Elias Rowan’s signature on the supposed share transfer had been forged.
The courts would take months, perhaps years, to unwind everything.
Dominic had made the litigation much simpler.
He had refused to contest the Rowan claim.
Forty-nine percent of the original company and its traceable growth belonged to Clare and Ellie.
The figure was staggering.
Clare had cried when the lawyers explained it.
Then she had done something Dominic never expected.
She refused to quit her job.
“I’ve spent seven months learning where everybody hides the clean towels,” she said. “I’m not wasting that education.”
Dominic suspected pride had more to do with it.
He respected that.
She would leave eventually.
When she was ready.
“Your attorney called,” Dominic said.
Clare sighed.
“I know.”
“They want you to approve the restitution foundation.”
“I’ll read it tonight.”
“It puts you on the board.”
“I know.”
“And Vincent.”
She looked at him.
“That part I’m still considering.”
Dominic smiled.
Vincent had resigned from security.
Dominic had accepted the resignation for exactly forty-eight hours.
Then hired him to run the foundation recovering Lorenzo Vale’s hidden assets.
Vincent hated the title.
Dominic considered that a benefit.
Clare watched Ellie play.
“Did you ever figure out who sent Arthur the anonymous message?”
Dominic’s smile faded.
“No.”
Arthur claimed it had arrived from an untraceable number.
Mercer denied sending it.
Nathan denied it.
Vincent hadn’t.
Nobody associated with the conspiracy had admitted warning Arthur.
Clare frowned.
“So someone knew about the brace before Ellie found it.”
“Yes.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Constantly.”
A small voice came from the floor.
“I sent it.”
Dominic and Clare both looked down.
Ellie continued playing with the latch.
Clare laughed nervously.
“Sweetheart, you can’t send messages.”
Ellie looked up.
“No. Daddy did.”
Clare stopped breathing.
Dominic stared at her.
“What did you say?”
Ellie pointed at her old wooden latch toy.
“Daddy.”
Clare slowly crouched.
“Ellie, Daddy has been gone for two years.”
“I know.”
She turned the toy over.
Then pushed a tiny wooden panel.
It slid aside.
Clare gasped.
She had never known the panel moved.
Inside was a narrow cavity.
A tiny black object sat within it.
Dominic lifted it carefully.
A memory card.
Clare’s hands began trembling.
“Thomas made that toy.”
Dominic looked at her.
“What?”
“He built it for Ellie before he died.”
Dominic inserted the card into his phone using an adapter from the desk.
There was one video.
Thomas Rowan appeared on-screen.
Clare covered her mouth.
Ellie smiled.
“Daddy.”
Thomas looked exhausted.
Behind him was Warehouse Seventeen.
“If anyone is seeing this,” he began, “I probably failed.”
Clare began crying immediately.
Thomas continued.
“I found the original Rowan-Vale agreement. I found Lorenzo’s accounts. And I found something else.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“If Dominic Vale ever starts dismantling what his father built, there will be people around him who won’t allow it.”
Thomas held up a small electronic device.
“I wrote a program that watches a handful of systems tied to Vale security. If certain old accounts reactivate, if specific names access medical or personal records, it sends a warning.”
Dominic stared at the screen.
Thomas had built a digital dead man’s switch.
Two years before anyone sabotaged the car.
Two years before the poisoned medication.
Two years before Ellie found the reversed brace.
“I don’t know who will receive the warning,” Thomas continued. “I created several contingencies. One goes to Arthur Voss because, for all his sins, he still has a conscience.”
Arthur’s anonymous message.
Dominic felt chills move across his arms.
Then Thomas smiled.
“But the most important evidence is going somewhere nobody will look.”
He held up the wooden latch toy.
Clare sobbed.
“Thomas…”
“Ellie likes locks,” he said. “She always has.”
