Chapter 11 - Elena Was Still Alive
Austin pushed Jacey and Elena behind cover as Marcus fired.
The bullet struck steel.
“Marcus!”
Another shot.
Then Marcus turned suddenly and fired at the yacht's control panel.
Sparks exploded.
Catherine screamed.
Marcus jumped overboard.
Austin understood.
Marcus hadn't betrayed him.
He had boarded the yacht to stop it.
Federal vehicles flooded the pier.
Not Whitmore's men this time.
Judge Bell's contacts.
Vale was arrested.
Whitmore tried to run and was tackled before reaching the parking lot.
Catherine disappeared below deck.
Austin reached the yacht.
Marcus climbed from the water.
“You could've warned me.”
“Wouldn't have looked convincing.”
“I almost shot you.”
“You almost shoot me twice a week.”
They entered the yacht.
Catherine was gone.
A service hatch opened onto the opposite side.
A smaller boat was missing.
“She escaped,” Marcus said.
Austin looked toward shore.
Jacey was safe in Elena's arms.
He remembered the recording.
Save them.
“Let her.”
Marcus stared.
“You're serious?”
“She has nowhere left to go.”
Austin returned to Jacey.
For three days, the case exploded across the country.
Whitmore's arrest became national news.
Vale began negotiating.
Financial records connected dozens of officials and executives to the network.
But Catherine remained missing.
Austin didn't care as much as he expected.
He had Elena.
He had Jacey.
For the first time, those facts mattered more than vengeance.
They returned to the mansion.
Jacey refused to sleep alone.
Austin sat beside her bed.
“Can you sing?”
“No.”
“You sang at the harbor.”
“That was different.”
“You're bad at it.”
“Then why ask?”
“Because I like it.”
So Austin sang.
Badly.
Jacey smiled.
When she fell asleep, Elena stood in the doorway.
“You used to do that when she was a baby.”
“I remember.”
“She remembers something too.”
“What?”
“The feeling.”
Austin looked at her.
Elena stepped inside.
“She doesn't remember your face from Vermont. But when you held her at the mansion, she told me she felt like she'd been there before.”
Austin looked down.
“I missed everything.”
“Not everything.”
“First steps.”
“Yes.”
“First word.”
“Yes.”
“First day of school.”
“Yes.”
“Six birthdays.”
Elena sat beside him.
“You can count what you missed forever. Or you can be here for what comes next.”
Austin looked at Jacey.
“What was her first word?”
Elena smiled.
“Light.”
He laughed softly.
“Not Mom?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Elena nudged him.
They sat quietly.
Then Austin said, “Why didn't you tell her I was her father?”
“I wasn't sure you'd survive long enough to become one.”
Fair.
“And now?”
“Now she figured it out herself.”
“How?”
“She saw the DNA report.”
Austin closed his eyes.
“Of course she did.”
“She reads everything.”
“That's terrifying.”
“It should be.”
Elena's hand rested beside his.
Austin slowly covered it with his.
Six years disappeared for one heartbeat.
Then his phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A photograph.
Catherine.
She stood outside the yellow house in Vermont.
Behind her was a gasoline can.
Message:
YOUR FATHER LEFT ONE MORE SECRET.
COME ALONE.
Austin showed Elena.
“No,” she said.
“I know.”
“You're not going.”
“I know.”
She blinked.
“That was easier than expected.”
“I've recently been informed revenge is a poor parenting strategy.”
Elena almost smiled.
Then a second photograph arrived.
Daniel.
Tied to a chair inside the yellow house.
Austin's expression changed.
Elena saw it.
“She's got your brother.”
Austin stood.
The phone rang.
Catherine spoke immediately.
“Midnight.”
Austin looked at the clock.
11:17.
“You have forty-three minutes.”
“What do you want?”
“The original ledger.”
“You know I don't have it.”
“Jacey can reconstruct it.”
“No.”
“Then Daniel dies.”
Austin's voice became cold.
“If you hurt him—”
“You'll what? Kill your mother?”
Silence.
Catherine laughed.
“That's what I thought.”
The call ended.
Austin turned.
Jacey stood in the hallway.
She had heard everything.
“No,” Austin said.
“I can help.”
“No.”
“Dad.”
The word stopped him again.
Jacey walked closer.
“Mom taught me what to do if somebody wanted the song.”
Austin frowned.
“What?”
“She taught me a second song.”
Elena stared at her.
“I did?”
Jacey shook her head.
“Not you.”
“Then who?”
Jacey looked toward the staircase.
“Grandpa.”
Austin's blood went cold.
“You never met my father.”
Jacey reached into the pocket of her pajamas.
She removed a tiny audio player Austin had never seen.
“Mom gave me this when I was five. She said the man's voice belonged to somebody who wanted me safe.”
Austin pressed PLAY.
His dead father's voice filled the room.
“Hello, Jacey. If you're hearing this, then Catherine found you.”
Austin stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
“There is something Austin does not know.”
Jacey looked at him.
The next words came slowly.
“Catherine Cole was never the head of the network.”
Austin stared at the device.
“There was always someone above her.”
Then his father's voice spoke a name.
May you like
And every person in the room turned toward the same man.
Bruno.
