Chapter 10 - The Warehouse That Was Supposed to Be Empty
Elias did not raise his weapon.
“Adeline.”
She descended slowly.
Mara began crying.
“Tell him.”
Adeline’s face was pale.
“I tied her up.”
“Why?”
“Because she lied.”
Mara shook her head.
Adeline continued.
“Mara wasn’t just Dad’s nurse.”
She handed Elias a document.
Mara Voss had received $80,000 two days after Daniel’s death.
From an account controlled by Haverin.
Mara broke.
She admitted she had been paid to alter Daniel’s medical chart.
But she insisted she had not killed him.
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Adeline raised the gun.
“You were in the room.”
“I left.”
“You keep leaving whenever people die.”
Elias gently lowered Adeline’s arm.
“Not like this.”
Her eyes met his.
“My father begged someone for help.”
“I know.”
“And everyone took money.”
“Then we expose all of them.”
She released the gun.
That choice changed something between them.
Elias had spent his life believing strength meant making people fear what he might do.
Adeline had just shown him another version.
Strength could be having every reason to pull a trigger and choosing not to.
Mara finally confessed the last thing she knew.
Daniel had said one word before losing consciousness.
“Mercy.”
Not a plea.
A name.
Mercy Hospital.
An abandoned private hospital owned by a Baron shell corporation.
Elias remembered it.
His father had funded it.
They went there.
In the basement, they found Daniel’s real archive.
Not only criminal records.
Letters.
Videos.
Evidence Sebastian had been trying to dismantle the illegal parts of Baron operations before he died.
Elias had inherited an empire without knowing half of it had already been poisoned.
Then they found Daniel’s final recording.
He looked directly into the camera.
“If you’re watching this, Elias, Adeline found you.”
Adeline began crying silently.
Daniel smiled faintly.
“My daughter thinks she has to carry everyone. Don’t let her.”
Elias looked at her.
Daniel continued.
“And my son will pretend he isn’t scared. He is.”
Evan laughed through tears.
Then Daniel’s expression changed.
“Rourke is dangerous. But he is not the man at the top.”
Everyone froze.
“There is someone above him.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Someone who has controlled both Baron and Haverin money for twenty years.”
The recording glitched.
A name began.
“His name is—”
The hospital lights went out.
May you like
A door opened behind them.
A man’s voice said, “Daniel always did talk too much.”
