Chapter 5 - Room 314 Opens After Midnight
The old Ashford Hotel smelled like dust and abandoned money.
Dominic arrived at two in the morning with Grace, Aaron, two detectives, and a replacement security team chosen by the police rather than Vale Tower.
Victoria remained under watch.
Marcus remained missing.
Room 314 was on the third floor.
The corridor lights had been disconnected months earlier.
Temporary work lamps threw long shadows across stripped wallpaper and covered furniture.
Grace stood before the door.
Her mother’s key fit.
So did Marcus’s.
Dominic looked at her.
“You never tried this before?”
“I didn’t know where the number belonged.”
“Until tonight.”
She nodded.
A detective opened the door first.
The room had not been renovated.
It looked preserved.
Heavy curtains.
Dark furniture.
A desk.
An old minibar.
And dozens of photographs pinned across one wall.
Dominic stepped closer.
Every photograph was of him.
Dominic entering Vale Tower.
Dominic leaving restaurants.
Dominic meeting executives.
Dominic with Victoria.
Dominic at his father’s funeral.
Some photographs were more than ten years old.
Grace whispered, “Why would my mother have a key to this?”
Dominic saw another photograph.
A woman stood beside his father, Alexander Vale.
Young.
Dark-haired.
Smiling.
Grace inhaled sharply.
“My mother.”
Dominic turned.
Grace’s mother, Anna Bell, had known Alexander Vale.
The photograph had been taken twenty-three years earlier.
Dominic stared at Grace.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-two.”
The question hung between them.
Grace immediately understood what he was thinking.
“No.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking it.”
Dominic looked back at the photograph.
He was.
Grace’s eyes filled with anger.
“My mother never told me who my father was.”
A detective opened the desk.
Inside were ledgers.
Old photographs.
Compact discs.
And one sealed letter.
GRACE BELL.
Grace stared at her name.
Her hands shook as she opened it.
My darling Grace,
If you are reading this, I failed to tell you the truth myself.
Alexander Vale was not your father.
But he protected you from the man who was.
Grace stopped.
Dominic felt something shift inside him.
She continued reading.
Your father was Julian Ashford.
Dominic looked at her.
Grace nearly dropped the letter.
Victoria’s brother.
The man who had disappeared.
The man tied to the necklace.
The man who had apparently been using room 314.
Grace sank onto the bed.
“That’s impossible.”
Dominic took the next page.
Anna wrote that she had met Julian when she worked for the Ashford family.
They had been young.
Their relationship ended before Grace was born.
Julian later learned about the pregnancy.
According to Anna, he wanted custody.
Not because he loved Grace.
Because the Ashford family trust gave additional voting rights to direct descendants.
Alexander Vale helped Anna disappear.
Grace covered her face.
Dominic continued reading.
Years later, Julian discovered where they lived.
Anna began collecting evidence against him.
Room 314 became her hiding place.
Then Anna became sick.
She died before she could finish.
Grace whispered, “Why didn’t she tell me?”
Dominic did not have an answer.
Aaron called from the wall.
“Dominic.”
Behind one photograph was a recessed safe.
Grace’s key opened that too.
Inside was a hard drive.
Aaron connected it to an isolated laptop.
One video file appeared.
Recorded six weeks earlier.
The screen flickered.
Julian Ashford appeared.
Alive.
He looked directly into the camera.
“If Grace Bell has found this,” he said, “then Dominic Vale has already made the mistake I expected.”
Dominic’s blood went cold.
May you like
Julian smiled.
“He trusted her.”
