Chapter 5 - The Chess Board of Lake Forest
By Friday morning, the snow had begun to fall in earnest, wrapping the forty acres of the Vale estate in a thick, blinding blanket of white.
The atmosphere inside the mansion had completely shifted.
Dominic sat at the long dining room table in the main wing, a spread of legal documents, shipping manifests, and financial ledgers laid out before him. But he wasn't reading them. He was watching the double doors that led to the east wing.
The door opened, and Frankie Cerna walked in, shaking the fresh snow from his dark wool coat.
"Victor’s made his move," Frankie said, pulling out a chair and sitting down without asking. "He filed an emergency petition with the Cook County Probate Court an hour ago. He’s claiming Julian is incapacitated, suffering from severe psychological breakdown, and that you’re mismanaging the family trust to cover up losses in the dock holdings."
Dominic didn't look surprised. "Who’s the judge?"
"Judge Callahan," Frankie said grimly. "Victor’s had Callahan in his pocket for ten years. Callahan signed an order for an independent medical and psychological evaluation of Julian. They’re sending a court-appointed doctor and a social worker to this house tomorrow morning at nine AM."
Dominic’s hand closed into a tight fist on top of the financial ledgers. "I won't let them touch him."
"Dom, listen to me," Frankie urged, leaning across the table. "If you refuse entry to a court-appointed evaluator, Callahan will issue a warrant for your arrest for contempt, and Victor will use the sheriff's department to breach the gate and carry Julian out of here on a gurney. You can't fight the court order with guns without burning down everything our father built."
Dominic stood up, pacing toward the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the snowy driveway. "If that doctor comes in here and sees Julian sitting in that room, refusing to speak, refusing to interact, Victor wins. Callahan will grant temporary conservatorship to Victor, and Victor will have Julian moved to a private facility in Indiana within twenty-four hours."
"Where he’ll have an 'accidental' heart failure three weeks later," Frankie added quietly. "Leaving Victor in total control of Julian’s fifty percent share of the corporation."
The dining room door opened again, and Grace stepped inside carrying a polished silver tray with Dominic’s morning coffee.
She set the tray on the table, noticed the heavy atmosphere, and began to back away toward the door.
"Stay here, Miss Miller," Dominic commanded.
Grace stopped. She looked at Frankie, then at Dominic.
"You know what’s happening, don't you?" Dominic asked her.
"I heard the guards talking at the service entrance," Grace said quietly. "Your uncle is coming tomorrow with a doctor."
Dominic walked over to her, stopping two feet away. He looked exhausted, the dark circles under his eyes revealing days of relentless stress and sleepless nights.
"If they evaluate Julian tomorrow in the state he’s been in for seven years, they will take him away from this house," Dominic said, his voice stripped of all corporate arrogance. "He won't survive a month in a facility, Grace. Victor will make sure of it."
Grace looked at Dominic, then past him toward the east wing corridors.
"Then don't let them see the man he was for seven years," Grace said.
Dominic stared at her. "What do you mean?"
"Julian isn't mute, Mr. Vale," Grace said firmly. "He isn't broken, and he isn't incompetent. He spent three hours last night explaining to me the structural plot defects in nineteenth-century French literature. He knows more about world history, economics, and logistics than anyone I've ever spoken to."
Frankie gasped, sitting up straight in his chair. "He spoke to you? In words?"
Grace ignored Frankie, keeping her hazel eyes locked directly onto Dominic’s storm-gray gaze.
"He stopped speaking because he thought no one was listening to him," Grace continued, her voice rising with a quiet, fierce power. "He stopped fighting because he thought you had already given up on him and turned his life into a security routine."
Dominic felt as if he had been struck in the chest with a heavy iron bar. He took a short, sharp breath, the truth of her words cutting through seven years of self-deception and guilt.
"Will he speak to the doctor tomorrow?" Dominic asked, his voice shaking slightly.
"He won't speak to a stranger who enters his room with a clipboard and a legal order," Grace said. "He’ll retreat straight back into the dark."
"Then what do we do?" Frankie asked desperately.
Grace looked at Dominic, her jaw setting into a line of absolute determination.
"We stop hiding him," she said. "We bring him out of the east wing. Tomorrow morning, when that doctor and your uncle walk through the front door, Julian won't be sitting in a dark bedroom surrounded by medical equipment. He’ll be sitting at the head of this dining table, eating breakfast, and holding the family trust documents in his own hands."
Dominic stared at her, the audacity of the plan taking root in his mind like a sudden wildfire.
For seven years, he had protected Julian by hiding him behind locked doors and surveillance cameras.
Now, this plus-size housekeeper from Waukegan was telling him that the only way to save his twin was to tear down the glass cage and throw him straight into the lion's den.
Dominic looked at Frankie. "Cancel the perimeter lockdown for tomorrow morning."
Frankie blinked, stunned. "Dom... are you serious?"
"Tell the gate guards to let Victor, the doctor, and the court evaluator in at nine AM sharp," Dominic ordered, a dark, dangerous smile breaking across his hard face for the first time in years. "And tell the kitchen to prepare breakfast for four."
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He turned back to Grace, stepping so close she could feel the heat radiating from his body.
"Go tell my brother he has an appointment at nine o'clock," Dominic said softly. "And tell him his twin brother is going to be sitting right beside him."
