Chapter 3: Before Sunrise
Grace drove home along the waterfront with the windows down.
The night air came off the harbor cold and clean.
She let it hit her face.
She didn't turn on the radio.
By the time she pulled into the driveway, the house was lit from inside.
Dominic's car was already there.
So was a second one she didn't recognize — a dark sedan parked close to the gate with its engine off.
She sat in the SUV for a moment.
Then she went inside.
Dominic was at the kitchen table with a man named Garrett, who handled what Dominic's lawyers described as logistics.
Garrett had a laptop open and a yellow legal pad covered in handwriting.
He closed the laptop when Grace walked in.
"You don't have to do that," she said.
"Habit," Garrett said.
He stood, nodded once, and left through the side door.
Dominic looked at her.
She still had a faint sticky line along her hairline where the soda had dried.
He stood, moved to the sink, ran a cloth under warm water, and handed it to her without a word.
She pressed it to her temple.
"How bad is it?" she asked.
"The stream archived before anyone could pull it.
Sixty-one thousand views before midnight.
Three major entertainment accounts reposted it." He sat back down.
"Sloane Mercer has a verified account.
She tagged Harbor House in the caption."
"The restaurant didn't do anything wrong."
"I know.
I've already spoken to the owner." He set his phone on the table face-up.
"He's removing her from the reservation system.
Her family won't eat there again."
Grace lowered the cloth.
"That's not enough and you know it."
"No," Dominic agreed.
"It isn't."
She sat down across from him.
The kitchen was quiet.
Outside, a car passed slowly on the street.
"Tell me what you're planning."
He looked at her steadily.
"Evan Caldwell's father, Richard, holds three active freight contracts through Caldwell Logistics.
Two run through my Baltimore terminal.
One runs through the Newark hub." He turned the phone toward her.
A document was open on the screen.
"Standard renewal terms.
Ninety-day notice required for non-renewal.
I gave notice on all three tonight."
Grace read the first paragraph.
"He'll know immediately."
"He already does.
Garrett called his operations manager at eleven.
Professional courtesy."
"And Sloane?"
Dominic was quiet for a moment.
"Her father is a partner at Mercer and Holt.
They've been trying to get a seat on the Harbor Development Committee for two years.
I sit on that committee." He picked up his phone.
"I won't block him.
I simply won't support him.
The vote is next Thursday."
Grace set the cloth on the table.
"You've been busy."
"I made a promise."
"You promised a quarter of Baltimore."
"This is well under a quarter."
She almost smiled.
Almost.
"Dominic.
The video is still up.
Sixty-one thousand people watched a woman pour a drink on me and call me —" She stopped.
"I know what they called you."
"And the comments." She looked at the table.
"I could hear them through her phone.
While I was standing right there."
He reached across and put his hand over hers.
He didn't say anything.
He didn't try to fix it with words.
That was one of the things she had loved about him from the beginning.
After a moment, she turned her hand over and held his.
"There's something else," he said.
She looked up.
"Sloane's stream.
The archive." He paused.
"One of the comments, posted during the live, identified you by your maiden name.
Said you used to work at a diner on the Inner Harbor.
Said you were nobody."
"I did work at a diner on the Inner Harbor."
"The comment had fourteen hundred likes by the time Garrett flagged it." His jaw tightened slightly.
"Someone in that comment section knows more about your history than a stranger should."
Grace went still.
"What does that mean?"
"It means someone pointed Sloane Mercer at you." He held her gaze.
"This may not have been random."
The refrigerator hummed.
A branch moved against the window.
"Who?" she said.
Dominic didn't answer right away.
He picked up the legal pad Garrett had left behind and turned it toward her.
One name was written at the top, circled twice.
Grace read it.
May you like
Her face didn't change.
But her hand tightened around his.
