Chapter 5 - The Man Behind Gideon
I didn't go alone.
I let Voss believe I did.
Marcus placed a tracker inside my coat.
Rebecca remained with Noah.
My father insisted on coming with the agents.
At 11:42 p.m., I entered Rebecca's abandoned former office.
Celeste sat in the conference room.
Alive.
Gideon stood behind her.
And Charles Voss stood beside him.
Voss smiled.
"Margaret's daughter."
I hated him immediately.
"Let my sister go."
"Your sister isn't important."
Celeste looked at me.
"I'm sorry."
Voss slapped the back of her chair.
"Quiet."
Gideon flinched.
That told me something.
He wasn't in control.
Maybe he never had been.
Voss wanted the trust credentials.
I told him I didn't have them.
He laughed.
"You will in six days."
My birthday.
"So this is about my mother's evidence."
"Your mother was sentimental."
"You killed her."
Voss smiled.
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't need to."
Gideon looked at me.
"Emily, give him what he wants."
"You mean what you've spent eight years helping him steal?"
His face broke.
"I was trying to keep you alive."
"By forging my name?"
"He threatened Noah."
"When?"
"Before Noah was born."
I stared.
Gideon confessed.
He had approached me originally because Voss ordered him to.
He was supposed to monitor me.
Nothing more.
Then he fell in love.
At least, that's what he claimed.
When we married, Voss demanded access.
Gideon resisted.
When Noah was born, Voss gained leverage.
Every fraud Gideon committed afterward had been part of an attempt to build an escape fund.
The stolen money.
The fake company.
The property transfers.
"I was moving everything where Voss couldn't touch it."
"Then why the custody petition?"
"In case you were arrested."
"For what?"
"The fraud was being built in your name."
My stomach turned.
Voss had intended to frame me.
Celeste had discovered the documents.
Gideon manipulated her.
Then slept with her.
Nothing excused that.
He admitted it.
"I destroyed the one person I was trying to protect."
"No," I said. "You destroyed our marriage."
His eyes lowered.
"But you don't get to destroy me."
Voss became impatient.
He wanted the trust.
I stepped closer.
"There's one problem."
"What?"
"My mother was smarter than you."
His smile disappeared.
"The trust doesn't transfer automatically."
I had learned this from Rebecca hours earlier.
"It requires biometric confirmation at the bank."
Voss stared.
"So killing me won't help you."
Silence.
"And hurting Celeste won't help you."
Voss moved toward me.
"Then perhaps Noah—"
"Finish that sentence."
My voice changed.
Even Gideon looked at me.
"You spent years treating families like accounts. My mother. Me. My son. You thought fear would make everyone predictable."
I opened my coat.
Not enough to reveal the wire.
Just enough to show empty hands.
"I came here because I'm done being afraid."
Police lights suddenly flooded the windows.
Voss grabbed Celeste.
Gideon tackled him.
The gunshot was deafening.
Celeste screamed.
Voss fell.
Gideon collapsed.
For one horrible second, I thought he was dead.
Then agents flooded the room.
Voss was arrested.
Gideon had been shot in the shoulder.
Celeste was freed.
I stood against the wall shaking.
It was over.
Except it wasn't.
Voss began talking almost immediately.
Not because he regretted anything.
Because men like him always believed information could purchase freedom.
He offered names.
Accounts.
Companies.
Judges.
Bank employees.
Police officers.
And one final name.
The person who had actually arranged my mother's death.
Marcus came to me at the hospital.
"Gideon wasn't involved."
I didn't know whether that relieved me.
"Who was?"
Marcus hesitated.
"Someone close to your mother."
My father sat beside me.
Marcus looked at him.
Then at me.
"June Patterson."
The world stopped.
"No."
"Voss claims June altered your mother's medication."
"No."
My father stood.
"That's impossible."
Marcus didn't argue.
"We need to find her."
I grabbed my phone.
June had Noah.
I called.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Rebecca called too.
Nothing.
Then my phone received a video.
Noah sat in June's kitchen.
Safe.
Eating cereal.
June walked into frame.
She looked directly into the camera.
Then she held up a photograph of my mother.
"Emily," she said, "before you believe them, you need to know what your mother asked me to do."
Someone knocked behind her.
June turned.
The video ended.
May you like
Seconds later, the security alarm at her house went offline.
And Noah was still inside.
