Chapter 11 - The BetrayalMichael collapsed.
Claire screamed.
“MICHAEL!”
Daniel spun around.
Ethan stood with the gun still raised.
“You shot him.”
Ethan's face showed no emotion.
“I had to.”
Daniel raised his weapon.
“Why?”
“Because he was going to tell you the truth.”
Claire knelt beside Michael.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“Call an ambulance!”
Michael grabbed her hand.
“No.”
His voice was weak.
“Listen.”
Claire bent closer.
“Emma.”
“What?”
“She…”
He coughed.
“She isn't the key.”
Richard laughed from the darkness.
“Of course she is.”
Michael looked at Daniel.
“It's you.”
Daniel froze.
“What?”
Michael smiled faintly.
“The database was never encoded to Emma.”
He looked at Ethan.
“It was encoded to Daniel.”
Daniel's face changed.
Richard shouted:
“Kill them!”
The warehouse erupted again.
Ethan grabbed Daniel.
“Move!”
“What are you doing?”
“Saving your life.”
“You shot Michael!”
“I shot him with a blank.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“His vest caught the blood pack.”
Michael opened one eye.
“Your brother is dramatic.”
Claire almost screamed from relief.
“It's fake?”
Michael nodded.
“Mostly.”
Daniel looked at Ethan.
“I almost killed you.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
Michael pulled a small device from his sleeve.
“The real file is not in the rabbit.”
“Where is it?”
Michael looked at Claire.
“You've had it all along.”
Claire frowned.
“What?”
“Your wedding ring.”
Claire touched the ring.
“My ring?”
Michael nodded.
“That's why they never searched you.”
Richard appeared at the far end of the warehouse.
“You're too late.”
He pressed a button.
The entire building locked down.
Steel doors slammed shut.
Gas began pouring from the vents.
Claire pulled Emma close.
Daniel shouted:
“Mask!”
He grabbed one from a dead guard.
There weren't enough.
Claire gave hers to Emma.
Daniel covered her mouth with his sleeve.
Michael staggered.
“There's an escape tunnel.”
“Where?”
“Under the office.”
They ran.
Richard followed.
The tunnel was narrow.
Dark.
At the end stood a steel vault.
Claire removed her wedding ring.
It contained a tiny mechanism.
Daniel stared.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Michael answered.
“I gave it to you the night we married.”
Claire looked at him.
“You said it was your mother's.”
“It was.”
Daniel looked at his mother.
She nodded.
“Your father gave it to me.”
The vault opened.
Inside was a hard drive.
And a single letter.
Claire picked it up.
Michael whispered:
“Read it.”
She opened it.
The handwriting belonged to Daniel's father.
The first line read:
To the son I abandoned.
Daniel stared.
The letter continued.
“You believe I built the empire.”
Daniel's hands shook.
“I did not.”
Claire looked up.
Daniel read the next sentence.
“I inherited it.”
Then another.
And the man who truly built it is still alive.
There was a name beneath the signature.
Not Daniel's father.
Not Richard Keegan.
Not Ethan.
Claire whispered:
“Who is that?”
Daniel looked at the final name.
His face went white.
Because he knew it.
He had trusted that man for fifteen years.
His lawyer.
His mentor.
The man who had helped build his empire.
The man who had sat beside him at his mother's funeral.
Samuel Park.
May you like
Daniel whispered:
“He's been controlling me the entire time.”
