Chapter 6 - The Man Behind My Entire Empire
Marcus Reed was alive.
The words should have been impossible.
But the face on the screen was real.
The voice was real.
The way he looked directly into the camera was exactly how I remembered him.
Calm.
Confident.
Like he had always known I would find this room.
The hidden camera continued recording.
Marcus leaned forward.
"Adrian, if you are watching this, then they failed to stop you."
Nobody spoke.
Not Daniel.
Not Richard.
Not Clara.
Not even Victoria.
Everyone was frozen.
I stepped closer to the screen.
"Marcus..."
My voice came out quieter than I expected.
The man on the screen continued.
"I know you will have questions."
I almost laughed.
Questions.
That was the smallest word for what I felt.
Six years of anger.
Six years of searching.
Six years believing my closest friend had been taken from me.
All of it was sitting in front of me.
"First, you need to understand something."
Marcus looked away from the camera for a moment.
"The person who betrayed us was never trying to take your empire."
A pause.
"They were trying to make sure you inherited it."
My expression changed.
"What does that mean?"
Richard looked at me.
"I don't know."
But his voice sounded like a lie.
I noticed.
Marcus continued.
"Adrian, everyone around you has been protecting you from the same truth."
The screen flickered.
Then another image appeared.
A document.
A birth record.
My eyes narrowed.
The name at the top was mine.
But underneath it was another name.
A family name.
One I had never seen before.
"What is this?"
Victoria stepped closer.
Her face became pale.
"You weren't supposed to see that yet."
I turned toward her.
"What do you mean?"
She didn't answer.
That was becoming a habit.
Everyone had pieces of my life.
Everyone except me.
I looked back at the screen.
Marcus continued.
"The man you called your father was not the man who created your family."
My heartbeat slowed.
Because I understood.
This wasn't just about betrayal.
This was about my entire identity.
"My father died when I was young."
Richard looked at the floor.
Nobody corrected me.
That scared me more.
Marcus's video continued.
"Your father disappeared because he found out the truth before anyone else."
I stared at the screen.
"My father is alive?"
No one answered.
Then Richard finally spoke.
"Adrian..."
I turned.
His expression told me enough.
The truth was coming.
Whether I wanted it or not.
"Tell me."
Richard took a deep breath.
"Your father wasn't killed."
Silence.
"He was taken."
The room felt smaller.
"By who?"
Richard looked at Marcus's video.
"By the same people who wanted control of your family."
I looked at Daniel.
"You knew?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Not everything."
"But enough."
He didn't deny it.
My anger rose.
"I trusted you."
Daniel looked at me.
"I know."
"No, you don't."
My voice became colder.
"You don't know what it feels like to discover that every person around you has been deciding what you deserve to know."
Nobody spoke.
Because nobody could argue.
Marcus's video suddenly changed.
A second file opened automatically.
A recording from six years earlier.
The date appeared.
The night Marcus died.
I moved closer.
The footage showed a dark room.
Marcus was sitting at a table.
Across from him was another person.
The camera angle only showed the person's back.
But I recognized the voice.
A voice I had heard countless times.
A voice that had guided my business decisions.
A voice that had stood beside me during every major deal.
The person on the video spoke.
"You should have stopped looking."
Marcus replied:
"And you should have known Adrian would never stop."
The person laughed.
"That's exactly why he had to be prepared."
My face tightened.
Had to be prepared.
Not destroyed.
Prepared.
Marcus looked angry.
"You don't understand what you're doing."
The person leaned closer.
"I understand perfectly."
The recording distorted.
Then the person said something that made my blood run cold.
"Adrian was never supposed to become a criminal."
The screen went black.
Everyone stayed silent.
I looked at Victoria.
Then Daniel.
Then Richard.
"Who was that?"
Nobody answered.
I walked toward the computer.
"Play it again."
The system loaded.
But before the video restarted, a notification appeared.
A new file had been added.
Timestamp:
TODAY.
Uploaded moments ago.
I stared.
Someone was inside the system.
Someone was watching us.
Richard immediately moved toward the computer.
"Don't open it."
I stopped him.
"Why?"
His face changed.
"Because whoever sent it knows we found this room."
I clicked the file.
The screen turned black.
Then a live video appeared.
Not an old recording.
A live feed.
The camera showed the mansion hallway.
Our hallway.
The one outside the hidden room.
Everyone moved closer.
The image was dark.
But someone was standing there.
Watching.
A figure slowly stepped into the camera view.
My breathing stopped.
Because I knew that face.
The person had been in my life for years.
The person who had helped build my empire.
The person who had been beside me through every battle.
Richard whispered:
"No..."
I looked at him.
"You know them."
His face turned pale.
"Adrian, we have to leave."
Too late.
The figure on the screen looked directly into the camera.
Then smiled.
A message appeared beneath the video.
"I've been waiting for you to find this room."
My hands tightened.
Then another line appeared.
"You were never searching for the traitor."
A pause.
"You were searching for me."
May you like
The hidden room door suddenly locked behind us.
And from the other side, someone said my name.
