17. Dominic
— · —
Dominic
We’re halfway to the apartment when Sophie’s phone rings.
She glances at the screen, frowns, answers.
“Alexa? What’s - slow down. I can’t understand-”
Her face goes white.
“Sophie?” I stop walking, every instinct on high alert. “What is it?”
She doesn’t answer. She’s listening, her whole body rigid, her hand gripping the phone so tight her knuckles are bleaching.
Then she makes a sound I’ve never heard before. A wounded animal sound that makes my blood run cold.
“Alexa. Alexa, stay on the line. I’m coming. I’m-”
She hangs up and starts running.
I chase after her, catching her arm. “Sophie, what happened?”
“Anna.” The word comes out broken. “Someone took Anna.”
Everything stops.
“What?”
“Alexa was watching her. Someone broke in. They - they hit her and they took-” Sophie’s crying now, gasping sobs that shake her whole body. “They took my baby, Dominic. They took Anna.”
No.
No, no, no.
This can’t be happening. I was supposed to protect them. I was supposed to keep them safe. I was-
“Who?” My voice sounds like someone else’s. “Who took her?”
“Andrea.” Sophie’s face is a mask of terror and fury. “Alexa saw her before she passed out. Andrea took my daughter.”
Andrea. The babysitter. The woman who was willing to do anything for Caleb’s approval.
The woman I warned to stay away.
Rage floods through me, so hot and pure it nearly blinds me. My brother orchestrated this. While Sophie and I were at the park, while Caleb was distracting us with his performance, his money had bought a man who could beat even a reinforced door, and Andrea was walking out with Anna.
He planned it. All of it.
And I walked right into his trap.
“We need to call the police,” Sophie’s saying, already dialing. “We need to-”
“The police won’t find her in time.” The words come out cold, certain. “Caleb has connections everywhere. He’ll move Anna, hide her, claim Sophie’s an unfit mother who lost custody.”
“Then what do we do?”
I look at her. At this woman I love, this mother who would burn the world down for her daughter, this person who trusted me to keep them safe.
I failed her.
I won’t fail again.
“I know where he’ll take her,” I say. “The family house. Our parents’ estate. He’ll want to show them his prize.”
“Then let’s go.”
“Sophie, it’s dangerous. He’ll have security, people who-”
“I don’t care.” Her eyes are blazing. “That’s my daughter. I’ll walk through fire to get her back.”
I’ve never loved her more than I do in this moment.
“Okay.” I grab her hand. “Let’s go get your daughter.”
***
The family estate is exactly as I remember it.
Sprawling grounds. Iron gates. A mansion that screams old money and older secrets.
I haven’t been here in fifteen years. The last time I walked through those doors, my mother was telling me I was no longer welcome. That I’d chosen a whore over my own family.
I remember the exact words. They’re burned into my memory like brands.
But that doesn’t matter now. The only thing that matters is Anna.
“How do we get in?” Sophie asks. We’re parked down the road, hidden by trees, watching the gate.
“I know a way. There’s a gap in the fence on the east side. We used to sneak out that way as kids.”
“We?”
“Me and Caleb.” The name tastes like poison. “Before he became a monster.”
Or maybe he was always a monster, and I just didn’t see it.
We move through the shadows, finding the gap exactly where I remembered it. The fence has been repaired since I was a kid, but I’m stronger now. I bend the metal enough for Sophie to slip through, then follow.
The grounds are quiet. Too quiet.
“This feels like a trap,” Sophie whispers.
“It probably is.” I take her hand. “Stay close.”
We approach the house from the back, avoiding the main entrance and the security cameras I know are there. There’s a servants’ door that leads to the kitchen - another memory from childhood, another piece of a life I tried to forget.
The door is unlocked.
Definitely a trap.
We slip inside anyway. There’s no other choice.
The house is silent, every room dark except for one. Light spills from under the door to my father’s study, and I can hear voices inside.
Caleb’s voice.
And Anna’s crying.
Sophie moves before I can stop her. She throws open the door and storms inside, and I’m right behind her, ready to fight, ready to die if that’s what it takes.
The study looks exactly the same. Dark wood paneling. Expensive artwork. My father’s desk, massive and imposing.
And behind that desk, my brother.
He’s holding Anna. She’s screaming, reaching for Sophie, but he’s keeping her just out of reach.
“Sophie.” Caleb’s smile is triumphant. “So glad you could join us.”
“Give me my daughter.”
“Our daughter.” He shifts Anna to his other arm, ignoring her cries. “And no, I don’t think I will.”
“Caleb.” My voice comes out low, dangerous. “Let her go.”
His eyes flick to me, and for the first time, recognition dawns.
“Dominic.” The name sounds strange coming from him, like a word he’s forgotten. “I wondered when you’d show up.”
“You know?”
“I figured it out.” He laughs, and it’s the same cruel laugh I remember from childhood. “After Sophie’s little speech in the park, I put the pieces together. My disgraced brother, coming back to play hero. How pathetic.”
“Give us Anna.” Sophie’s voice is steel. “Now.”
“Or what?” Caleb holds Anna up like a trophy. “You’ll call the police? Tell them I kidnapped my own daughter? I’m a respected surgeon. You’re a hysterical ex-wife shacking up with my estranged brother. Who do you think they’ll believe?”
“They’ll believe the evidence.” I step forward. “The broken lock on Alexa’s apartment. The security footage showing Andrea breaking in. The witness who saw her take Anna.”
Something wavers in Caleb’s eyes. Uncertainty.
“You’re bluffing.”
“Am I?” I keep moving forward, slow and steady. “I’ve been preparing for this, brother. Building a case. Gathering evidence. Everything you’ve done, every crime you’ve committed - I have documentation.”
“You’re lying.”
“You beat Celia for two years. You tried to hit Sophie. You stalked her, threatened her, broke into her home.” I’m close now, close enough to see the sweat beading on his forehead. “You manipulated Andrea into kidnapping a one-year-old. All of that is on record. All of it will come out.”
“No one will believe-”
“They’ll believe when I tell them who I am.” I stop, look him dead in the eyes. “When I tell them I’m your brother. When I tell them everything I saw, everything I know. When I bring Celia out of hiding to testify.”
Caleb’s face goes pale. “You don’t know where Celia is.”
“Don’t I?”
It’s a gamble. I don’t know where Celia is - I haven’t heard from her in years. But he doesn’t know that.
And the doubt in his eyes tells me the gamble paid off.
“Give me Anna,” Sophie says again, stepping forward. “Give me my daughter and this ends now. No police. No charges. Just a quiet divorce and reasonable custody.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I burn your entire world down.” Her voice doesn’t waver. “I tell everyone who you really are. Your colleagues, your patients, your parents. I make sure the whole world knows what kind of monster wears that perfect face.”
The room is silent except for Anna’s crying.
Caleb looks at Sophie. At me. At the daughter squirming in his arms.
Then he hands Anna over.
Sophie grabs her, clutches her to her chest, and the sound she makes - relief and love and fierce, protective joy - breaks something inside me.
“This isn’t over,” Caleb says.
“Yes,” I tell him. “It is.”
I’m turning to leave when I hear Andrea scream.
Everything happens at once.
A flash of movement from the corner. Something metallic. A bang that’s louder than anything I’ve ever heard.
Pain explodes through my shoulder.
I’m falling, crashing to the ground, and Sophie’s screaming and Anna’s crying and somewhere far away I hear Max’s voice, shouting my name.
Max. When did Max get here?
It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters except Sophie and Anna, except keeping them safe, except-
The world goes dark.