CHAPTER 7 THE SECRET BEHIND THE BLACK DOOR
Dominic's gun remained fixed on Victor.
The underground chamber was silent except for the distant crackle of the burning chapel above them.
Harper stood behind Mia.
Her little hands were gripping the woman's dress.
Victor looked at Dominic.
“Open the door.”
Dominic didn't move.
“You killed my mother.”
Victor's expression didn't change.
“She knew too much.”
“You killed her because she tried to protect me.”
“Yes.”
The answer was brutally simple.
Dominic's eyes became colder.
“And now you want me to open this.”
“Yes.”
“What happens if I refuse?”
Victor smiled.
“Then Harper dies.”
Mia immediately pulled Harper closer.
“You won't touch her.”
Victor's eyes moved toward Mia.
“You've been protecting that child for four years.”
“I'll keep protecting her.”
Victor laughed quietly.
“You still don't understand what she is.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“She is a child.”
Victor shook his head.
“She is the last piece of the Vale bloodline.”
Dominic looked at the enormous black door.
The circular lock waited in the center.
He still had no key.
Alexander had taken it.
“You don't have the key.”
Victor smiled.
“I don't need it.”
He reached inside his jacket.
Dominic immediately raised his weapon.
Victor slowly removed a small metal object.
Another key.
But this one was different.
It was black.
And engraved with a single letter.
V.
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“Where did you get that?”
“I made it.”
“You said my mother stole the key.”
“She stole the original.”
Victor lifted the black key.
“This is the copy.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You planned this.”
“Yes.”
“From the beginning.”
“Yes.”
“Harper's birth.”
“Yes.”
“Mia.”
“Yes.”
“Claire.”
Victor smiled.
“Yes.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“You controlled all of it.”
“Almost.”
“What went wrong?”
Victor looked toward Harper.
“Elias.”
Dominic's eyes flicked toward the shadows.
His brother was nowhere to be seen.
“What did Elias do?”
Victor's expression hardened.
“He betrayed me.”
Mia suddenly spoke.
“No.”
Victor looked at her.
Mia stepped forward.
“He saved Harper.”
Victor's face darkened.
“By stealing her.”
“He rescued her from you.”
Victor raised his gun.
Mia froze.
Dominic immediately stepped between them.
“Put it down.”
Victor stared at his son.
“You still protect her.”
“She saved my daughter.”
Victor smiled.
“Your daughter.”
He looked at Harper.
“That's the problem.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“What are you talking about?”
Victor stepped closer.
“Harper is not simply your daughter.”
Dominic waited.
“She was created to inherit the Archive.”
Mia shook her head.
“No.”
Victor continued.
“Her genetic structure contains markers from three Vale bloodlines.”
Dominic frowned.
“Three?”
Victor nodded.
“Mine.”
“Elias's.”
“And yours.”
Dominic stared at him.
“How?”
Victor smiled.
“That's what the Black Archive contains.”
He turned toward the door.
“The entire experiment.”
Mia's face went pale.
Dominic noticed.
“You knew.”
Mia looked away.
“What did they do to Harper?”
Mia began crying.
“I didn't know the whole truth.”
“Tell me what you know.”
“They took genetic material from the three of you.”
Dominic stared.
“When?”
“Before you were born.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“That isn't possible.”
Mia shook her head.
“Your father started the program decades ago.”
“What program?”
“The Vale Legacy Project.”
Victor's smile returned.
“The project was designed to create an heir capable of accessing every Vale asset.”
Dominic looked at Harper.
“She wasn't born naturally.”
“No.”
“Then how?”
Mia whispered:
“She was carried by a surrogate.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Who?”
Mia looked at Victor.
Victor said:
“Eleanor.”
Dominic's eyes snapped open.
“My mother?”
Victor nodded.
“Your mother carried Harper.”
Dominic stared at him.
“That means…”
“She gave birth to your daughter.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Dominic looked at Harper.
His mother's final years had always been mysterious.
He remembered her being ill.
He remembered doctors.
Long hospital visits.
He remembered Victor telling him she had suffered a rare illness.
But if Victor was telling the truth…
His mother had been pregnant with Harper decades before Harper's birth.
It made no sense.
“You're lying.”
Victor smiled.
“Ask the Archive.”
He inserted his black key into a hidden slot beside the door.
The wall vibrated.
Lights appeared along the frame.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then a voice spoke from the ceiling.
“GENETIC AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED.”
Victor looked at Harper.
“Come here.”
Dominic stepped in front of her.
“No.”
The voice repeated:
“GENETIC AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED.”
Victor looked at Dominic.
“Either you open the door…”
A pause.
“…or Harper does.”
Dominic looked at the lock.
Then at Harper.
The little girl stared back.
“Daddy…”
Dominic crouched beside her.
“Don't be afraid.”
“I'm scared.”
“I know.”
“Is Grandpa going to hurt Mommy?”
Dominic looked at Victor.
“No.”
Victor smiled.
Dominic corrected himself.
“He won't.”
He looked at Mia.
“Take Harper.”
Mia moved forward.
Victor raised his gun.
“Don't.”
Dominic stood.
“You said the door needs Harper.”
“Yes.”
“Then you need her alive.”
Victor hesitated.
Dominic saw it.
He had found the weakness.
“You can't kill her.”
Victor lowered his weapon slightly.
Dominic stepped toward the door.
“Give me the key.”
Victor handed it over.
Dominic inserted it.
Nothing happened.
A red light appeared.
ACCESS DENIED.
Victor's face changed.
“What?”
Dominic tried again.
Nothing.
Mia stared at the lock.
“Maybe it needs Harper.”
Victor grabbed Harper's wrist.
Dominic instantly raised his gun.
“Let her go.”
Victor pulled Harper toward the door.
Harper began crying.
“Daddy!”
Dominic aimed directly at Victor's head.
“Release her.”
Victor stopped.
Then suddenly…
A gunshot came from the corridor.
Victor jerked backward.
Blood splashed across the wall.
He fell.
Dominic spun.
Elias stood in the doorway.
His gun was smoking.
“You're welcome.”
Dominic stared at him.
“You shot our father.”
Elias looked at Victor's body.
“I shot the man pretending to be our father.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
Victor began laughing.
Blood ran from his shoulder.
Elias stepped forward.
“You still haven't figured it out.”
Dominic stared at him.
“Figured out what?”
Elias looked at Victor.
Then at Dominic.
“That's not Victor.”
Silence.
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“Then who is he?”
The man on the floor slowly lifted his head.
His face began to change.
The skin around his jaw shifted.
A thin layer peeled away.
Dominic took a step backward.
A mask.
A perfect human disguise.
The man beneath it was younger.
Much younger.
Not Victor.
Not Alexander.
Someone Dominic had never seen before.
The stranger smiled.
“Congratulations.”
Dominic raised his weapon.
“Who are you?”
The man laughed.
“The man who has been running the Vale family for seventeen years.”
Elias's face became pale.
Dominic looked at him.
“You know him.”
Elias nodded.
“I do.”
“Who?”
Elias whispered:
“Lucas Bennett.”
Dominic's blood ran cold.
“Claire's brother?”
The stranger smiled.
“Exactly.”
Dominic looked toward the surface.
Claire.
Her family.
Her engagement.
Her entire relationship with him.
Suddenly every piece of the puzzle shifted.
Lucas stood slowly.
“You were never supposed to discover this.”
Dominic aimed his gun.
“You kidnapped Harper.”
Lucas smiled.
“No.”
He pointed toward the black door.
“I brought her home.”
The door suddenly opened.
A blinding white light filled the chamber.
Harper screamed.
Dominic turned.
Inside the room was a massive circular machine.
And suspended in the center was a glass chamber.
Inside it…
Was a little girl.
Same age.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same scar.
Dominic couldn't move.
Mia covered her mouth.
Elias whispered:
“No…”
Lucas smiled.
“You thought Harper was the only child.”
Dominic stared at the second girl.
Lucas spoke softly.
“She was only Prototype One.”
A pause.
“Meet Prototype Two.”
The little girl inside the glass opened her eyes.
Then she looked directly at Dominic.
May you like
And whispered:
“Daddy.”
