Chapter 13 - Luca looked at Marco.“You said she was Adrian's.”
Marco smiled.
“I lied.”
Eleanor stepped backward.
“Who is my father?”
Marco looked at her.
“Me.”
Adrian's face appeared on the security monitor behind them.
He had entered the tower.
“No.”
Eleanor turned.
Adrian stood in the doorway.
“You're her father?”
Marco nodded.
“Biologically.”
Adrian's expression was devastated.
“You stole my life.”
Marco laughed.
“You were weak.”
Luca stepped forward.
“You've been lying to me my whole life.”
Marco stared at him.
“You were never supposed to know.”
Richard moved toward the control panel.
Eleanor noticed.
“You're not controlling this.”
Richard stopped.
Eleanor held up her phone.
The corporate freeze had been converted into a public disclosure.
Every Blackwell document was uploading.
Richard's face changed.
“What did you do?”
“I stopped playing privately.”
Luca looked at her.
She smiled.
“Now the world gets to see everything.”
Richard raised his gun.
Adrian fired first.
Richard's shoulder snapped backward.
Victoria screamed.
Marco tried to escape.
Luca tackled him.
The room erupted.
Eleanor ran toward the computer.
The ledger appeared.
Names.
Payments.
Contracts.
Murder arrangements.
Political bribes.
Everything.
Richard crawled toward the terminal.
Eleanor blocked him.
“Why?”
He laughed.
“Because people like us don't get to live clean lives.”
“You destroyed my family.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“Your family destroyed itself.”
He pulled out a small device.
“Blackwell wasn't the beginning.”
Eleanor stared.
“What is it?”
“A dead-man switch.”
The monitors turned red.
One countdown appeared.
Five minutes.
Luca looked at the device.
“What's he connected to?”
Richard smiled.
“Every Blackwell account.”
Samuel's voice came through the earpiece.
“If that activates, markets could crash.”
Eleanor froze.
Richard continued.
“Kill me, and everything goes public.”
“Don't kill you, and everyone suffers.”
“Exactly.”
Richard smiled.
“You finally understand power.”
Eleanor looked at the ledger.
Then at the countdown.
Four minutes.
She realized something.
“The switch isn't connected to the accounts.”
Richard's smile faded.
“What?”
“It's connected to the trust.”
She looked at the legal documents.
“You're bluffing.”
Richard stared.
Eleanor continued.
“The trust has a contingency clause. If the beneficiary is threatened into transferring assets, the entire structure freezes.”
Richard looked horrified.
“You can't access it.”
“I can.”
She signed into the trust.
The system rejected.
ACCESS DENIED.
Eleanor frowned.
Then remembered the keycard.
She inserted it.
The screen changed.
DNA CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.
Luca stepped forward.
“What does it need?”
“Blood.”
Eleanor pricked her finger.
The system scanned.
ACCESS GRANTED.
Richard stared.
The countdown stopped.
Then every screen displayed:
BLACKWELL TRUST TRANSFERRED.
Eleanor's name appeared beneath it.
The largest hidden financial network in the world now belonged to her.
Richard collapsed into the chair.
“No.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“You spent six years trying to make me disappear.”
She closed the system.
“Now you're going to watch me become impossible to erase.”
Police sirens filled the streets below.
News helicopters circled the tower.
But there was still one problem.
Marco had escaped.
Luca found a note beside the elevator.
He opened it.
The message contained only four words.
MEET ME AT HOME.
Luca looked at Eleanor.
“Which home?”
A location appeared beneath the message.
The Whitmore estate.
Eleanor's heart sank.
They returned immediately.
The mansion was empty.
Too empty.
On the dining table sat a photograph.
Eleanor's mother was standing beside Marco.
Pregnant.
On the back, one sentence had been written.
YOU STILL DON'T KNOW WHO YOUR MOTHER'S FIRST CHILD WAS.
Eleanor stared.
Her mother had only told her about one child.
Herself.
Luca looked toward the hallway.
A child's photograph hung on the wall.
A little boy.
Dark hair.
Blue eyes.
Eleanor froze.
“That's not me.”
Luca whispered:
“Then who is he?”
Behind them, a voice answered.
“Your brother.”
They turned.
May you like
Charles stood in the doorway.
And he was holding a gun.
