CHAPTER 4 — THE FILE THEY BURIED
The abandoned loading warehouse smelled of oil, rain, and rust.
Dominic's convoy surrounded the building.
Snipers took positions.
Dozens of armed men waited for the order.
Inside...
There was only silence.
Too much silence.
Dominic entered first.
Every instinct told him something was wrong.
Rows of old hospital equipment sat covered beneath white sheets.
At the center of the room...
The stolen incubator.
Empty.
No baby.
Instead...
Another Ace of Spades.
And a portable video player.
It switched on by itself.
Static.
Then an old man's face appeared.
Victor Kane.
Alive.
Older.
Scarred.
Smiling.
"If you're watching this..."
"...then I finally have your attention."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"You buried me once."
"You buried the wrong man."
"You stole everything from me."
"So I decided to take everything from you."
The screen suddenly displayed a sleeping infant.
Gabriel.
Alive.
Wrapped safely in a blue blanket.
Dominic released the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
Victor smiled.
"Don't worry."
"I won't kill your son."
"Not yet."
"I want him to grow old enough to learn exactly who his father really is."
The video ended.
Darkness.
Suddenly...
Elena noticed something lying beneath the television.
An old leather folder.
She picked it up.
Inside were yellowed police reports.
Newspaper clippings.
Photographs.
One picture made her blood run cold.
Her father.
Standing beside...
Dominic's father.
Laughing together.
Friends.
Business partners.
Brothers in everything except blood.
She kept turning pages.
Another document.
CONFIDENTIAL.
The final page carried a handwritten sentence.
"The Hayes family murders were never ordered by the Romano family."
Elena stopped breathing.
Below it...
Another name had been written in red ink.
Victor Kane.
Every memory she had carried for twenty years...
Every ounce of hatred...
Every lonely night...
Every promise of revenge...
Had been built on a lie.
Tears blurred her vision.
Dominic quietly asked,
"What is it?"
Elena looked up.
For the first time...
She no longer saw the monster she had imagined since childhood.
She saw another victim.
Before either of them could speak...
A loud explosion tore through the warehouse.
The floor collapsed beneath them.
Dominic grabbed Elena's wrist.
The two plunged into darkness together...
May you like
...while somewhere far away, baby Gabriel began to cry.
End of Chapter 4
