Chapter 9 - Emma’s Second Drawing
“Move away from the door,” Victor said.
Adrian did not.
“You're pointing my father's gun at me.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because Dominic is watching.”
Adrian's eyes shifted.
Victor snapped, “Don't.”
A camera.
Somewhere inside the vault.
Victor stepped closer and pressed the gun against Adrian's chest.
Then whispered so softly no microphone could catch it:
“Hit me.”
Adrian understood.
He punched Victor.
Victor fired into the ceiling.
They fought.
To whoever watched the camera, it looked real.
Victor escaped with the key.
But while passing Adrian, he slipped something into his pocket.
A note.
MIDNIGHT. OLD CHAPEL.
COME WITHOUT LUCA.
Victor disappeared.
Emma had watched part of the confrontation from the staircase.
Later, she drew it.
Sophia sat beside her.
“What's that?”
Emma pointed at a tiny square she had drawn on Victor's jacket.
“He had that.”
Adrian looked.
A transmitter.
Victor had been bugged.
Dominic had heard everything Victor said before entering the vault.
Victor could not openly defect.
At midnight Adrian entered the old family chapel.
Victor waited alone.
“Dominic believes I took the key.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To keep him from taking Emma.”
Adrian stared at him.
“Why does he keep focusing on her?”
“Because he thinks Thomas encoded his archive piece in something Clara gave her.”
“Did he?”
Victor shook his head.
“Not intentionally.”
Adrian frowned.
Victor explained.
Thomas had used a numerical encryption system based on family dates.
Birthdays.
Anniversaries.
Deaths.
Clara had taught Emma the same number patterns as a memory game.
Emma unknowingly knew the sequence required to unlock Thomas's portion.
“She isn't carrying the key,” Adrian said.
“She remembers it.”
“Yes.”
Adrian's anger became cold.
“Dominic will never touch her.”
“I know.”
Victor handed him the archive key.
Then another object.
A tiny recorder.
“I've been recording Dominic for eleven years.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Why didn't you give this to me?”
“Because recordings aren't enough. Half the officials who could prosecute him are in the archive.”
Victor's exhaustion showed.
“I needed the entire network.”
“And you used us.”
“Yes.”
“You let Sophia believe Luca was dead.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened Luca.”
“Yes.”
“You frightened Emma.”
Victor's eyes lowered.
“Yes.”
Adrian wanted absolution to be simple.
It wasn't.
A man could save your life and still wound everyone around you.
“After this,” Adrian said, “you answer for all of it.”
Victor nodded.
“I expect to.”
A noise came from the chapel entrance.
Both men turned.
Emma stood there.
Adrian stared.
“How did you get here?”
“Mommy brought me.”
Clara entered behind her.
“I figured it out.”
She held Emma's drawing pad.
“Thomas didn't teach Emma the code.”
Clara opened the back cover.
“He put it here.”
Thomas had purchased the drawing pad years before Emma was born, intending it as a future gift.
Inside the cardboard backing was a strip of microfilm.
Victor stared.
“That’s it.”
Clara began crying.
Thomas had left his daughter a gift before she existed.
And hidden inside it, a weapon against the man who killed him.
Emma touched her mother's hand.
“Why are you crying?”
Clara knelt.
“Because your daddy loved you before he ever got to meet you.”
Emma hugged her.
Adrian looked away.
Then the chapel bell rang.
Once.
Nobody had touched it.
Victor's face changed.
“Get down.”
The windows shattered.
Smoke flooded the chapel.
Adrian reached for Emma.
Too late.
A masked man pulled her through the side door.
Clara screamed.
Adrian fired toward the doorway.
The vehicle outside accelerated.
Victor ran after it.
Adrian's phone vibrated.
A video call.
Dominic appeared.
Behind him, Emma sat in the back seat.
Terrified but alive.
Dominic smiled.
“Now we can finally open your father's archive.”
Then he turned the camera.
Someone else sat beside Emma.
May you like
Sophia.
And Dominic pressed a gun against her head.
