Chapter 76: Shadows of the Past

I heard it before I saw it.

The soft, unending beep from the secure line that Dominic kept hidden behind his office bar. A red light blinked ominously on the phone, as if it had been biding its time to disrupt the rare tranquility between us.

Dominic’s hand halted mid-motion, his fingers delicately tracing my spine. “Did you hear that?”

I nodded, already rising from the couch. The city lights seeped through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind us, casting elongated shadows across the room. Something about that blinking red light twisted my stomach.

Dominic crossed the room ahead of me, seizing the phone, his jaw tightening as he pressed play.

A mechanical voice resonated throughout the room.

“They know. And they’re coming for her next.”

Static followed. Then came silence.

My heart skipped a beat.

Dominic turned to face me, his eyes sharper than I had ever seen. “Who the hell has access to this line?”

“No one but your inner circle,” I whispered, a sense of dread unfurling in my chest.

“Which is precisely what concerns me,” he muttered, pulling out his phone and typing furiously. “That wasn’t a warning. That was a countdown.”

I pressed my palm against my sternum, trying to steady my racing heart. “Who’s they, Dominic? Who knows?”

His phone vibrated. He glanced down, his eyes scanning the message before returning to me. “It’s not Richard. He’s keeping a low profile. There’s talk of a group linked to Olivia and Victor’s past. People we have no access to.”

“You think it’s connected to their affair?” I asked, dread hardening into something colder.

Dominic nodded. “Victor had enemies. People who knew about his relationship with your mother and used it to manipulate both families.”

“Wait,” I said, realization dawning like a bolt of lightning. “Do you think they were the ones behind the cover-up? Behind the murder of Victor’s wife?”

Dominic glanced at me, his voice barely above a whisper. "That’s precisely what I believe."

A knot twisted in my chest. "So all of this—our arranged marriage, my father’s corruption, your mother’s death—could have been orchestrated by the same force?"

"Not could have," he replied. "Was."

We locked eyes, the heaviness of the situation pressing down on us like a roof about to cave in.

"I need answers," I murmured. "And if we don’t act now—whoever left that voicemail won’t just target me. They’ll come for everyone."

We sped through the city like outlaws draped in silk. Dominic’s Maserati sliced through the streets like a bullet, his hands firmly gripping the wheel. He hadn’t spoken much since we departed the penthouse. He didn’t have to.

We were on our way to a name neither of us wanted to say aloud—Olivia Sinclair.

My mother.

The woman who had been lurking at the edges of this enigma from the very start.

As we arrived at the Sinclair estate, I barely waited for the car to halt before leaping out. I dashed up the marble steps and banged on the door as if I weren’t the daughter she had deceived for most of my life.

She opened the door herself, draped in an emerald silk robe, as if she had been anticipating our arrival.

"I knew you’d come," she said softly. Her gaze shifted to Dominic behind me. "Both of you."

I narrowed my eyes. "We know about you and Victor. The affair. The child that could have been. The tragedy that ensued."

She didn’t flinch. "Come inside."

We trailed her into the drawing room. The fireplace crackled gently, but the atmosphere was frigid.

Olivia poured herself a drink. “Victor and I loved each other once. Long before the marriage contracts, the political ambitions, the blood on our hands.”

“You don’t have to romanticize it,” I snapped. “Just give us the truth.”

She turned to me, eyes hollow. “Do you really want to hear it? Because once you do, there’s no going back.”

“I passed that point the moment I agreed to marry Dominic,” I said.

She took a sip of her drink. “Victor wanted to leave. We had plans to escape. But someone discovered our intentions—someone with significant power. They warned that if he abandoned his wife and the Caldwell legacy, they would ensure he never saw daylight again.”

Dominic tensed. “Who?”

She met his gaze. “Someone your father feared more than the Senate. More than public opinion.”

I blinked in surprise. “Are you saying Victor wasn’t the one pulling the strings?”

Olivia shook her head. “He was merely another pawn. The true power? They’ve been operating in the shadows for decades.”

“Names, Olivia,” Dominic demanded, his voice low and intense. “We need names.”

Her lip quivered, and for the first time, I noticed the fractures in her carefully crafted facade.

“They referred to themselves as The Dominion League,” she murmured. “An underground network of legacy families—political, corporate, judicial. They manipulate everything from behind the scenes.”

I felt the ground shift beneath me.

“And they’re the ones targeting me now?” I asked, my breath hitching.

She nodded. “You got too close. By revealing your father’s secrets, you’ve opened a dangerous door.”

Dominic moved closer. “Then we break it down.”

She looked at both of us, a tear finally slipping down her cheek. “You’re in deeper than you realize. And if you want to make it through this—”

“What?”

“—You’ll need to dismantle the League.”

Back in the car, my fingers shook as I gazed out the window.

“What now?” I asked, my voice raw.

Dominic looked at me, then took my hand in his.

"Now," he said, "we cease reacting. And begin planning."

I faced him, the burden of everything pressing heavily between us. "Do you trust me, Dominic? Even after all that’s happened?"

His gaze softened. "More than anyone else."

I leaned in gradually, my breath hitching as our lips connected—not with passion this time, but with something far more perilous.

Hope.

A kiss that foretold conflict.

Yet, even as we held onto each other, the darkness thickened around us.

Because The Dominion League wasn’t merely observing.

They were already in motion.