Chapter 4 - Confessions in the Dark
The boardroom meeting stretched on for hours, a phantom clock ticking away while I sat in the dim quiet of Dominic’s private rest suite, rocking Grace until she finally fell asleep against my chest. When the heavy double doors clicked shut again around eight o'clock, the high-rise had grown silent. Only the distant hum of traffic far below and the glittering grid of city lights remained.
The door to the suite opened, and Dominic stepped inside. He had loosened his brown tie and unbuttoned the top collar of his white shirt. The arrogant, untouchable executive was gone; in his place stood a tired man carrying the ghosts of his family.
He walked over quietly, his eyes falling on the baby sleeping soundly in my arms. Without a word, he reached out, the back of his knuckles gently brushing against Grace's soft cheek. A slow, melancholic sigh escaped his lips.
"She has Julian's eyes," he said quietly, his voice lacking all its earlier hostility. "I saw it when she crawled under my desk this afternoon. I tried to convince myself it was just coincidence. But I knew."
"You couldn't afford to know," I answered, keeping my voice soft so as not to wake her. "Not with half the board looking for a weakness to exploit."
Dominic looked up, meeting my eyes directly for the first time without a barrier of professional distance. "Why didn't you come straight to me when you reached the city? Why apply as a service worker in this building?"
"Because three weeks after Julian disappeared off the coast for good, men I didn't know started asking questions about his estate," I said, the memory sending a cold shiver down my spine. "They broke into the coastal cottage while I was out buying formula. They were looking for this pendant and his papers. I knew whoever killed him—or forced him out—was close to the top. I needed to see who ran this building with my own eyes before I handed his child over to a wolf."
Dominic flinched as if struck. He stepped closer, the scent of expensive cedar and rain clinging to his beige jacket. "And you decided the best way to investigate was to clean my offices?"
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"I needed to survive, and I needed to be near the center of the web," I replied evenly. "If you had turned out like them, I would have disappeared again tonight."
He stared at me for a long moment, his chest rising and falling beneath the white shirt. Slowly, he reached out and took my hand, his thumb brushing over my knuckles—a warm, steady pressure that made my breath catch in my throat.
