A rival family crushed before Dominic took control. His father’s war. A winter raid. Three brothers dead in a warehouse by the river.
“I was six when your father burned my house,” Claire said. “Nathan found me.”
Dominic’s gaze sharpened.
“Nathan raised you?”
“He saved me.”
The truth rearranged itself.
Nathan had not merely betrayed him for money.
He had built a second family in the shadows.
Claire’s grip tightened around Harper’s shoulder. “He told me the Vales took everything from us. He told me I would have my chance one day. Then he brought me here. Into your house. Into your bed. Into your future.”
Dominic’s face did not change, but the words struck with quiet force.
Claire smiled through her bitterness. “I was supposed to make you trust me. Love me, if that was still possible. Then, after the wedding, your will would change. Your men would accept me. Nathan would handle the rest.”
“And Mia?”
“She ruined everything.”
Harper whimpered.
Claire flinched, almost as if the sound hurt her.
Dominic saw it.
There was a crack in her. Not mercy, perhaps, but hesitation.
“You don’t want to hurt the child,” he said.
Claire’s eyes snapped back to him. “Don’t tell me what I want.”
“You’ve had three days to do it. You didn’t.”
“Because Nathan said she was useful.”
“No,” Dominic said. “Because you know what it is to be six years old and trapped in someone else’s war.”
Claire’s lips parted.
For one second, the gun dipped.
Dominic moved.
He crossed the distance in a blur, one hand knocking the pistol away from Harper, the other pulling the child behind him. The gun fired into the marble floor. Harper screamed. Claire lunged for the weapon, but Dominic caught her wrist and twisted until she gasped.
He could have broken it.
He did not.
That hesitation cost him.
A blade appeared in Claire’s other hand and cut across his side. White pain opened beneath his ribs. Dominic staggered. Claire tore free and ran toward the service door.
Dominic lifted his pistol.
Harper was behind him.
Claire was fleeing.
He did not shoot.
Two guards burst in from the hall a moment later, but Claire was already through the door and into the winter grounds.
“After her!” Dominic barked.
Men surged past.
Dominic pressed one hand to his bleeding side and turned to Harper.
The child stood frozen, eyes huge.
Then she ran into him.