Chapter 5 - Smoke Behind the Door.
Rachel shouted for everyone to leave the hallway as Claire grabbed Leo and moved both children toward the front entrance.
Nathan ran to the kitchen for the fire extinguisher.
Dominic did not move toward the children.
He moved toward the office.
That detail lodged in Claire's mind even as smoke thickened near the ceiling.
"Get outside!" Rachel yelled.
Dominic pulled his shirt over his mouth and disappeared through the office door.
Claire carried Mia while Leo held tightly to her dress.
They reached the driveway just as Nathan ran back out coughing.
"I couldn't get close enough."
Rachel called emergency services.
Sienna stood near the curb shaking, but Claire noticed she kept checking Dominic's car.
Evelyn sat on the front steps and cried into both hands.
"He was trying to save the files," she said.
Claire looked at her.
"Why would files matter more than his children?"
Evelyn had no answer.
Sirens approached from the distance.
Then Dominic emerged from the front door carrying a metal cash box against his chest.
His sleeve was singed.
He set the box beside his car and bent over coughing.
Claire stared at it.
"What's in there?"
"Personal documents."
Rachel stepped closer.
"If they relate to the company, they need to remain available."
Dominic looked at her with open hatred.
"Stay out of my marriage."
"This stopped being only a marital dispute when records were removed during an active fire."
Firefighters arrived and pushed everyone farther from the house.
Within minutes, they contained the small blaze to the office wall and rug.
The captain later explained that the fire appeared to have started in a wastebasket.
There had been shredded paper inside it.
Claire looked at Dominic.
"You started it."
"Are you crazy?"
"You ran toward the fire and came out with a box."
"Because I knew what was worth saving."
Leo tightened his hand around Claire's fingers.
She looked down at him.
His face had changed.
"Mom."
"What is it?"
He pointed toward Dominic's car.
"That's the box Daddy told Grandma to hide when you called yesterday."
Dominic snapped his head toward Leo.
"Stop filling his head with nonsense."
Leo flinched.
Claire stepped in front of him.
"He remembered a box."
Nathan walked toward Dominic's car.
"Open it."
Dominic blocked him.
"Get away from my property."
Nathan laughed bitterly.
"You used my name on Harbor paperwork, Dom. I saw the tax forms."
Claire turned to Nathan.
"Your name?"
Nathan nodded.
"He told me it was for a side project. I signed one authorization last year. I never saw those invoices."
Dominic looked trapped for the first time.
The fire captain approached and told them the house could not be reentered until the electrical system was checked.
Claire made her decision immediately.
She booked a suite at a hotel downtown and took Leo and Mia with her.
Dominic tried to follow.
"Those are my kids too."
Claire faced him beside the open car door.
"Then start acting like their father."
She drove away before he could answer.
Twenty minutes later, Rachel called from the second car.
"Claire, the bank found something."
Claire tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
"What?"
"Harbor Consulting isn't the biggest transfer."
May you like
Rachel paused.
"There is another account, and Dominic moved one point eight million dollars into it this morning."
