Chapter 6 - The Dead Man Who Built the Empire
Damian forgot how to breathe.
For fifteen years, Sebastian Voss had existed in memory.
A hospital corridor.
A closed casket.
A black suit Damian had hated wearing.
Victor standing beside him.
Men telling him his father had been complicated but great.
Sebastian was not great.
And apparently he wasn't dead.
Margot watched Damian's face.
The mafia boss who never lost control had become a son staring at a ghost.
Sebastian lifted his head.
"Come down."
Damian's expression hardened.
Victor whispered, "Don't."
Damian looked at him.
"You knew?"
"No."
"If you lie to me now—"
"I swear."
Below, Malcolm pushed Noah forward.
Margot flinched.
"We don't have time."
Damian looked at her brother.
Then at his father.
"We go down."
Caleb objected.
"That's suicide."
"No."
Damian checked the weapon.
"It's negotiation."
"You can't negotiate with Sebastian."
Damian looked at Victor.
"You apparently did for years."
Victor had no answer.
They descended.
Damian went first.
Margot followed despite every attempt to stop her.
Noah saw her.
"Margot!"
"I'm here."
His relief nearly broke her.
Sebastian studied her.
"Elaine's daughter."
Margot hated how casually he said her mother's name.
"You had my mother killed."
Sebastian's eyebrows rose.
"Direct."
"Answer me."
Damian stepped slightly in front of her.
Sebastian noticed.
"So this is what distracted you."
Damian's voice became dangerous.
"Speak about her like that again."
Sebastian smiled.
"There he is."
Malcolm looked impatient.
"The ledger."
"We don't have it," Damian said.
Sebastian studied him.
"Then Gabriel moved it."
"Where is he?"
Sebastian's amusement faded.
"You don't know?"
"No."
"Interesting."
Victor stepped outside.
Sebastian's eyes turned to him.
"Old friend."
Victor's face filled with disgust.
"You should have stayed dead."
"I did, for a while."
Damian stared at his father.
"You faked your death."
"Necessary."
"Why?"
"Because federal investigators were getting too close."
"So you left me the company."
"I left you a shield."
Damian laughed once.
A sound with no humor.
"You left me your crimes."
"I left you power."
"You don't know the difference."
Sebastian's smile disappeared.
"Your uncle used to talk like that."
Damian stepped toward him.
"What did you do to Gabriel?"
"Nothing he didn't choose."
Malcolm shifted.
"Enough family therapy."
Sebastian looked at him.
Malcolm fell silent.
Margot noticed.
Even Malcolm feared Sebastian.
That mattered.
Sebastian returned his attention to Damian.
"Gabriel betrayed the family."
"He exposed trafficking."
"He endangered everything."
"Everything you deserved to lose."
A flicker of anger crossed Sebastian's face.
There.
For the first time, Damian had reached him.
Sebastian nodded toward Margot.
"Elaine taught you that?"
"No."
Damian looked at Margot.
"She reminded me."
Margot felt something move inside her chest.
Not romance.
Not yet.
Trust.
The first fragile version of it.
Sebastian sighed.
"Give me the ledger and the boy walks."
"We don't have it."
"Then bring me Gabriel."
"We don't have him either."
Malcolm pressed the gun harder against Noah.
Margot stepped forward.
"Stop."
Damian's arm blocked her.
Malcolm smiled.
"Ms. Ellery, you should have stayed a secretary."
Margot looked directly at him.
"I was a secretary."
He blinked.
She continued.
"Which means I scheduled every meeting you lied about attending."
Malcolm's face changed.
"I processed your reimbursements."
Damian looked at her.
"I archived your travel records. I corrected your dates when your assistant made mistakes. And when you started moving money through executive accounts, you assumed nobody would notice because secretaries aren't supposed to understand numbers."
Malcolm's eyes narrowed.
"What did you do?"
Margot smiled faintly.
"I made copies."
That was a bluff.
Mostly.
But Malcolm didn't know.
His face revealed panic.
Damian saw it.
So did Sebastian.
Sebastian turned toward Malcolm.
"You told me she knew nothing."
Malcolm swallowed.
"She doesn't."
"Your face disagrees."
The alliance fractured in one sentence.
Damian almost admired his father for it.
Margot continued.
"The copies are scheduled to go to federal investigators."
Malcolm shouted, "She's lying!"
"Am I?"
He moved toward her.
Sebastian raised one hand.
Malcolm stopped.
Noah looked at Margot.
He knew she was bluffing too.
Damian whispered, "Keep going."
Margot nodded slightly.
"I also know which account paid the driver who killed my mother."
That part was true.
She had seen a code on Elaine's microfilm.
Malcolm's face emptied.
Margot understood.
"It was you."
Malcolm said nothing.
"You arranged the accident."
"No."
"You did."
Sebastian looked interested.
Victor looked sick.
Margot's hands began to shake.
Malcolm smiled finally.
"Your mother should have minded her own business."
Damian moved.
So fast Malcolm barely reacted.
He crossed the distance and struck Malcolm's wrist.
The gun fell.
Caleb fired into the air.
Chaos erupted.
Noah dropped.
Margot ran toward him.
Victor tackled one guard.
Damian drove Malcolm into a vehicle.
Sebastian stepped backward.
His men hesitated.
Sirens appeared in the distance.
Real ones.
Multiple.
Sebastian looked toward Damian.
"What did you do?"
Damian smiled coldly.
"I trusted one person."
Sofia Bell.
She had alerted federal agents after receiving Damian's location.
Not local police.
Federal.
Because Damian didn't trust the network inside the city.
Malcolm tried to run.
Caleb stopped him.
Sebastian reached for a gun.
Victor aimed.
"Don't."
Sebastian laughed softly.
"You never had the stomach."
Victor's hands shook.
"No."
A voice came from behind them.
"But I did."
Everyone turned.
An older man stood at the entrance of the house.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
Scar along one side of his face.
Damian knew him despite the years.
Gabriel Voss.
Alive.
Sebastian stared at his brother.
"No."
Gabriel stepped forward.
"You always hated losing."
Federal vehicles surrounded the property.
Agents poured out.
Gabriel raised both hands.
"I have the ledger."
Sebastian's face changed.
"The original?"
"And sixteen years of recordings."
Malcolm went pale.
Gabriel looked at Margot.
"Your mother saved every one of us."
Margot's eyes filled.
"Where is the ledger?"
Gabriel reached inside his coat.
Sebastian suddenly lunged.
A shot exploded.
Margot screamed.
Damian turned.
Sebastian fell.
The weapon had come from Malcolm.
He had grabbed the fallen gun.
But he wasn't aiming at Sebastian.
He was aiming at Margot.
Damian shoved her aside.
A second shot fired.
Damian staggered.
Margot caught him.
"No."
Blood spread across his black shirt.
"Damian."
His knees hit the ground.
Agents tackled Malcolm.
Margot pressed both hands against Damian's wound.
"Look at me."
He tried.
Her voice broke.
"Don't you dare close your eyes."
Damian gave the faintest smile.
"You sound like me."
"Shut up."
He almost laughed.
Then his eyes rolled shut.
The ambulance arrived within minutes.
To Margot, it felt like an hour.
Noah sat beside her, bruised but alive.
Gabriel surrendered the ledger.
Victor gave a full statement.
Caleb handed over company security records.
Sebastian survived his own wound and was arrested before sunrise.
Malcolm survived too.
Damian went into surgery.
Margot waited.
Five hours.
Six.
Seven.
At 11:43 a.m., a surgeon entered.
Margot stood so quickly the chair fell.
"Mr. Voss is alive."
Her legs nearly gave out.
"The bullet missed his heart. There was significant blood loss, but we expect him to recover."
Noah hugged her.
Margot cried for the first time.
Not quietly.
Not politely.
Everything she had been holding for days came apart.
Later that afternoon, a federal agent approached.
"Ms. Ellery?"
Margot wiped her face.
"Yes?"
"We found something in Mr. Saye's vehicle."
He handed her a sealed evidence photograph.
A small brass key.
Her mother's key.
Margot stared.
"What does it open?"
"We hoped you could tell us."
She turned it over.
There was an engraving she had never noticed.
Not letters.
Coordinates.
Gabriel saw them from across the room.
His face changed.
"Elaine never told me she kept that."
Margot looked at him.
"Kept what?"
Gabriel approached slowly.
"Her final insurance policy."
"Where?"
He read the coordinates again.
Then looked toward Damian's hospital room.
"At the place your mother believed Sebastian could never touch."
Margot tightened her grip on the photograph.
"Where is that?"
Gabriel answered.
"Damian's childhood home."
Three hours later, Margot stood outside the abandoned Voss estate.
The brass key turned in a door hidden behind the library.
A narrow staircase descended underground.
Margot reached for the light switch.
Someone had already turned the lights on.
At the bottom of the stairs sat a desk.
On it was an envelope.
MARGOT ELLERY.
The ink was fresh.
May you like
And beside it lay a photograph taken that morning—
of Margot sitting outside Damian's operating room.
