Chapter 10 - The Betrayal at Midnight
Harper dropped the weapon.
“I can explain.”
Meline almost laughed.
“Please invent something original.”
Federal agents surrounded Harper.
She didn’t resist.
In an interrogation room, she told the truth.
Her father had not merely worked against Crown.
He had been chosen to succeed Evelyn.
When he refused, Evelyn chose Harper instead.
Harper had been twelve.
She had spent years pretending to cooperate while feeding information to Thomas’s network.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Evelyn would have killed you.”
“She tried anyway.”
“I know.”
Harper cried.
Meline hated that she still wanted to comfort her.
Eleven years could not disappear in one night.
Dominic entered.
“Evelyn escaped.”
Harper wiped her face.
“She’ll go to Hawthorne.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s one thing in B-17 none of you found.”
“What?”
“A live access terminal.”
Crown’s network.
Every compromised official.
Every hidden account.
Every surveillance operation.
If Evelyn erased it, the evidence vanished.
They raced to Hawthorne.
B-17 was open.
Evelyn stood at the terminal.
Meline’s mother was beside her.
A gun against her head.
“Meline.”
Her mother looked terrified.
Evelyn smiled.
“Family reunion.”
Dominic raised his gun.
Evelyn pressed the weapon harder against her daughter.
“Put it down.”
He did.
Meline stepped forward.
“You want me.”
“Yes.”
“Let her go.”
“Meline, no,” her mother whispered.
Evelyn smiled.
“You finally understand.”
“Understand what?”
“You’re my successor.”
Meline laughed.
“No.”
“You have Thomas’s mind and my courage.”
“I have neither your cruelty nor your delusions.”
Evelyn’s face tightened.
Meline continued walking.
“You spent decades controlling people because you were terrified of what happened when they had choices.”
“Stop.”
“You didn’t build an empire.”
“Meline.”
“You built a cage.”
Evelyn fired.
Dominic moved.
The bullet hit the wall.
Meline’s mother dropped.
Harper attacked Evelyn from behind.
The gun skidded away.
Dominic grabbed it.
Federal agents flooded the vault.
Evelyn was arrested.
It should have ended there.
It didn’t.
The terminal began deleting itself.
Meline ran to it.
“Someone triggered remote destruction.”
Dominic looked at Harper.
“Evelyn?”
Harper shook her head.
“She’s in custody.”
Then Greg’s name appeared on the access log.
Meline stared.
Greg Higgins.
The awkward blind date.
The frightened analyst.
He had logged in thirty seconds earlier.
From inside the building.
Dominic checked his weapon.
“Where?”
Meline studied the architectural map.
“Roof.”
They ran upstairs.
The rooftop door was open.
Greg stood at the edge.
A laptop beside him.
“You should have stayed at the wrong table,” he told Meline.
“You’re the successor.”
Greg smiled.
“Harper was the distraction.”
Dominic raised his gun.
Greg lifted a dead-man switch.
“If I release this, every file disappears.”
Meline stepped forward.
“Then why haven’t you?”
His smile weakened.
Because she was right.
He wanted something.
“What?”
Greg looked at her.
“The one file Thomas never put in B-17.”
“What file?”
“Mine.”
Meline frowned.
Greg’s voice changed.
“Thomas Hayes knew who I really was.”
Then he reached into his coat.
Not for a gun.
For a photograph.
He threw it at Meline’s feet.
She picked it up.
Thomas stood beside a teenage boy.
Greg.
On the back, her father had written:
GREGORY COSTELLO.
Meline looked at Dominic.
Dominic stared at Greg.
May you like
Greg smiled.
And said, “Hello, brother...”
