Chapter 5 - Locked Inside the Tower With the Enemy
The message stayed on the screen for exactly five seconds.
ASK HER.
Then it disappeared.
No warning.
No trace.
Just like the first one.
But this time, nobody looked at the security system.
Everyone looked at me.
I hated that.
Not because I was afraid of Gabriel.
Not because I was afraid of Victor.
Because I suddenly understood what the person behind this wanted.
They didn’t need to prove I was guilty.
They didn’t need evidence.
They only needed silence.
And the moment everyone started wondering what I was hiding, the plan was already working.
Gabriel remained still.
His expression gave away nothing.
That was his greatest skill.
People thought powerful men were fearless.
They weren’t.
They simply learned how to hide fear better than everyone else.
“Clara.”
His voice was calm.
But I heard the question beneath it.
Tell me.
I looked at the security screen.
Then at Victor.
Then back at Gabriel.
“I don’t know what they think I know.”
Nobody spoke.
Victor crossed his arms.
“That’s convenient.”
My eyes moved toward him.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re telling us someone from Gabriel’s past is targeting him, someone knows you personally, and you have no idea why?”
His tone was controlled.
Almost polite.
That made it worse.
Accusations sounded stronger when they were spoken calmly.
I stepped closer.
“You were standing inside the elevator while someone was trying to assassinate him.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“And you were standing beside him with a weapon.”
The room went silent.
Again.
The same tactic.
Create doubt.
Split people apart.
Make everyone look at each other instead of looking for the person pulling the strings.
Gabriel noticed.
“Enough.”
One word.
Both of us stopped.
He looked at Victor first.
Then me.
“I don’t need either of you destroying each other for someone else’s benefit.”
Victor looked away.
I knew Gabriel was right.
The enemy wanted chaos.
And we were giving it to them.
A soft sound came from the security panel.
A new notification.
I turned back to the screen.
The building map appeared.
Sixty-two floors.
Hundreds of cameras.
Thousands of access points.
One blinking red dot.
The basement security server.
My stomach tightened.
“Someone is accessing the main system.”
Victor immediately stepped forward.
“That’s impossible.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“The server room is isolated.”
“Nothing is isolated.”
I typed quickly.
The access attempt continued.
Someone was not trying to enter the system.
They were trying to erase something.
“Whoever is doing this isn’t attacking the building.”
Gabriel looked at the screen.
“What are they doing?”
“Cleaning.”
A pause.
“Deleting evidence.”
Victor’s face changed.
“What evidence?”
I looked at him.
“The kind you’re afraid we’ll find.”
Gabriel walked toward the screen.
“Can you stop it?”
“I can try.”
I connected through the emergency terminal.
The system demanded a second authorization.
A security key.
I looked at Victor.
“Give me the override.”
He didn’t move.
“Victor.”
Still nothing.
Gabriel turned.
“Give her the code.”
Victor looked between us.
Then slowly reached into his jacket.
He pulled out a small encrypted device.
But he didn’t hand it to me.
He handed it to Gabriel.
A small gesture.
But I understood.
Victor was saying something without words.
He trusted Gabriel.
Not me.
Gabriel took the device and passed it to me.
“Use it.”
I connected it.
The screen opened.
ACCESS GRANTED.
The deletion process appeared.
Files disappearing one by one.
Camera footage.
Communication logs.
Vehicle records.
Security reports.
Then I saw something.
A file hidden deep inside the system.
Not deleted.
Protected.
The name was simple.
CB-17.
My fingers stopped.
Gabriel noticed.
“What is it?”
I clicked.
The file opened.
A photograph appeared.
Not of Gabriel.
Not of Victor.
Not of security.
A photograph of me.
I froze.
It was old.
Very old.
I was maybe eight or nine years old.
Standing outside a small mechanic shop.
My father was beside me.
His hand rested on my shoulder.
I had never seen the picture before.
My throat tightened.
“Clara?”
I couldn’t answer.
Because beneath the photograph was a document.
A file created twenty years earlier.
The title:
CORDELIA BENNETT - OBSERVATION REPORT.
My full name.
Except my last name was not Bennett.
Not originally.
I stared.
The world seemed to become quieter.
“What is this?”
Gabriel stepped beside me.
His eyes moved across the screen.
“Your name.”
“No.”
My voice came out softer than I expected.
“My old name.”
The file contained information.
Dates.
Locations.
Photos.
Reports.
My childhood.
My family.
Everything.
Someone had been watching me long before I ever met Gabriel Corso.
Victor looked at the screen.
“I’ve never seen this.”
I believed him.
Because even Victor looked disturbed.
Gabriel scrolled.
Then stopped.
“What is Adrian Vale’s connection to you?”
I looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
But my voice lacked confidence.
Because somewhere deep inside...
Something was waking up.
A memory.
A feeling.
A conversation I had forgotten.
Gabriel turned the screen toward me.
The final page contained a handwritten note.
Not typed.
Written.
The handwriting was old.
The message was short.
If she ever gets close to Gabriel Corso, tell him the truth before someone else does.
My heart stopped.
I whispered:
“What?”
Gabriel looked at me.
“You were never supposed to meet me.”
The sentence hurt because it sounded impossible.
But it was there.
Evidence.
A warning.
A connection.
A reason.
I stepped away from the screen.
“No.”
Gabriel watched me carefully.
“Clara.”
“My father never told me anything about this.”
“Maybe he was protecting you.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Because my father had always been honest.
He taught me honesty.
He taught me evidence.
He taught me to question everything.
But he had hidden this.
The question was why.
A loud crash came from outside the penthouse.
Everyone turned.
The hallway camera feed appeared.
The two security guards outside were unconscious.
The elevator doors were open.
Someone had reached the floor.
Victor immediately moved toward the entrance.
Gabriel stopped him.
“No.”
Victor looked back.
“They’re inside the building.”
“I know.”
“Then we need to move.”
Gabriel looked toward me.
“Can you lock down the floor?”
“Yes.”
“Do it.”
I returned to the terminal.
My hands moved faster now.
Not because I was calm.
Because fear had become something else.
Focus.
The doors sealed.
The elevators stopped.
The windows locked.
The penthouse became a fortress.
Except for one problem.
The person who entered already had access.
A message appeared on the screen.
Not hidden this time.
Not anonymous.
A name.
ADRIAN VALE.
Then a video began playing.
A man appeared.
Older.
Silver hair.
Calm eyes.
The kind of eyes that had seen too much.
Gabriel stared.
For the first time all night, his control disappeared.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
“Adrian.”
The man smiled.
“Gabriel.”
His voice came through the speakers.
“Still protecting people who don’t know who they are?”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
Adrian smiled.
“That’s what your father wanted everyone to believe.”
The video paused.
Then Adrian looked directly into the camera.
Almost directly at me.
“Hello, Clara.”
My blood turned cold.
Because he knew my name.
He knew my face.
And then he said the one sentence that changed everything.
“Your father didn’t hide you from the world.”
A pause.
“He hid the world from you.”
The screen went black.
The penthouse remained silent.
Locked.
Trapped.
And for the first time, I understood the truth.
May you like
This was never just an assassination attempt against Gabriel Corso.
I was the reason it started.
