Chapter 13 - The Night the House Turned Against Victor
Harper returned to the estate with Victor.
He should have been in a hospital.
He refused.
Harper stopped him outside.
“If you collapse, you help nobody.”
“If I stay behind, you go in without me.”
“Yes.”
“That’s why I’m coming.”
Harper stared at him.
“You’re impossible.”
“So I’ve been told.”
They entered through the servants’ tunnels.
For years, powerful men had ignored those corridors.
Now the tunnels became the path that saved them.
Luca held Thomas and Caleb inside the underground archive.
Arthur was there too.
So was Evelyn.
Arthur had finally turned against Luca after realizing Luca intended to eliminate every witness.
Evelyn wanted her daughter back.
Victor wanted his family free.
Harper wanted the truth finished.
They attacked from three directions.
Arthur’s remaining men cut power.
Victor’s loyal guards entered from the wine cellar.
Harper crawled through an old laundry passage and reached the archive room.
Luca stood beside Caleb.
Gun at his head.
“Stop.”
Harper stopped.
Thomas was tied nearby.
“Let them go.”
“Open the archive.”
Harper approached the terminal.
A microphone illuminated.
She entered the numbers.
Then spoke the childhood phrase her father had taught her.
“Home is where the truth remembers your name.”
The archive unlocked.
Thousands of files appeared.
Bank transfers.
Photographs.
Shipping records.
Names.
Judges.
Businessmen.
Police officers.
Politicians.
Criminals.
Decades of evidence.
Luca stared.
Then smiled.
“Delete it.”
Harper looked at him.
“No.”
He pressed the gun harder against Caleb.
“Delete it.”
Harper moved her hand toward the keyboard.
Thomas shouted, “Don’t!”
Luca fired.
Harper screamed.
The bullet struck the floor beside Thomas.
A warning.
“Next one isn’t.”
Harper began typing.
Luca watched the screen.
DELETE ARCHIVE?
YES / NO.
Harper selected YES.
Victor arrived at the doorway.
“Harper!”
She pressed enter.
Luca laughed.
Then the screen changed.
ARCHIVE TRANSMITTED.
Luca’s smile vanished.
Harper looked at him.
“You really thought my father trained me to remember numbers but not how to lie?”
The archive had been sent automatically to multiple federal prosecutors, journalists, and protected servers.
Luca raised his gun toward Harper.
Victor fired first.
Luca fell.
Alive.
Wounded.
Police flooded the lower level minutes later.
Caleb was freed.
Thomas survived.
Evelyn surrendered.
Arthur dropped his weapon and agreed to cooperate.
It seemed finished.
Then Harper looked at the archive screen.
One file had not transmitted.
A protected file.
FINAL ACCOUNT.
She opened it.
A list appeared.
At the bottom was Victor Romano.
Beside his name were scheduled payments continuing into the present year.
Harper looked at Victor.
“These payments are coming from your personal account.”
Victor stared.
“I never authorized them.”
Thomas leaned closer.
Then his face changed.
“What?”
Thomas pointed to the authorization code.
“That isn’t Luca’s.”
“Whose is it?”
Thomas looked toward Isabella.
Victor’s mother had entered behind them.
May you like
She was holding a gun.
And it was pointed directly at her son.
