Chapter 8
Mia collapsed against the marble the moment she cleared the hatch.
Dominic caught her before her knees struck.
Harper broke free from Vincent and ran.
This time, Dominic allowed it.
The child threw herself against Mia’s side, careful only because some instinct told her her mother was hurt.
Mia sobbed without sound, one arm wrapping around Harper, the other still trapped in Dominic’s jacket.
“My baby.”
Harper pressed her face to Mia’s chest.
“I knocked back.”
Mia’s face crumpled.
“I heard you.”
The foyer changed.
Even the guards lowered their eyes.
Dominic stood over them, not touching, giving mother and child the first unguarded breath they had been denied.
Then Mia saw Nathan.
He stood near the staircase with the guards behind him, posture stiff, face controlled again by force.
She pulled Harper closer.
Dominic noticed immediately.
His voice was quiet.
“Say it again.”
Mia looked up at him.
She knew what he was asking.
Not because he doubted her.
Because the room needed to hear it above the floor.
Mia swallowed.
Her hand trembled as she lifted it.
She pointed directly at Nathan.
“He locked me in.”
Nathan’s face tightened.
“That is not true.”
Harper turned and looked at him.
“She knocked all night.”
Nathan’s eyes flicked to the child.
There was no softness there.
Only calculation.
Dominic stepped between Nathan and Harper’s line of sight.
“You will not look at her.”
Nathan’s face flushed.
“Dom, think.”
“I am.”
“You know me.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
That one word carried twelve years of trust collapsing under the weight of a hidden hatch.
Nathan tried another angle.
“She found things she misunderstood.”
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
“You said you had no idea she was here.”
Nathan froze.
Mia’s breathing hitched.
The guards heard it.
Nathan realized the trap of his own sentence.
If Mia misunderstood things, he knew she had seen them.
If he knew she had seen them, he knew more than he claimed.
Dominic did not smile.
He looked almost disappointed.
That frightened Nathan more.
Dominic turned to the guards.
“Keep him where he stands.”
Nathan’s confidence broke another inch.
No one touched him.
May you like
But no one needed to.
Read Chapter 9 👉 Because Nathan tried to explain Mia’s discovery before admitting he knew she had discovered anything.
