Page 35

DOMINIC

G raham shut the door behind me and crossed his office with a manila folder in one hand.

He didn’t speak until he sat down, sliding the folder toward me with one finger.

His office was quiet except for the muted sound of traffic outside the window and the low hum of the ventilation.

I sat down and picked up the folder but didn’t open it right away.

I was more interested in hearing what he had to say.

“I went back through the old reports,” he said in a measured tone. “The Montauk incident…I pulled everything—weather logs, security logs, animal control records, even private surveillance footage from the surrounding area.”

The name alone made my jaw tighten. I leaned back, forcing my shoulders to relax.

“And?” Montauk had been ancient history to me until David brought it up, and when he did, it made all the guilt and shame resurface.

He was playing with fire in a dry forest, which would set my entire world ablaze if I let it.

“You didn’t hit a person,” he said, shaking his head. “The damage to the car was consistent with a large animal, most likely a deer—which I’m guessing is the story David told.” He eyed me carefully as he paused. “It had to have run off…”

I opened the folder and scanned the top page. It held high-resolution photos and notes about who Graham had called. Based on what was written here, everything pointed to an animal impact. It should have been reassuring, but all I could think was how late it had come.

“They widened that stretch of highway five months later, Dom. If there was a body, those construction crews wouldn’t have missed it. Even if carnivores and scavengers had?—”

“Enough,” I said, holding up a hand. The gruesome details were too much for me to listen to right now.

“Alright, I’m just saying no one was reported missing.

No one ever found a body. And David Bennett’s father paid a garage out of East Hampton, and the shop owner kept records.

He thinks we’re digging into David’s past to screw with his campaign, but even still he swears it wasn’t human damage.

He swears he found animal hair in the hood ornament.

” Graham sat back and sighed, and I felt his relief.

“David was in the passenger seat that night,” I said, flipping to the next page. “He told me to keep driving. He made a call, said he would handle it.”

“He wants you to believe it was worse than it was,” Graham said. “Because that will keep you quiet—and loyal.” He huffed and continued. “He’s afraid there was more and that you’ll bring him down, Dom. You gotta let it go.”

“And the board?” I closed the folder slowly.

My fingers rested on the cover as the air settled between us.

For years, I had carried that night on my back.

The guilt, the uncertainty, the control David maintained because of it—all of it built on nothing.

I hadn’t killed anyone. There had been no victim.

“What will they think if the story spills?”

“Then just put it out there. You have a past; that’s not unbelievable.

If you think Bennett’s campaign is going to air the dirty laundry, you do it first. Set the record straight so the board can spin it to the shareholders the right way.

If it doesn’t come out in the public eye, you won’t have to worry anyway.

But at least you get to tell the truth before they’re told a lie… ”

“What do you think I should tell them about the twins?” I stood, folder in hand, looking down at him as he scrubbed a hand over his face. He’d known before I did but hadn’t said a thing. It wasn’t his place, and I was thankful for his friendship, which was more than I could say for David’s.

“Be straight with them, man. The truth is you’re a dad, and that makes this act you’ve been putting on with Savannah all the more realistic to the press. Imagine how striking those covers will be.” He winked at me, and while I didn’t quite have the same confidence, I did trust his opinion.

“Thanks,” I grunted, nodding at him before turning to walk out.

The boardroom was already half full when I walked in, voices layered over one another in the middle of a discussion I hadn’t been invited to join.

No one had expected me to walk in. The chair at the head of the table was empty, but half a dozen men and women turned their heads when the door clicked shut behind me.

One of them leaned back. Two others sat up straighter.

I didn’t wait for permission to interrupt whatever it was they were talking about. I marched toward the empty chair and stood there, flopping the folder out onto the table for them to peruse. “I have something to say.”

A few of them looked at each other, silent but clearly uncertain. Some shifted in their seats, waiting to see if someone else would speak first. When no one did, the room settled into an uneasy quiet that gave me space to continue.

“You’ve all seen the coverage. You’ve read the speculation.

And you’re wondering if it’s true. So I’ll tell you.

” I paused only long enough to meet their eyes one at a time.

“Yes. The boys are mine. Savannah didn’t tell me until recently, and she had her reasons.

But I am their father, and I’m proud of them.

The media frenzy is exaggerated and misleading, fueled by speculation and opportunism.

I won’t allow it to continue undermining what matters most to me. ”

One of the directors opened his mouth, then closed it again. Another cleared her throat but said nothing. The room remained still, but a sense of being judged lodged itself in my chest so deep I had to clear my throat before I continued.

“You also deserve to know why David Bennett has been pushing so hard to control this narrative and divide Knight Holdings from Raven it’s all been about his image, which he is trying desperately to protect.

“I feel the need to tell you this openly so that if or when it comes out, it’s not damning to this merger or your confidence in me.

” I opened the folder and spread out the documents.

“Years ago, after an evening of drinking and entertaining investors in Montauk, I was behind the wheel. David was in the passenger seat, too drunk to drive, and I’d had a few drinks.

Something ran in front of the car. I hit it.

We thought it was a person. Someone we recognized from the party. ”

A few heads snapped up. I kept going. “We stopped for a few seconds but didn’t see anything in the road.

David told me to keep driving and reached for his phone.

He made a call and told me to stay quiet, that it would be handled.

And somehow, it was. Nothing ever came of it.

” I tapped the documents now spread before them.

“It wasn’t a person like we feared at all, it was an animal. This analysis I had Graham pull up proves that. There was never a body—never a missing person. But I have carried this guilt my whole life. I was just twenty-two years old.”

Silence stretched as tight as my chest, and I kept talking to avoid letting them react without thinking it through. I wasn’t controlling the narrative, but I had to have the whole truth out or I’d torture myself.

“He’s holding it over my head, threatening to go public with it on his own to protect his campaign. I don’t know how he will spin the narrative, but I wanted to tell you all first in case he paints it in a different light…”

It felt good to get it all off my chest despite feeling the heat of their annoyed stares. Some board members looked away. A few stared at the pages on the table, lips pressed tight, but no one interrupted me. And no one asked any questions either, which shocked me.

Rebecca White stood and met my gaze as she said, “Thank you, Mr. Knight, for bringing this to our attention. That’s a lot to process. Please leave this assessment with us to discuss.” She reached for the files as I took a step away from the table. “You did the right thing by coming to us.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. It didn’t feel like the right thing but it was done, and I couldn’t take it back. At least now if David tried to pull any more crap with me or Savannah, I could tell him I had already exposed my dark secret to anyone who could be affected by it.

Well, almost anyone. I still had to tell Savannah. But now with Graham’s research done, I felt confident that she would understand and not be scared of me or think of me as a horrible person.

“Thank you,” I told the board members as I backed away another step then turned toward the door. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and as soon as I got into the hallway, I pulled it out to see one message from Savannah.

Savannah: 12:57 PM: We need to talk. Dad told me everything.