Chapter 13 - THE LAST LIE“Mason!”
I ran toward him.
Blood spread across his shirt.
But he was standing.
The bullet had hit the vest beneath his clothes.
Julian stared in disbelief.
Mason smiled.
“You really thought I’d come unprepared?”
Agent Blake’s tactical team stormed the warehouse.
Gunfire erupted.
People scattered.
Chloe disappeared through the control room.
Mercer ran.
Julian remained.
He looked at me.
“Come with me.”
“No.”
“Then they all die.”
He pointed toward Mason.
The threat almost worked.
Almost.
Then I remembered page 120.
THE PERSON YOU TRUST MOST IS THE ONE WHO STARTED EVERYTHING.
I looked at my mother.
She stood at the edge of the room.
Watching.
Not moving.
Not helping.
I suddenly understood.
The person I trusted most.
My mother.
She had started everything.
Not because she was evil.
Because she was hiding the truth about my birth.
I walked toward her.
“Tell me what you did.”
Elaine began crying.
“I changed your identity.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor was hunted.”
“Why was he hunted?”
“Because he discovered the trust.”
I looked at Mason.
“Then why was he attacked?”
My mother whispered:
“Because he tried to transfer the trust to you.”
Silence.
“And the crash?”
“I arranged it.”
Mason looked at her.
“What?”
“I needed everyone to believe Victor was dead.”
“You killed Dad?”
“No.”
She shook her head violently.
“Your father volunteered to disappear.”
I felt my entire life collapsing.
Nothing had been what it seemed.
Not the crash.
Not Mason’s paralysis.
Not Julian’s marriage.
Not Chloe’s pregnancy.
Not my mother’s death.
Not even my identity.
Julian lowered his gun.
“You see why I needed you?”
I looked at him.
“You destroyed my life.”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
“For the trust.”
“Yes.”
“But now the trust is useless.”
His expression changed.
I smiled.
“You forgot something.”
“What?”
“The trust requires my consent.”
He froze.
I pulled the black ledger from my coat.
“I’m the legal owner.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
I held it up.
“And I just transferred everything.”
“To whom?”
I looked at Mason.
He stared back.
“To someone the organization never considered.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“Who?”
I smiled.
“Every victim.”
Agent Blake looked at me.
“You transferred the assets to the victims’ families?”
“Yes.”
Julian’s face went white.
“You can’t.”
“I already did.”
Then the warehouse screens turned on.
Thousands of bank transactions appeared.
Money moving.
Accounts closing.
Companies collapsing.
Evidence uploading.
Julian stared at the screens.
“Who did that?”
Mason smiled.
“Me.”
Julian looked at Chloe.
Then Mercer.
Then my mother.
Everything was falling apart.
But Chloe was missing.
And then my phone rang.
Her voice came through.
“You think you won?”
I closed my eyes.
“What do you want?”
She laughed softly.
“Come to the hospital.”
“Why?”
“Because I have the real baby.”
My blood froze.
“The baby exists?”
“Yes.”
“And whose baby is it?”
A pause.
May you like
Then she answered:
“Yours, Valerie.”
