“Mom.”
Emily moved instinctively.
Robert pressed the gun harder against Evelyn's ribs.
“Stay where you are.”
At seventy-one, Robert Blackwell looked far different from the polished executive Emily had negotiated with eighteen months earlier.
His expensive coat was unbuttoned.
His silver hair was disordered.
But his eyes remained controlled.
Cold.
Evelyn looked terrified.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered.
Daniel moved forward.
“Let her go.”
Jonathan grabbed him.
“No.”
Daniel jerked away.
“That's my mother.”
“And Robert wants you emotional.”
Robert smiled.
“Still analyzing everyone, Jonathan.”
Jonathan stared at him.
“You should've made sure I was dead.”
“I've regretted that mistake for thirty-four years.”
Emily's eyes moved toward David.
“Why work for him?”
David shrugged.
“Because Carter Meridian bought Blackwell Global.”
“That doesn't answer me.”
“It does.”
Emily studied him.
“You were already inside my company.”
David smiled.
“Now you understand.”
Lauren whispered, “You used me.”
David looked at her.
“For what?”
“To get close to people from school. To Emily.”
“You barely spoke to Emily.”
“But I kept asking about her.”
Lauren's face crumpled.
Emily suddenly remembered something.
Lauren had sent her messages before the reunion.
Questions about whether Emily would attend.
Where she was staying.
Whether she was bringing anyone.
At the time Emily assumed Lauren was organizing seating.
Now—
“You were gathering information.”
Lauren turned toward her.
“I didn't know.”
Emily believed her.
David had used Lauren's obsession with appearances as camouflage.
Robert motioned toward the metal box.
“Bring me the ledger.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
Robert smiled.
“That wasn't a request.”
Jonathan stepped forward.
“You already destroyed enough.”
Robert's face changed.
For the first time, something emotional appeared.
“Destroyed?”
“Yes.”
“You were going to destroy all of us.”
“I was exposing you.”
“We built Meridian together.”
“And you sold restricted systems.”
“To contractors.”
“To governments.”
“Everyone did business.”
“Not illegally.”
Robert laughed bitterly.
“You always thought morality made you superior.”
“No. I thought not committing treason was a reasonable baseline.”
David glanced toward the door.
Impatience.
Emily noticed.
Someone else was coming.
She needed time.
“What do you want?”
Robert looked at her.
“Your company.”
Emily almost laughed.
“My company?”
“The company you built using what you stole from me.”
“I bought a bankrupt freight firm.”
“A firm built on my technology.”
“Jonathan's technology.”
Robert's jaw tightened.
“Without my financing, there would've been nothing.”
“And without stealing it?”
His eyes sharpened.
Emily continued.
“You sold Blackwell Global willingly.”
“You manipulated the price.”
“We negotiated for eleven months.”
“You knew my company was collapsing.”
“That isn't manipulation. That's due diligence.”
Robert pulled Evelyn closer.
“This isn't a boardroom.”
“No.”
Emily met his gaze.
“It's a warehouse where your crimes started.”
Robert smiled slowly.
“There she is.”
“What?”
“Thomas.”
Emily felt anger rise.
“He was always most dangerous when calm.”
Jonathan glanced toward Emily.
She understood.
Keep Robert talking.
“Why target the Legacy Trust?”
Robert's smile vanished.
David looked at him.
Emily saw the reaction.
Interesting.
Maybe David had acted independently.
Robert said, “I didn't.”
Emily turned toward David.
“Then you did.”
David said nothing.
Lauren stared at him.
“What did you need the money for?”
David looked irritated.
“Lauren, stop.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
Lauren's voice shook, but grew stronger.
“You've told me to stop for twelve years.”
David's face hardened.
“This isn't the time.”
“You monitored my phone.”
“Because you were careless.”
“You decided who I could see.”
“You liked the life I gave you.”
“I liked believing my husband loved me.”
David laughed dismissively.
“Please.”
Lauren flinched.
Then straightened.
Emily watched her entire personality change.
The woman who had spent the evening showing off diamonds suddenly looked disgusted by them.
She pulled off the oversized ring.
David frowned.
“What are you doing?”
Lauren threw it.
The ring struck his chest and dropped onto the concrete.
“You can keep your life.”
David's eyes flashed.
“You ungrateful—”
He stepped toward her.
That mistake saved them.
Michael appeared in the side doorway.
“Drop the weapon.”
David spun.
Gunfire cracked.
Everyone dove.
Emily pulled Evelyn behind a support column.
Jonathan dragged Daniel down.
Lauren screamed.
Michael's security officer returned fire.
David disappeared behind machinery.
Robert ran toward the loading bay.
Emily looked at her mother.
“Stay here.”
“Emily!”
She ran after Robert.
He had the ledger.
She had not seen him take it.
But there it was under his arm.
“Robert!”
He reached the loading platform.
The same platform where Jonathan had fallen decades earlier.
Emily slowed.
“There's nowhere to go.”
Robert turned.
His gun pointed toward her.
“You sound like your father.”
“Good.”
“He ruined everything.”
“He protected his family.”
“He betrayed us.”
“Because you were selling secrets.”
Robert's face twisted.
“I was building something.”
“You were stealing.”
“You think you're different?”
Emily said nothing.
“You built Carter Meridian by buying broken companies for pennies.”
“I didn't put guns to owners' heads.”
“No. You used lawyers.”
Emily stepped closer.
“You're trying very hard to make us the same.”
Robert laughed.
“Thomas did too.”
Then Jonathan's voice came from behind Emily.
“We were never the same.”
Robert aimed past her.
Emily turned.
Jonathan stood near the stairs.
“Put the gun down,” Jonathan said.
Robert whispered, “You should've stayed dead.”
“You should've stopped running.”
Robert's hand trembled.
For the first time, Emily saw fear.
Not fear of prison.
Fear of Jonathan.
“Where's the evidence?” Robert demanded.
Jonathan smiled.
“What evidence?”
“Samuel's archive.”
David suddenly appeared above them.
Bleeding from one shoulder.
He pointed his gun toward Jonathan.
“My father kept copies.”
Jonathan's expression changed.
“So you did find them.”
David nodded.
“But I couldn't decrypt them.”
Robert turned toward him.
“You told me they were destroyed.”
David laughed.
“You believed me?”
Robert's face became dangerous.
Emily understood.
The alliance was collapsing.
David wanted something Robert didn't know.
“What is in Samuel's archive?” Emily asked.
Jonathan looked at David.
“Proof of every payment Robert made.”
Robert raised his gun.
David raised his.
Two men who had conspired together now aimed weapons at each other.
Lauren appeared at the far end of the warehouse.
“David!”
He turned.
Just enough.
Michael tackled him from the side.
The gun skidded across the floor.
Robert fired.
The shot hit the railing.
Jonathan lunged at Robert.
Both men slammed against the barrier.
Emily ran forward.
“Stop!”
Metal groaned.
For one horrifying second history seemed ready to repeat itself.
Robert's foot slipped.
Jonathan caught his wrist.
Robert dangled over the edge.
Thirty-four years earlier, Thomas Carter had been accused of letting Jonathan fall.
Now Jonathan held the life of the man who had tried to kill him.
Robert stared upward.
“Help me.”
Jonathan's face trembled.
Then he pulled.
Emily grabbed Robert's other arm.
Together they dragged him onto the platform.
Michael's security team surrounded them seconds later.
Robert lay gasping.
Jonathan stepped away.
“You don't get to die instead of answering.”
Police sirens approached.
Emily finally exhaled.
It should have been over.
Then Michael's phone rang.
He answered.
His face went pale.
“What?”
Everyone looked at him.
He turned toward Emily.
“There's been an explosion.”
“Where?”
“Carter Meridian headquarters.”
Emily froze.
“The archive floor.”
David began laughing from the ground.
Lauren stared at him.
“What did you do?”
David smiled through blood on his lip.
“I told you.”
“Told me what?”
“Dead fathers don't pay debts.”
Emily grabbed him by the jacket.
“What was in the archive?”
David looked directly into her eyes.
“Not what.”
He smiled.
“Who.”
And twenty-two floors above Manhattan, according to Michael's caller, a body had just been discovered inside Emily's private records room.
