Chapter 8 - Grace Carries the Missing Password
The explanation sounded impossible until Aaron confirmed it.
Anna Bell had used an early biometric encryption service that stored private financial archives behind a genetic verification protocol.
Unusual.
Expensive.
Almost forgotten.
But real.
Grace stared at Aaron’s laptop.
“My mother locked evidence with my DNA?”
“Part of it,” Aaron said.
“Can Julian access it?”
“Not without you.”
Dominic stood by the window.
“That’s why he planted her here.”
Aaron nodded.
“He needed Grace close to Vale infrastructure because Alexander apparently stored the server key inside your company’s original data vault.”
Dominic almost admired the architecture of it.
Almost.
Two families.
Two keys.
One archive.
Neither side could open it alone.
Alexander had designed a deadlock.
Julian had spent twenty-three years trying to break it.
Grace looked at Dominic.
“So he wants us together.”
“Yes.”
“Then everything tonight…”
“Was choreography.”
Grace wrapped her arms around herself.
“The chair. The necklace. Marcus taking me.”
Dominic frowned.
“Marcus was supposed to scare you.”
“He hit me.”
“I know.”
“That wasn’t acting.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice hardened.
“Which means Marcus had his own plan.”
Aaron’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“They found Marcus.”
Dominic straightened.
“Where?”
“Queens.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Marcus had been arrested at a private airfield trying to board a charter flight.
He requested one person.
Grace.
Dominic refused immediately.
Grace surprised him.
“I’ll go.”
“No.”
“He knows something.”
“He abducted you.”
“And failed.”
Dominic stared at her.
Grace met his eyes.
“I’m tired of everyone deciding what I’m allowed to know.”
The words landed harder than she intended.
Dominic thought of Anna.
Catherine.
Alexander.
Every adult who had protected Grace through secrecy.
He nodded.
“You won’t go alone.”
At the federal holding facility, Marcus looked smaller without his suit.
Grace sat across from him behind reinforced glass.
Dominic watched from the adjoining room.
Marcus picked up the phone.
Grace did the same.
“You’re brave,” he said.
“No.”
Grace’s voice was steady.
“I’m angry.”
Marcus almost smiled.
“You are Anna’s daughter.”
“Did you know her?”
“No.”
“Then stop talking like you did.”
His smile disappeared.
Grace leaned forward.
“Why did you take me?”
“To save you.”
Grace laughed in disbelief.
“You dragged me into an elevator.”
“Julian ordered me to deliver you.”
“Then how is that saving me?”
“I wasn’t taking you to him.”
Grace stopped.
Marcus continued.
“I was getting you out.”
“Why?”
“Because Julian was going to trigger the next phase once Dominic found room 314.”
Grace’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“What phase?”
Marcus looked directly through the glass toward Dominic.
“He’s going after Catherine.”
Dominic was moving before Marcus finished.
His phone rang.
The care facility.
Dominic answered.
A nurse was crying.
“Mr. Vale, your mother is missing.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
May you like
Julian had never needed Grace alone.
He needed the only two living women who knew where Alexander had hidden the final key.
