Chapter 5 - The Ally in the Shadows
Back in Chicago, Victor sat in his glass-walled office on the thirty-fifth floor of his private security firm, Rinaldi Global Solutions.
The room was silent except for the rhythmic clicking of keyboards outside the double-glazed doors. Three of his top intelligence analysts were staring at high-resolution monitors, running algorithms across thousands of traffic cameras, cellular pings, and license plate readers.
Dominic walked in, closing the door behind him.
"We have a problem," Dominic said quietly.
"Did you find the Subaru?" Victor asked, leaning forward over his mahogany desk.
"No," Dominic said. "We found who helped her clone the freight elevator access key."
Victor stood up slowly. "Who?"
Dominic hesitated for a fraction of a second. "Dr. Vance."
Victor stared at him. Dr. Samuel Vance was Dominic’s older brother and the chief pediatric specialist who had delivered Leo and Mia three months ago. He was a respected, sixty-five-year-old physician who had been a personal friend of Victor’s family for twenty years.
Five minutes later, Dr. Vance was brought into the office. He didn't look afraid. He wore his crisp white medical coat over a blue button-down shirt, holding his leather doctor’s bag in his hand.
"Sit down, Samuel," Victor said, his tone icy enough to freeze water.
Dr. Vance remained standing. "I’ll stand, Victor."
"You helped my wife kidnap my children," Victor said, leaning his hands on the desk. "You provided her with travel incubators, prescription oxygen concentrators, and high-level medical records. I could end your medical license before the sun sets today. I could have you indicted for federal conspiracy."
Dr. Vance sighed, looking at Victor with genuine pity.
"Do whatever you want to my license, Victor," Dr. Vance said calmly. "I’ve delivered three thousand babies in my career. My duty is to my patients. Those twins were born at twenty-nine weeks. Their lungs are papers-thin. They need peace, absolute clean air, and a mother whose heart rate isn't spiking to one-hundred-and-forty every time her husband walks into the room smelling like cheap perfume and lies."
Victor felt as though he had been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. He staggered back half a step.
"I love my children," Victor rasped.
"Then why did you leave them every night?" Dr. Vance asked softly. "Why did you make Nora feel like she was completely alone in that massive, golden cage of yours? Nora came to my clinic three weeks ago with elevated blood pressure and severe stress tremors. She was terrified that if she left you normally, your money and your lawyers would take those fragile babies away from her and hand them over to nannies."
"I would never take them from her!" Victor roared.
"Wouldn't you?" Dr. Vance challenged. "You’re Victor Rinaldi. You win every negotiation. You destroy every opponent. Nora knew that if she asked for a divorce, you would use every judge, every politician, and every operative on your payroll to ruin her and keep the kids."
Victor stood frozen. He wanted to scream, to smash the glass windows, to order Dominic to tear the doctor apart. But deep inside his chest, a sickening realization took root: Dr. Vance was right.
May you like
If Nora had served him with divorce papers, Victor’s immediate instinct would have been to fight, to conquer, to unleash his legal and political arsenal to crush her resistance and secure full custody. He wouldn't have listened. He would have treated his marriage like a corporate war.
Nora hadn't just fled a bad husband. She had fled a predator.
