Chapter 18 - Blood in the ChapelDominic fired before Nathan finished speaking.
The shot struck the stone arch as Nathan dove behind the broken wall. Daniel grabbed Lily and pulled her down. Harper lay curled near the altar, screaming for her mother, ribbons still around her wrists. Claire bled onto the chapel floor, eyes wide with shock, one hand pressed to her side.
The ruins exploded into gunfire.
Dominic moved toward Harper, using the fallen altar as cover. Bullets chipped stone inches from his face. Daniel and the guards returned fire toward the archway, but Nathan knew ruins the way he knew the house — every shadow, every angle, every coward’s exit.
“Harper,” Dominic called. “Crawl to me.”
The child sobbed, frozen.
“Harper,” Lily said.
Her voice cut through the gunfire differently.
Not commanding.
Not adult.
Not pretending not to be afraid.
“I’m scared too,” Lily said. “But we’re going to move anyway, okay?”
Harper lifted her tear-streaked face.
Lily lay flat behind a broken pew and stretched out her hand.
“One little crawl,” she said. “Like a mouse.”
Harper hiccupped.
“My mommy calls me mouse.”
“I know,” Lily lied gently. “Mice are fast.”
Harper began crawling.
Claire groaned beside her.
Dominic reached the child just as another shot tore through the altar cloth. He cut the ribbon from Harper’s wrists and pulled her against him.
She clung to his neck.
“You came.”
“I promised.”
Claire grabbed his sleeve with bloody fingers.
“Dominic.”
He looked down.
All her beauty had drained into terror.
“I don’t want to die here.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“No one does.”
She laughed weakly, then coughed.
“I thought if I had his child, I’d matter.”
Harper trembled against Dominic.
Claire looked at the child.
For the first time, there was no hatred in her face.
Only horror at herself.
“I’m sorry,” Claire whispered.
Harper did not answer.
She did not owe forgiveness to anyone.
Dominic lifted Harper and carried her to Lily.
“Take her.”
Lily stared. “What about you?”
“Nathan.”
“No.”
Dominic placed Harper in her arms.
“Get her to Mia.”
Lily’s eyes filled with fury.
“You just found me.”
“And I’m making sure you live.”
Before she could argue, Daniel dragged them both toward the side wall where the guards covered their escape.
Nathan’s voice echoed through the ruins.
“Always sending daughters away, Dom.”
Dominic turned.
Nathan stepped from behind a broken pillar, gun in hand, blood running from a cut along his temple.
“You could have built something with me,” Nathan said. “We could have controlled everything your father left.”
“You mean everything he poisoned.”
“He made you powerful.”
“He made me blind.”
Nathan’s face twisted.
“I made you survive.”
Dominic walked toward him.
“No. You made sure I never healed.”
Nathan fired.
Dominic felt the bullet tear across his side, hot and sharp. He staggered but did not fall. He fired back. Nathan ducked, laughing like the sound of a man unraveling.
Outside, Lily ran through the woods with Harper in her arms, Daniel beside her.
Harper cried, “Mommy! Mommy!”
Mia was already at the edge of the trees despite everyone trying to hold her back.
When she saw Harper, she broke free.
Mother and daughter collided in the wet grass.
Mia fell to her knees and wrapped Harper so tightly the child disappeared inside her arms.
“I came,” Harper sobbed. “I crawled like a mouse.”
Mia kissed every inch of her face.
“My brave mouse. My brave, brave girl.”
Lily stood over them, breathing hard, staring back at the chapel.
Gunfire had stopped.
That frightened her.
Inside the ruins, Dominic and Nathan circled each other amid broken stone and old prayers.
Nathan’s gun clicked empty.
Dominic tossed his own aside.
Nathan smiled.
“Honorable?”
“No,” Dominic said. “Personal.”
They collided.
Nathan was fast, desperate, fueled by the collapse of seventeen years of planning. Dominic was wounded, bleeding, but colder. Each blow carried memory. Nathan at Elena’s funeral. Nathan in the hospital after Dominic’s father died. Nathan laughing at Harper’s birthday cake last spring. Nathan saying brother while standing over buried truth.
Dominic drove him into the altar.
Nathan grabbed a broken piece of stone and struck Dominic’s side.
Dominic dropped to one knee.
Nathan seized him by the collar.
“You think Lily will love you? You think Mia will look at you and see anything but the house that swallowed her? You are a grave with money, Dom.”
Dominic looked up.
“Maybe.”
That answer unsettled Nathan.
Dominic continued, voice rough.
“But I can stop digging.”
He surged upward and slammed Nathan backward.
Nathan stumbled to the edge of the cracked chapel floor.
Beneath it, old rainwater had hollowed the foundation into a dark pit.
Nathan looked down, then laughed.
“Buried beneath your home. Beneath your chapel. Beneath everything. Fitting.”
Dominic grabbed his coat.
“You’re coming back alive.”
Nathan smiled.
“You still want truth.”
“Yes.”
Nathan leaned closer.
“Then here’s one more piece.”
Dominic’s grip tightened.
Nathan whispered, “Elena didn’t die after Victoria left.”
Dominic froze.
“She lived three more days.”
Nathan smiled through blood.
“She heard you crying over her coffin.”
Dominic’s face shattered.
Nathan used that second.
He twisted free, stepped backward, and vanished through the broken floor.
Dominic lunged, catching only air.
Nathan fell into darkness.
A sickening impact echoed below.
Then silence.
Dominic stood at the edge, bleeding, staring down.
Daniel rushed in minutes later.
“Boss!”
Dominic did not move.
Daniel looked into the pit.
Nathan Cross lay far below among broken stone and black water.
His eyes were open.
His mouth still smiling.
Dead men keep secrets differently.
Dominic closed his eyes.
May you like
Outside, Mia held Harper. Lily stood beside them. Victoria watched the chapel burn with emergency light.
And beneath the ruins, Nathan took Elena’s final three days with him.
