Chapter 9 - The Woman in Apartment 1706
Daniel did not lie.
That almost made it worse.
“Yes,” he said. “I was in Prague.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
“With Arthur?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Daniel looked toward Evelyn.
Their mother closed her eyes.
Clara understood.
“You both knew.”
Evelyn answered.
“Daniel was recruited by Victor’s network.”
Clara stared at her brother.
Daniel had infiltrated it deliberately.
He worked inside for eleven months.
That was how he found Victor was alive.
It was also how he learned Arthur was being framed through forged authorizations.
The contract had been one of dozens.
Someone had access to Arthur’s digital signature.
Someone inside his organization.
“Dominic?” Clara asked.
“No.”
Daniel showed her a name.
Sebastian Cole.
Arthur’s attorney.
A man Clara had seen almost every day for six months.
Quiet.
Professional.
Invisible.
Just like her.
Sebastian had prepared Arthur’s contracts for eleven years.
He could forge anything.
They called Arthur.
No answer.
Clara’s fear sharpened.
She drove to the penthouse.
Arthur’s bedroom was empty.
The ruined pillow had been removed.
On the bed lay a new one.
Perfect white silk.
Clara almost laughed.
Then she noticed a crimson thread sticking from its seam.
She cut it open.
Inside was another package.
A phone.
It contained one video.
Arthur tied to a chair.
Sebastian stood behind him.
“Hello, Clara.”
Her blood chilled.
Sebastian smiled.
“Victor was useful. But old men become sentimental about dynasties.”
He had been the true architect behind the thefts.
Victor controlled the trafficking operation.
Sebastian had been stealing from Victor and Arthur simultaneously.
He planned to inherit the ruins.
“Bring Evelyn’s master access key to Apartment 1706.”
Clara went.
Daniel followed secretly.
Apartment 1706 looked different now.
The plastic had been removed.
Photographs covered every wall.
Clara.
Daniel.
Arthur.
Evelyn.
Dominic.
Years of surveillance.
Sebastian had studied all of them.
Arthur sat restrained near the window.
Clara held up a flash drive.
“Let him go.”
Sebastian laughed.
“You still think this is about money.”
“What is it about?”
“You.”
Of course.
Everyone seemed obsessed with her.
Sebastian explained Evelyn’s ledger contained more than criminal records.
It contained evidence tying international financial institutions to Victor’s network.
Worth billions in leverage.
Clara possessed the memorized encryption.
Sebastian needed her alive.
Arthur did not matter.
He pressed a gun against Arthur’s head.
“Give me the sequence.”
Clara began reciting numbers.
Wrong numbers.
Arthur realized.
He smiled.
Sebastian did not.
Daniel cut power to the apartment.
Darkness.
Arthur threw himself sideways.
Clara attacked Sebastian.
A gun fired.
Glass shattered.
When emergency lights returned, Sebastian was gone.
Arthur was alive.
Daniel had been hit in the arm.
And the flash drive was missing.
Clara cursed.
Arthur looked at her.
“What did you give him?”
“A grocery list.”
Arthur blinked.
“What?”
“The numbers were prices from my grocery receipts.”
He laughed so hard his injured ribs hurt.
They escaped.
But Sebastian had taken something more important than the fake drive.
Evelyn.
Again.
Clara was beginning to find her mother’s kidnapping frequency irritating.
They traced Sebastian through the surveillance system.
One camera showed him entering a private elevator beneath the building.
Arthur stared.
“That elevator doesn’t exist.”
Apparently it did.
They descended.
Below the official basement was another level.
Victor’s original operations center.
And there, they found evidence Sebastian had been operating beneath Arthur for years.
Arthur stared at hundreds of screens.
His own home had never been his.
Clara touched his hand.
“You know now.”
He looked at her fingers around his.
“Yes.”
“That means you can change it.”
Arthur intertwined their fingers.
A small gesture.
But after ninety-four nights of trusting nobody, it was enormous.
Then a monitor activated.
Sebastian appeared.
Evelyn sat beside him.
He held a pistol.
“You have ten minutes.”
A location appeared.
The old Kingsley estate.
Arthur went still.
The house where his mother had died.
Clara squeezed his hand.
“We go together.”
They reached the estate at midnight.
The front door stood open.
Arthur entered first.
From somewhere upstairs, a woman began singing the lullaby Clara’s mother had taught her.
Evelyn’s voice.
Clara reached the staircase.
Then Arthur grabbed her.
May you like
A fresh line of blood ran down the banister.
And at the top of the stairs, someone whispered Clara’s name.
