Chapter 3 - THE HOUSE WITH TOO MANY LOCKS
Dominic Vale’s home did not look like a home.
It looked like a museum built by someone who expected war.
Stone walls.
Black iron gates.
Security cameras hidden beneath carved eaves.
A circular driveway large enough to hold eight SUVs without anyone having to reverse.
I had seen photographs of wealthy mansions online.
This was different.
Wealth usually wanted to be admired.
Dominic’s estate wanted to survive.
Grace remained at the hospital overnight.
Lily refused to leave without me.
Dominic tried once.
“Emily needs sleep too.”
Lily grabbed my coat.
“She sleeps here.”
So I spent the night in a private hospital room on a couch worth more than my monthly rent.
At dawn, Grace’s temperature normalized.
By ten, doctors confirmed the sedative in her blood was a prescription benzodiazepine commonly used in hospitals.
Someone had drugged a seven-year-old.
Dominic received that information without moving.
That frightened me more than shouting would have.
He asked one question.
“How much?”
The doctor hesitated.
“Enough to make her compliant. Potentially dangerous combined with hypothermia.”
Dominic looked toward the window.
I watched a decision happen somewhere behind his eyes.
The kind that probably ruined lives.
I stepped closer.
“She needs you here.”
He looked at me.
“Not revenge.”
His expression hardened.
“You don’t know what I need.”
“No.”
I nodded toward Grace.
“But I know what she does.”
Something shifted.
Not gratitude.
Respect, maybe.
Dominic stayed.
That afternoon we reached the estate.
Lily had talked about “home” for hours.
The moment the SUV crossed the gates, she went silent.
Grace did too.
I noticed.
Dominic noticed me noticing.
“What?”
“They’re afraid.”
“They’re safe.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
His jaw tightened.
We entered through a side entrance rather than the grand foyer.
House staff stood waiting.
Some crying.
A woman in her fifties rushed forward.
“My babies!”
Both girls recoiled.
The woman stopped as if struck.
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Mrs. Alvarez.”
Their longtime nanny.
She covered her mouth.
“I’m sorry.”
Lily moved behind me.
That hurt the woman visibly.
“She’s known them since birth,” Dominic said quietly.
I looked down.
“Lily?”
She whispered, “She went home before the wolf came.”
Mrs. Alvarez started crying harder.
Dominic questioned everyone individually.
I was not invited.
Fine.
I took the girls upstairs.
Their bedroom looked like a luxury toy store.
Two beds.
Two desks.
Stuffed animals.
Books.
A miniature indoor tent strung with tiny lights.
Grace stopped in the doorway.
“No.”
“What’s wrong?”
She pointed toward the closet.
My skin prickled.
“What?”
“The wolf stood there.”
I turned.
The closet door was partly open.
“Here?”
She nodded.
“Before the van.”
I backed the children into the hall.
“Dominic!”
He appeared at the staircase almost instantly.
“What?”
“Grace says someone was in their closet before they were taken.”
His face became terrifyingly blank.
Within minutes, security swarmed the room.
They found a tiny listening device inside a decorative night-light.
A second beneath Lily’s desk.
A third inside the girls’ bathroom vent.
Dominic stared at the devices in evidence bags.
“Who had access to this room?”
Mrs. Alvarez.
Housekeeping.
Security.
Dominic.
Nathan Reed.
And one family member.
His younger cousin, Vincent Vale.
Vincent lived in New York but stayed at the estate frequently.
Dominic’s mouth tightened when that name appeared.
“Where is Vincent?”
“At the Drake,” one guard answered.
“Bring him.”
The girls were moved to Dominic’s suite.
So was I.
“I’m not sleeping in your room.”
Dominic looked at me.
“It has two bedrooms.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“The point is the security system is independent from the rest of the estate.”
“I can go home.”
“No.”
“I have rent.”
“I’ll cover it.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You refuse money aggressively.”
“Because you keep saying things like you can purchase problems.”
“I can purchase rent.”
“I pay my own rent.”
“Emily.”
“Dominic.”
Silence.
I had used his first name.
His security guard looked at the floor.
Dominic stared at me for a long moment.
Then he said, “Fine.”
“Fine?”
“You pay your rent.”
I blinked.
That had been easier than expected.
“But you’re staying.”
There it was.
“Until whoever took the girls is found.”
“That could take weeks.”
“It won’t.”
Something in the way he said it made me decide not to ask.
That evening, Grace woke screaming.
Not a nightmare.
Pain.
She curled around her stomach and vomited.
Dominic reached for his phone.
I touched her forehead.
“No fever.”
Grace whimpered.
“My side hurts.”
“Where?”
She pointed low on the right.
My old nursing-school brain switched on.
Appendix?
Kidney?
Trauma?
“When did she fall during the crash?” I asked Lily.
Lily nodded quickly.
“Gracie hit the seat.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
She touched her own side.
I looked at Dominic.
“Hospital. Now.”
His face went pale.
We were back at Children’s Mercy within twenty minutes.
Imaging showed a small kidney injury likely caused by the crash.
Not life-threatening.
But it needed monitoring.
The attending physician looked at me.
“Good catch.”
Dominic did too.
Later, while Grace slept, he stood beside the window.
“You should finish school.”
I laughed softly.
“With what money?”
He turned.
“That problem I actually can purchase.”
My smile disappeared.
“No.”
“Emily.”
“I saved your daughters because they were freezing. Not because I wanted a billionaire scholarship.”
His expression hardened.
“I wasn’t paying you.”
“What do you call it?”
“Recognizing talent.”
“Same packaging.”
He looked irritated.
Good.
Then Lily entered carrying a juice box.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“The wolf had a watch like Uncle Vinny.”
The room went silent.
Dominic crouched.
“What kind?”
“Shiny.”
Not useful.
But Lily continued.
“It had a red moon.”
Dominic’s face changed instantly.
Vincent Vale owned a rare Swiss watch with a red moon-phase dial.
He had bragged about it at Christmas.
Dominic stood.
“Julian.”
His new acting security chief entered.
“Find Vincent now.”
The answer came twenty minutes later.
Vincent had checked out of the Drake that morning.
His private jet was gone.
Destination unknown.
And Nathan Reed?
Still missing.
Everyone now believed the conspiracy had a face.
Dominic’s cousin.
His security chief.
Maybe both.
Then a guard arrived with something else.
A package had been delivered to the estate gate.
No return address.
Inside was Lily’s gold locket.
The one she had been wearing when I found her.
I had assumed it was lost in the alley.
Dominic opened the note beneath it.
His face went white.
I stepped closer.
Three words.
SHE SAW US.
I looked toward the hospital bed.
Lily.
May you like
Then another line.
THE WAITRESS TOO.
