Chapter 9 - Catherine Leaves One Final Clue
Catherine had not been dragged from the facility.
Security footage showed her walking out.
Beside Julian.
She held his arm.
She looked calm.
That frightened Dominic more than force would have.
“He convinced her he was Dad,” Dominic said.
Grace watched the footage.
“No.”
Dominic turned.
Grace pointed at the screen.
“Look.”
Catherine paused at the exit.
She turned toward the camera.
Then touched her left ear twice.
Dominic stared.
“What does that mean?”
“Did she have a habit like that?”
“No.”
Grace replayed it.
Catherine touched her ear.
Twice.
Then looked directly into the camera.
Dominic suddenly remembered.
His father had taught him simple emergency signals as a child.
Two touches to the left ear.
Follow me without being seen.
Catherine knew exactly who Julian was.
She had gone willingly.
Not because she trusted him.
Because she wanted them to follow.
The vehicle was traced north.
Julian had used false plates, but Catherine left clues.
A scarf at a gas station.
A receipt dropped beside a toll booth.
Then one of her earrings in a parking lot.
Dominic almost laughed when they found it.
“She’s leading us.”
Grace smiled faintly.
“She’s better at this than all of you.”
Dominic looked at her.
It was the first moment of warmth between them since the nightmare began.
Then Aaron called.
The trail pointed toward Vale Industries’ abandoned research campus in Vermont.
Alexander had closed it fifteen years earlier.
Dominic knew what was beneath it.
The original data vault.
They drove through the night with federal agents behind them.
Grace sat beside Dominic.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said.
She looked out the window.
“Yes, I do.”
“You don’t owe your father anything.”
“I’m not doing it for him.”
“For your mother?”
Grace shook her head.
“For myself.”
Dominic understood.
For years, Grace had lived inside questions other people controlled.
Tonight she wanted ownership of the answers.
They reached Vermont before dawn.
Snow covered the old campus.
One building had power.
Dominic’s phone rang.
Julian.
“Come inside.”
Dominic put him on speaker.
“Release my mother.”
“Bring Grace.”
Grace leaned toward the phone.
“I’m already here.”
Silence.
Then Julian laughed softly.
“Hello, daughter.”
Grace’s face became stone.
“Don’t call me that.”
“You’ll change your mind.”
“No.”
“You don’t know me.”
“I know enough.”
Julian’s voice sharpened.
“Your mother stole your life from me.”
“My mother protected me from you.”
Dominic watched Grace.
She did not tremble.
Julian paused.
Then said, “Ask Dominic what his father did with the money.”
Grace turned.
Dominic frowned.
“What money?”
Julian laughed.
“Alexander didn’t protect Anna for free.”
The line disconnected.
Grace looked at Dominic.
“What did he mean?”
Dominic had no answer.
May you like
But deep beneath the old research campus, a vault alarm suddenly activated.
Someone had just opened Alexander Vale’s final archive.
