Chapter 11 - The FallVictor ran.
Ethan dropped through the broken railing.
Victor lunged.
His fingers caught Ethan’s wrist.
The child screamed.
“Daddy!”
Victor pulled.
But the shattered balcony began collapsing.
Adrian grabbed Victor from behind.
“Hold on!”
Together they dragged Ethan upward.
Victor’s father watched from across the room.
For the first time, his smile disappeared.
“You chose the boy.”
Victor stared at him.
“No.”
He lifted Ethan into his arms.
“I chose my family.”
His father stepped backward.
Security guards surrounded him.
But the old man laughed.
“You think this ends with me?”
He pulled a remote from his pocket.
The mansion shook.
Explosions erupted beneath the western wing.
Victor ran toward Lily.
“What did you build under my house?”
His father smiled.
“Not what I built.”
He pressed the button again.
Walls opened.
Hidden doors revealed tunnels.
Thousands of files poured onto the floor.
Employee identities.
Bank accounts.
Government contracts.
Medical experiments.
Everything.
The secret empire had been stored beneath the mansion.
Lily picked up one file.
“Victor…”
She looked horrified.
“What?”
“It’s about you.”
Victor opened it.
A photograph of himself as a child.
Beside it was a medical report.
SUBJECT V-01: MEMORY MODIFICATION SUCCESSFUL.
Victor stared.
“My memories…”
His father smiled.
“You were twelve when we started.”
Victor shook his head.
“That’s impossible.”
“You forgot the accident.”
“What accident?”
His father stepped closer.
“The one where you killed your mother.”
Victor staggered.
“No.”
Evelyn whispered:
“He’s lying.”
But Victor could suddenly remember something.
A hallway.
A broken vase.
His mother screaming.
His father holding him.
A man standing behind him.
A syringe.
Victor grabbed his head.
Pain exploded through his skull.
Lily caught him.
“Victor!”
His father smiled.
“Your memories were altered.”
Victor looked up.
“Why?”
“Because you saw something you were never supposed to see.”
“What?”
“The night your mother died.”
His father turned toward the underground tunnel.
“You saw who really pulled the trigger.”
Then the mansion doors exploded.
Police stormed inside.
At the front was a woman in a black coat.
She looked at Victor.
Then at Evelyn.
Then at Lily.
“Which one of you is Victor Vale?”
Victor raised his hand.
The woman pulled out a photograph.
“We found this man at the abandoned hospital.”
She turned the photograph around.
It showed Victor.
But he was standing beside a body.
Serena’s body.
The date was six hours earlier.
Victor stared.
“I was here.”
The woman shook her head.
“That’s impossible.”
May you like
She pointed at the picture.
“Because the victim was killed by you.”
