CHAPTER 1 — THE WOMAN IN THE CELLAR
CHAPTER 1 — THE WOMAN IN THE CELLAR
Nathan Cross stood in the doorway of the cellar as though he had just walked into a nightmare.
His face was pale.
His mouth was slightly open.
His eyes remained fixed on Mia.
"Who did this?" he repeated.
Dominic didn't answer.
He was too busy watching Nathan.
There was something wrong with the man's reaction.
Too controlled.
Too careful.
Nathan had spent seventeen years beside Dominic. He knew how to react when bullets flew, when enemies died, when buildings burned.
And yet, standing in front of a woman who had clearly been tortured inside Dominic's own house, Nathan looked less horrified than inconvenienced.
Dominic noticed.
He noticed everything.
Mia's wrists.
The broken rope.
The empty water bucket.
The scratches on the wall.
And the small brass padlock that had been attached to the door only after Dominic left for Atlantic City.
Someone had wanted this room sealed.
Someone had wanted Mia forgotten.
And someone had known exactly when Dominic would return.
"Daniel," Dominic said quietly.
"Yes, boss?"
"Get a doctor here."
"Already calling."
"Marcus."
The guard straightened.
"Yes?"
"Lock down the estate."
Nathan frowned.
"Dom, that's unnecessary."
Dominic slowly looked at him.
"Is it?"
Nathan didn't answer.
Dominic turned back toward Mia.
"Can you hear me?"
Mia's eyes opened.
They were clouded with exhaustion.
Her lips trembled.
"Dominic..."
"I'm here."
She tried to move.
Pain crossed her face.
Dominic placed one hand beneath her shoulder.
"Don't move."
Mia grabbed his wrist.
Her fingers were freezing.
"Harper."
"She's safe."
Mia's eyes filled with tears.
"Where?"
"Upstairs."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
Mia closed her eyes.
For the first time since Dominic had found her, her body relaxed.
Then she whispered something so softly that Dominic almost missed it.
"Don't let her take her."
Dominic frowned.
"Who?"
Mia opened her eyes.
"Claire."
Nathan immediately stepped forward.
"She's confused."
Dominic looked at him.
"She just said Claire."
"Mia's been tied up for three days."
Nathan's tone remained calm.
"She may not know what she's saying."
Dominic stared at him.
"Maybe."
He stood.
"But I'm going to find out."
The doctor arrived eight minutes later.
Dominic refused to leave the cellar until Mia was stabilized.
When the medical team carried her toward the stairs, Harper came running down.
"Mommy!"
Mia reached toward her.
Harper collided with the side of the stretcher.
"I'm here!"
Mia managed a weak smile.
"I'm here, baby."
Harper grabbed her mother's hand.
"I told him."
Mia looked at Dominic.
"You did."
Harper nodded proudly through her tears.
"I told Mr. Dominic you were downstairs."
Mia squeezed her daughter's fingers.
"Good girl."
Then her eyes suddenly widened.
"Harper."
"Yes?"
"Did you tell anyone else?"
Harper shook her head.
"Only him."
Mia looked relieved.
Dominic noticed.
"Why?"
Mia's eyes moved toward Nathan.
She didn't answer.
Dominic followed her gaze.
Nathan was standing several steps away.
His arms were crossed.
His expression was unreadable.
Then his phone vibrated.
Nathan looked at it.
For less than a second, his face changed.
He turned away and walked toward the corridor.
Dominic watched him leave.
"Marcus."
"Yes?"
"Follow Nathan."
Marcus hesitated.
"Discreetly?"
"Very."
Upstairs, Claire Bennett was waiting.
She stood in the great hall wearing a long ivory coat.
Her hair was perfect.
Her makeup was flawless.
She looked exactly like the woman Dominic had expected to marry in six weeks.
Six weeks.
The invitations had already been printed.
The venue had been paid for.
The flowers had been selected.
The guest list contained nearly three hundred names.
Claire had spent months planning the wedding.
Now Dominic looked at her differently.
She saw it immediately.
"Dominic?"
He stopped several feet away.
"How did you know Mia was missing?"
Claire blinked.
"What?"
"Before I came home."
"I didn't."
"Mia disappeared three days ago."
Claire swallowed.
"Yes."
"You told Harper her mother went to Pennsylvania."
Claire's expression softened.
"I was trying to protect her."
"From what?"
"From the truth."
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
"What truth?"
Claire looked toward the staircase.
"That Mia left."
"She didn't leave."
"I didn't know."
"You told me she went to Pennsylvania."
"Because that's what Nathan told me."
Dominic became still.
There it was.
Nathan's name.
Again.
Always Nathan.
Claire stepped closer.
"Dominic, I was worried too."
"Then why didn't you call me?"
"You were in Atlantic City."
"You had my private number."
"You were in meetings."
"Three days."
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
"Are you accusing me?"
Dominic didn't answer.
She reached for his hand.
He moved it away.
The gesture was small.
But Claire noticed.
For the first time, fear appeared in her eyes.
That night, Dominic entered his study alone.
He locked the door.
Then opened the security system.
The estate had 114 cameras.
Someone had disabled seventeen.
All seventeen covered the western wing.
Including the cellar.
Dominic pulled up the access records.
The system showed one authorized user.
C. BENNETT.
He stared at the screen.
Claire.
But then something caught his attention.
The access had been made from a device that was not registered to Claire's phone.
Dominic opened the metadata.
The device belonged to—
Nathan Cross.
He leaned back.
For seventeen years, Nathan had been the man Dominic trusted most.
The man who knew every password.
Every safe location.
Every secret.
Dominic had once told him:
"If I'm ever killed, you're the only man I trust to protect my family."
Now that sentence sounded like a confession.
At 2:13 a.m., Dominic heard footsteps.
He reached for the gun beside his bed.
The door opened.
Nathan entered.
"You should sleep."
Dominic kept the gun hidden beneath the blanket.
"Can't."
Nathan closed the door.
"How is Mia?"
"Alive."
"Good."
Dominic watched him.
Nathan sat across the room.
"Dom, I know what you're thinking."
"Do you?"
"You're wondering whether Claire had something to do with this."
Dominic said nothing.
Nathan sighed.
"She didn't."
"How do you know?"
"Because I know her."
Dominic smiled faintly.
"That's interesting."
"What?"
"I've known you for seventeen years."
Nathan stared at him.
"And?"
"And I've never heard you say you know Claire."
Silence.
Nathan's jaw tightened.
Dominic leaned forward.
"How long have you known her?"
Nathan didn't answer.
"How long?"
"Six months."
Dominic's eyes hardened.
"Claire and I met nine months before our engagement."
Nathan looked away.
"Then I knew her before you did."
"How?"
"I can't explain."
"Try."
Nathan stood.
"Not tonight."
Dominic's voice became cold.
"Sit down."
Nathan stopped.
For the first time in seventeen years, he looked at Dominic not as a friend.
But as an enemy.
Then he slowly sat.
Across the hall, Claire stood in darkness.
She had heard everything.
She held a phone against her ear.
Nathan's voice came through the speaker.
"We have a problem."
Claire whispered:
"I know."
"Dominic found the access records."
"Can he trace them?"
"Yes."
"Then destroy them."
"I already tried."
Claire closed her eyes.
"What about Mia?"
"She's alive."
Claire's breathing changed.
"That's bad."
Nathan lowered his voice.
"Very."
Claire looked toward Dominic's study.
"He can't find out."
"He already suspects you."
"Then we'll make him suspect someone else."
"Who?"
Claire paused.
Then smiled.
"Vincent."
Nathan went silent.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Claire, he's supposed to be dead."
"I know."
"Exactly."
She whispered:
"That's why Dominic will believe it."
Nathan stared at the phone.
"You promised me this would be over before the wedding."
"It will be."
"And Dominic?"
Claire looked toward the dark window.
For a moment, her expression softened.
"He won't be alive to cancel it."
Mia woke before dawn.
A nurse sat beside her.
She tried to sit up.
"Where's Dominic?"
"He's asleep."
"No."
Mia grabbed the nurse's wrist.
"You need to wake him."
"Mrs. Carter—"
"Now."
The nurse called.
Ten minutes later, Dominic entered.
Mia looked terrified.
"Lock the door."
Dominic did.
Then he sat beside her.
"What do you know?"
Mia stared at him.
"Claire isn't her name."
Dominic's expression didn't change.
"I suspected."
"She came here before you met her."
"Why?"
"She was looking for something."
"What?"
"I don't know."
Mia swallowed.
"But I saw her with Nathan."
"When?"
"Before she became your fiancée."
Dominic leaned closer.
"What were they doing?"
Mia closed her eyes.
"Arguing."
"About what?"
"Your first wife."
Dominic went completely still.
"Elena?"
Mia nodded.
"Claire said Elena had found out."
"Found out what?"
Mia's voice dropped.
"That Nathan had betrayed you."
Dominic stared at her.
"And then?"
Mia looked toward the door.
"He told Claire that if she wanted to survive..."
She stopped.
Dominic waited.
"What?"
Mia whispered:
"She had to marry you."
The room went silent.
Dominic stood.
His face was expressionless.
But something inside him had just broken.
Six weeks before his wedding, the woman he planned to marry had been secretly working with his oldest friend.
And somewhere beneath his own house, there was evidence proving it.
At sunrise, Dominic returned to the cellar.
He stood before the broken lock.
Then he noticed something he hadn't seen the night before.
A tiny silver pendant lay beneath the wine rack.
A bird.
He picked it up.
On the back were two initials.
E.M.
Dominic knew those initials.
Elena Marlowe.
His dead wife's maiden initials.
But Elena had never owned a bird pendant.
Dominic turned it over.
A second engraving appeared beneath the dust.
EVELYN.
He stared at the name.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dominic answered.
No one spoke.
"Who is this?"
Silence.
Then a woman's voice whispered:
"Dominic..."
He recognized it.
Claire.
But she sounded terrified.
"Don't trust Nathan."
The call ended.
Dominic immediately called back.
The number was disconnected.
He looked down at the pendant.
Evelyn.
Then toward the cellar door.
And finally toward the staircase leading to the woman he had planned to marry.
For the first time, Dominic understood something terrifying.
Mia had not been the beginning of the betrayal.
May you like
She had been the first person to survive it.
And whoever had built the secret beneath his house had been preparing for this moment long before Dominic ever knew Claire existed.
