Chapter 12 - Adrian stopped breathing.His father smiled from the screen.
“I wondered how long it would take you.”
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were never ready to know the truth.”
Adrian's hands shook.
“You ruined my life.”
“No.”
“You erased my memories.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“Your mother.”
Adrian stared.
“My mother is dead.”
“No.”
His father leaned toward the camera.
“She is sitting beside you.”
Adrian slowly turned.
The grandmother smiled.
“You call her Grandma.”
Adrian's face drained.
“No.”
His father continued.
“She was never your grandmother.”
Adrian looked at the old woman.
“What?”
“She was your mother's sister.”
The old woman laughed.
“Your mother died twenty years ago.”
Adrian stared.
Then his father said:
“You have never met the real head of The Black Ledger.”
“Who?”
The camera shifted.
A man stepped beside him.
Adrian's stomach dropped.
Dr. Nathan Cross.
His psychiatrist.
The man who treated the girls.
The man who had prescribed the drugs.
Adrian's voice became a whisper.
“You.”
Cross smiled.
“I helped you sleep.”
“You manipulated my memories.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you remembered Emma.”
Adrian looked at Emma.
She was awake now.
Weak.
But alive.
Cross continued:
“She was the first child to discover the vault.”
“She was six.”
“She was brilliant.”
“She was terrified.”
“She was dangerous.”
Adrian clenched his jaw.
“To you.”
Cross nodded.
“To everyone.”
Then the screen changed.
A map appeared.
A dozen locations across the United States.
“Every Vale property houses a fragment of the ledger.”
Adrian stared.
“Why?”
“The family didn't trust one vault.”
“What happens if the fragments are combined?”
“Control.”
“Control of what?”
“Everything.”
Stock markets.
Banks.
Political campaigns.
Private intelligence.
Judges.
Police.
Media.
Adrian looked sick.
“You're running the country.”
Cross smiled.
“We run systems.”
Then Olivia suddenly spoke.
“You don't.”
Everyone looked at her.
She sat up.
Her eyes were clear.
“You think you do.”
Cross frowned.
Olivia continued.
“Mom told us the truth.”
“What truth?”
“She built a new ledger.”
Adrian stared.
“A new ledger?”
Olivia nodded.
“It's not in a vault.”
“Where is it?”
Olivia looked at Adrian.
“In Daddy.”
Silence.
Adrian's blood ran cold.
“What?”
Olivia reached into her pajama pocket.
She removed a tiny device.
“This is a key.”
She placed it in Adrian's hand.
“Mom said Dad's blood would open it.”
Adrian's father suddenly stopped smiling.
“Take it away from him.”
Cross looked alarmed.
That was the first time Adrian had seen fear in his face.
Adrian understood.
Whatever Evelyn had built, they feared it.
He pressed the device against his wrist.
It lit up.
SYSTEM IDENTIFIED.
ADRIAN VALE.
PRIMARY HEIR.
The mansion shook.
A hidden server beneath the house activated.
Screens throughout the building lit up.
Documents appeared.
Names.
Payments.
Recordings.
Everything.
Cora screamed through the control room.
“Shut it down!”
Cross shouted.
“Kill the power!”
Too late.
The files were already uploading.
To thousands of devices.
Across the country.
The Black Ledger was being exposed.
Adrian looked at the girls.
“You did this.”
Olivia shook her head.
“Mom did.”
The screen switched.
Evelyn appeared.
She was crying.
“Adrian.”
He stared.
“What did you do?”
She whispered:
“I made you the weapon.”
Then the screen went black.
A second later, every door in the mansion opened.
Federal agents rushed inside.
But they weren't wearing FBI badges.
Their uniforms bore a different emblem.
A black circle.
Three white dots.
May you like
The Black Ledger.
And their commander looked exactly like Adrian.
