Chapter 12 - THE LAST TRAPDad was missing.
No blood.
No body.
No ransom.
Only one message.
Bring Lily to Blackthorn Manor.
We returned to the place where everything had started.
The mansion was empty.
Every room looked untouched.
The chandelier still hung above the hall.
The same chandelier beneath which I had taken two hundred lashes.
Except now the entire building had been wired with explosives.
My father was tied to a chair in the center of the ballroom.
Evelyn stood beside him.
Celeste was there too.
Victor watched from the balcony.
Lily held my hand.
Evelyn smiled.
"One family."
She looked at me.
"Finally."
I stepped forward.
"What do you want?"
"The ledger."
"I told you I don't have it."
She laughed.
"You carry it."
I shook my head.
"No."
Evelyn pointed toward Lily.
"Then she does."
Lily stepped forward.
"I don't."
Evelyn's smile widened.
"Your mother remembers transactions."
"Your daughter remembers names."
"Together, you reconstruct everything."
I realized the truth.
The ledger had always been divided.
My memory held the financial structure.
Lily's memory held the identities.
Evelyn wanted to combine them.
She had spent decades waiting for us to reunite.
Dad looked at me.
"Don't."
Evelyn pointed a gun at him.
"Choose."
I stared at my father.
Then my daughter.
Then the woman who had destroyed all of our lives.
I lowered my head.
"Fine."
Evelyn smiled.
"Begin."
I closed my eyes.
Then I started reciting numbers.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Account codes.
Company names.
Dates.
Shipping routes.
Evelyn listened carefully.
Lily joined me.
The data came together.
Evelyn smiled.
She believed she had won.
But Dad suddenly laughed.
She looked at him.
"What's funny?"
"You forgot one thing."
"What?"
"Elena."
My mother stepped onto the balcony.
Evelyn froze.
She had never noticed her.
Mom smiled.
"You're not the only one who planned for this night."
She pressed a button.
Every monitor in the room activated.
For years, my mother had been recording Evelyn.
Every meeting.
Every confession.
Every transaction.
Every order.
The entire council's crimes were being transmitted live to law enforcement agencies across the world.
Evelyn's face collapsed.
Celeste tried to run.
Victor jumped from the balcony.
Agents stormed the building.
The explosives were disabled.
Dad was freed.
Evelyn was handcuffed.
But before they took her away, she looked at me.
"You think this is over?"
I said nothing.
She smiled.
"There is one file you never opened."
"What file?"
"The one about Nathan."
Then she was gone.
I turned toward him.
Nathan looked terrified.
May you like
Lily stepped beside me.
And for the first time, I wondered whether my husband had been victim or accomplice.
