia continued quickly.
"Do not sign anything."
A sharp sound interrupted her.
Charles returned to the line.
"Noon."
"Come alone."
May you like
"Or the next time you hear your wife's voice will be in court evidence."
The line went dead.
