Chapter 7 - Camille's Dangerous Bargain
“Put it down,” Marcus said.
Camille smiled.
“You first.”
Marcus looked at the metal token in his hand.
“You want this.”
“I want what it opens.”
“You’ve been laundering money through Grant’s company.”
“No.”
“Then explain.”
Camille’s smile disappeared.
“I’ve been trying to find who is.”
Marcus stared at her.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. I expect you to stay alive long enough to verify it.”
She lowered the gun.
Not completely.
“Sit.”
Marcus remained standing.
Camille tossed a phone onto the desk.
A recording played.
A man’s voice.
Adrian.
“Grant’s getting closer to Serena’s research. Keep him distracted.”
Then Camille’s voice.
“How?”
“I don’t care.”
The recording ended.
Marcus looked at her.
“You slept with him.”
“I made a choice.”
“You destroyed a marriage.”
“Grant destroyed his marriage.”
The answer was cold.
But not entirely wrong.
Camille stepped closer.
“I was hired to monitor him. Then I discovered money moving through my company under contracts I never authorized.”
“So you were framed?”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
“That’s what I’ve spent eighteen months trying to discover.”
Marcus held up the token.
“And this?”
“The answer.”
At the Moretti estate, Serena listened as Nathan explained.
The token was not a key in the ordinary sense.
It contained part of a cryptographic sequence.
Combined with Samuel’s half, it could decode Model 44.
And Model 44 could identify the network’s controller.
“Where is Samuel?” Serena asked.
Nathan hesitated.
“Alive.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“You knew.”
“I found him five years ago.”
“You disappeared to protect him?”
“Yes.”
“From whom?”
Nathan looked at Dominic.
“From someone Samuel believed was inside your family.”
Dominic’s expression hardened.
“Adrian?”
“No.”
Adrian looked up.
For the first time, he seemed frightened.
Serena asked, “Then who?”
Nathan shook his head.
“Samuel never told me.”
“Why?”
“He said names were dangerous without proof.”
Serena walked away.
Every answer opened another wound.
Her mother.
Samuel.
Nathan.
Adrian.
Camille.
Grant.
Eight years of marriage now sat inside a conspiracy that had begun long before she met her husband.
But one truth remained painfully simple.
Grant had belittled her.
Grant had taken credit.
Grant had cheated.
Nobody forced those choices.
Serena needed to remember that.
A security officer entered.
“Ms. Moretti.”
“Yes?”
“We found Mr. Holloway.”
Grant arrived an hour later with Leah Mercer.
His suit was torn at one elbow.
Serena met him in the entrance hall.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Grant looked exhausted.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
Another silence.
Then Grant said, “I’m sorry.”
Serena almost looked away.
“For tonight?”
“For eight years.”
That stopped her.
Grant swallowed.
“I don’t expect that sentence to fix anything.”
“It doesn’t.”
“I know.”
“You called me useless.”
“I know.”
“You stole my work.”
“I know.”
“You cheated on me.”
His eyes lowered.
“I know.”
Serena studied him.
For years she had imagined what an apology might feel like.
She had expected satisfaction.
Instead it felt like standing beside the grave of something she once loved.
Grant continued.
“I kept thinking someone manipulated me. Camille. Adrian. Whoever is behind this.”
“They may have.”
“But nobody made me treat you that way.”
Serena’s eyes burned.
Grant did not approach her.
“That was me.”
She nodded once.
“Thank you for saying it.”
Not forgiveness.
Grant understood.
Dominic entered.
His expression toward Grant could have frozen steel.
But Serena stepped between them.
“No.”
Dominic stopped.
“This is my life.”
After a moment, her father nodded.
Marcus called.
Nathan put him on speaker.
“I have the token,” Marcus said.
Serena exhaled.
“Are you safe?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Camille’s voice came through.
“So am I.”
Grant stiffened.
Serena said, “Put her on.”
“I’m here.”
“Did you leak my research?”
“No.”
“Did you sleep with my husband while you were spying on him?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
Serena closed her eyes.
“Then don’t ever ask me to trust you.”
“I won’t.”
“But if you know who is behind this, tell me.”
“I don’t.”
A noise sounded on Camille’s end.
Marcus said, “Someone’s outside.”
The line crackled.
Camille whispered, “Lights.”
Darkness.
Then a crash.
“Marcus?”
No answer.
“Camille?”
Static.
A final sound came through.
A man speaking.
Only two words.
But Dominic recognized the voice.
His face turned white.
Serena looked at him.
“Dad?”
Dominic whispered the name.
May you like
“Samuel.”
Then the call went dead...
