Chapter 12 - THE LOCKED FLOOR
Gas hissed from the ceiling vents.
Daniel threw a chair through the glass partition.
“Everyone out!”
Board members climbed into the adjoining office.
I grabbed both children.
Vanessa ran toward the server room with the black document case.
Robert chased her.
I followed.
Smoke alarms screamed.
Sprinklers did not activate.
The system had been disabled.
Inside the server room, Vanessa stood beside the emergency power controls.
“Stop.”
She held a lighter near a stack of old paper files.
“You burn those and you burn your defense.”
“I’m already finished.”
Her hand shook.
“But I won’t let Rachel win.”
“She’s dead.”
“No.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled with rage.
“She’s in every room.”
“In those children.”
“In every account.”
“In every person who looks at me like I’m second.”
I stepped closer.
“You killed her because she found the theft.”
“I killed her because she was going to take Henry’s money and leave us with nothing.”
“Us?”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Henry was my father.”
The truth landed hard.
Henry had hidden a daughter for decades.
Then used her to steal from our family.
“You married me to control the trust.”
“I married you because you were weak enough to need me.”
Lily flinched.
I felt shame burn through me.
Vanessa saw it.
“That’s right.”
“You failed them.”
Lily stepped beside me.
“No.”
Vanessa looked at her.
Lily’s voice did not shake.
“He came back.”
Those three words broke something in me.
Vanessa lit the paper.
Daniel rushed in with a fire extinguisher.
The flame died beneath white foam.
Robert seized the document case.
Police pounded at the locked stairwell door.
Vanessa backed toward the broken window.
Forty-two floors below, the city glittered.
May you like
“You’re not taking me alive.”
Then the glass beneath her heel cracked.
