Chapter 9 - PIER NINE
Wind tore across Boston Harbor.
Adrian looked exhausted.
Not powerful.
Not elegant.
Broken.
“You ruined everything,” he told Dominic.
“No,” Dominic replied. “We inherited something ruined.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“You always got everything.”
“My father beat me when I disappointed him.”
“At least he noticed you.”
That silenced Dominic.
There it was.
The wound beneath all of Adrian's ambition.
He had spent his life standing beside two brothers who inherited the Vale empire while he remained useful but secondary.
Gabriel loved him.
Dominic trusted him.
And Adrian resented them both.
“I didn't mean for Gabriel to die,” Adrian whispered.
Dominic's face changed.
“What happened?”
Adrian finally confessed.
He had told Samuel where Dominic would be that night.
He expected Samuel to frighten Dominic into stepping down.
Gabriel discovered the ambush.
He came to stop it.
Samuel killed him.
Adrian had lived with it ever since.
“You could have told me,” Dominic said.
“I was afraid.”
“So you kept lying.”
“Yes.”
Adrian raised the gun.
“I can't go to prison.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“You don't have to die.”
“You'd forgive me?”
“No.”
Adrian flinched.
Dominic continued.
“But forgiveness isn't the price of staying alive.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Adrian looked at the water.
Then at me.
Then at Dominic.
He lowered the gun.
“I loved Gabriel.”
“I know.”
“I loved you too.”
Dominic's eyes filled.
“I know.”
Adrian surrendered.
No dramatic gunfight.
No revenge.
Just a broken man finally choosing not to make one more terrible decision.
As federal agents led him away, Adrian gave Dominic the JANUS drive.
Dominic crushed it beneath his heel.
Then threw the pieces into an evidence bag.
Pier Nine became quiet.
Dominic stood where Gabriel had died.
I waited several feet away.
After a while, he said, “He was twenty-nine.”
I approached.
“He wanted to open a restaurant.”
“You never told me that.”
“He couldn't cook.”
I smiled.
“Apparently that's hereditary.”
Dominic laughed.
Then cried.
For the first time since I had known him, he didn't hide it.
I held him.
Not the billionaire.
Not the criminal legend.
Not Boston's feared king.
Just Dominic.
A man grieving his brother.
When we finally walked away from Pier Nine, dawn was appearing over the harbor.
Dominic stopped beside the car.
“Claire.”
“Yes?”
“I don't know what my life looks like now.”
“Neither do I.”
“I don't have the company.”
“Good.”
“My reputation is destroyed.”
“Mostly good.”
“My family is either dead, imprisoned or in therapy.”
“That part needs work.”
He laughed.
Then became serious.
“But I have you.”
I looked at him.
“You don't have me.”
His face fell.
I took his hand.
“You choose me. Every day. And I choose you. That's different.”
Dominic stared at me.
Then nodded.
“Every day.”
“Every day.”
He kissed me as sunrise broke across Boston Harbor.
And for once, neither of us needed anyone to stay.
May you like
We were choosing to.
---
