Chapter 10 - The Trap Beneath the Ballroom
Victor wanted me angry, not dead
The shooter disappeared before Marcus could reach the hallway.
We found no shell casing.
No fingerprints.
No camera footage.
Nothing.
It was becoming clear that Victor's greatest weapon wasn't violence.
It was control.
He controlled records.
He controlled people.
He controlled information.
And now he was controlling what I remembered.
By morning, Cross Capital's board called an emergency meeting.
Victor wanted me there.
"That's a trap," Marcus said.
"Everything is a trap."
"Then don't go."
I looked at Emily.
She stood across the room wearing a black coat.
She looked fourteen going on forty.
"I want my mother back."
"So do I."
"Then go."
That was all she said.
We arrived at Cross Tower at noon.
The entire executive floor was crowded.
Board members.
Lawyers.
Investors.
News crews waiting downstairs.
Victor stood at the center of the room.
He looked relaxed.
Almost amused.
"My nephew has been unstable since the accident," he said.
I stared at him.
"You should be in prison."
He smiled.
"Prove it."
A screen behind him lit up.
My medical records appeared.
Then footage of me drinking.
Crying.
Breaking furniture.
Taking pills.
Images from the worst year of my life.
Victor looked around the room.
"This is the man you want running Cross Capital?"
Whispers spread.
I stepped forward.
"You know what I see?"
He tilted his head.
"A grieving man."
"No."
I pointed toward the screen.
"I see the man you were building."
The room fell silent.
I pulled a flash drive from my pocket.
"Every payment. Every fake medical record. Every hospital transfer."
The screen changed.
Bank transfers appeared.
Shell companies.
Victor's signature.
Daniel's authorization.
St. Vincent's invoices.
Then one final document.
My father's private ledger.
Victor's face changed for the first time.
I smiled.
"You forgot something."
I clicked the next file.
A recording played.
My father's voice.
"Victor, if you ever hurt my family, the recording will go public."
Victor stepped toward the screen.
"No."
The recording continued.
"Claire knows where I've hidden the original account records."
Victor looked at me.
"What did you do?"
I answered.
"What you taught me."
He frowned.
I said,
"I stopped trusting people who wanted me to trust them."
Security moved.
Victor's guards drew weapons.
The room exploded into chaos.
Marcus dragged me behind the conference table.
Glass shattered.
People screamed.
I grabbed Emily.
She screamed,
"Dad!"
I looked at her.
"Stay behind me."
We moved toward the private elevator.
It would not open.
Victor had locked it.
Then Daniel appeared.
"Basement."
We followed him down.
The sublevel was dark.
Cross Tower had an old underground ballroom beneath it.
My father had hosted charity events there.
Nobody used it anymore.
We entered.
Hundreds of empty chairs.
A grand piano.
Dust.
And a stage.
Daniel pulled open a panel beneath the stage.
A safe was hidden inside.
My father's safe.
He handed me a key.
"Claire said you would know what to do."
I opened it.
Inside were two passports.
A gun.
A wedding ring.
A video camera.
And a single envelope.
EMILY.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph of my daughter as an infant.
And a note.
She was born two months before Claire told you.
My hands shook.
That wasn't possible.
I looked at the date.
Emily's birth certificate had been altered.
I stared at Daniel.
"What does this mean?"
He looked toward the ballroom entrance.
"Emily isn't four in the photograph."
"What?"
"She was six."
My blood turned cold.
The woman I had buried had not been four.
She had been six.
Which meant someone had changed her entire identity before the accident.
Then Daniel whispered,
"There was another little girl in that coffin."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"The child who died in the accident wasn't Emily."
A loud applause came from the doorway.
Victor stepped into the ballroom.
"No."
He smiled.
"The child in the coffin was the original witness."
Then he pointed at Emily.
"And she was never your daughter."
Emily gasped.
Victor smiled.
"Ask Claire who Emily's real mother is."
May you like
The ballroom doors slammed shut.
And the lights went out.
