Chapter 5 - The Word He Needed to Earn
The plan was simple.
And dangerous.
Victor contacted Damian before sunset.
Come alone.
Bring the original evidence Isabelle collected.
Sign control of the remaining Vescari companies over to me.
Then perhaps the child goes home.
Damian agreed.
What Victor did not know was that Damian had already given copies of everything to federal investigators.
Nor did he know the button on Damian’s shirt contained a transmitter.
At nine thirty that night, Damian entered an abandoned industrial building near the river.
Victor waited beside a metal table.
And beside him stood a woman Damian had mourned for three years.
Isabelle.
Damian stopped breathing.
She was thinner.
Much thinner.
Her chestnut hair had been cut roughly around her shoulders.
Her face was pale.
But she was alive.
Her eyes found his.
“Damian?”
He crossed half the room before armed men stepped between them.
Victor smiled.
“Touching.”
Damian’s gaze remained on Isabelle.
“I thought you were dead.”
“They wanted you to.”
Her voice cracked.
Victor placed the documents on the table.
“Sign.”
Damian picked up the pen.
Page after page, he signed.
Victor began talking.
Perhaps he had waited too many years to confess.
Perhaps he believed he had already won.
He admitted framing Isabelle.
Creating the false accounts.
Staging the photographs.
Selling shipping routes.
Using Damian’s trust against him.
“You were always too sentimental,” Victor said.
Damian signed another page.
“Your father had the same weakness.”
“My father trusted you.”
“Exactly.”
Damian signed.
Victor laughed quietly.
“I did not destroy your marriage, Damian. I merely gave you a lie. You destroyed it yourself.”
Damian’s hand stopped.
That was the only accusation he could not deny.
Then a side door opened.
A man brought Lily inside.
Her dress was dirty.
Her face was tear-streaked.
“Mister!”
Isabelle made a strangled sound.
She stared at the child.
Then at the white streak in Lily’s hair.
Her knees nearly collapsed.
“My baby.”
Lily stared back, confused.
Damian forced himself to remain still.
Almost there.
They only needed Victor to keep talking.
One of Victor’s men stepped closer.
His eyes narrowed at Damian’s collar.
Then he grabbed Damian’s shirt.
The hidden transmitter tore free.
Victor’s expression changed.
“Kill them.”
Lily bit the hand holding her.
She kicked.
She ran.
“Mister!”
Damian turned.
He caught her and covered her with his body.
A gunshot thundered through the building.
Pain tore through Damian’s shoulder.
He fell to one knee but kept Lily pressed against his chest.
She screamed.
“Mister!”
Damian buried his face in her hair.
“No, sweetheart.”
Another weapon lifted.
Damian held her tighter.
Then he whispered the word he had waited three years to earn.
“Daddy’s here.”
May you like
Lily went still.
The main doors exploded inward.
