Chapter 9 - THE FIREI kicked the door until my knee gave out.
Smoke filled the apartment.
“Sophie!”
“Daddy!”
Her scream came from inside.
I hit the door again.
The frame cracked.
Victoria appeared behind me.
“Move.”
Together we slammed into it.
The lock tore free.
Smoke rolled out.
Sophie crouched beside her bed with a blanket over her head.
I crossed the room.
Picked her up.
Then the ceiling cracked.
Victoria shouted.
We ran.
The hallway was already an inferno.
No way to the front door.
Marcus yelled from the stairwell.
“Window!”
We went back into Sophie’s room.
Fire escape.
I shoved the window open.
Cold air hit us.
Sophie coughed against my chest.
Victoria climbed out first.
Then I passed Sophie to her.
The fire escape shook.
Below us, people screamed on the sidewalk.
Fire engines were arriving.
We descended.
One floor.
Two.
Then an explosion blew out my apartment windows.
The metal stairs buckled.
I fell.
My hand caught the railing.
Sophie screamed.
Victoria grabbed my wrist.
She was still recovering from surgery.
Yet she held on.
“Don’t let go!”
“I’m trying!”
Marcus reached us from below.
Together they pulled me onto the platform.
We reached the street as firefighters entered the building.
Sophie clung to me.
Her face covered in soot.
She was alive.
That was all that mattered.
Then I looked at Victoria.
Blood soaked through her shirt near the surgical incision.
“You tore something.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“I have experience.”
I almost laughed.
Ambulances treated us.
Victoria finally agreed to be taken for stitches.
Sophie sat beside me wrapped in a blanket.
“Was that man trying to hurt us?”
I stopped.
I had spent days protecting her from details.
Now that felt dishonest.
“Yes.”
She looked at me.
“Because of Mommy?”
I nodded.
Her lip trembled.
“Did he hurt Mommy too?”
I couldn’t lie anymore.
“Yes.”
She leaned into me.
“Then I hate him.”
I held her.
“You can be angry.”
“I want him dead.”
My heart broke.
“No.”
She looked up.
“Why?”
“Because if he turns us into people who want that, he still takes something from us.”
I don’t know if she understood.
Maybe I was telling myself.
The fire department found accelerant outside Sophie’s room.
Arson.
A neighbor’s camera captured a man entering disguised as a building maintenance worker.
His face matched one of Grayson’s private contractors.
Federal agents arrested him six hours later.
He gave up a location.
Grayson was hiding in a Manhattan penthouse owned through a shell corporation.
Ortiz prepared the arrest.
I wanted to go.
She refused.
“This is not a movie, Mr. Carter.”
“He killed my wife.”
“And nearly killed your daughter.”
“Exactly.”
“Which is why you are staying here.”
For once, I listened.
Grayson was arrested at 2:06 a.m.
No shootout.
No dramatic escape.
Agents walked him out in handcuffs while cameras flashed.
I watched from Victoria’s hospital room.
She stood beside me.
“Well.”
“That’s it?”
“No.”
I knew.
Men like Grayson built systems that survived them.
The permanent board vote remained.
So did the stolen money.
So did Richard.
Agent Ortiz had discovered several payments to him after Rachel died.
He insisted they were blackmail.
But one payment occurred the day before Victoria collapsed.
Two hundred fifty thousand dollars.
Richard disappeared before agents questioned him.
Victoria took it hard.
“He was my closest friend.”
“Was he?”
She looked at me.
“That was cruel.”
“Sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“No.”
She smiled faintly.
Three days later I attended Rachel’s grave.
Sophie stayed with Diane.
I brought nothing.
No flowers.
Just the journal.
I sat in the grass.
“I know.”
Wind moved through the trees.
“I finally know.”
My voice broke.
“You should’ve told me.”
I laughed through tears.
“God, I’m mad at you.”
That was the first time I admitted it.
“I’m mad you tried to carry everything alone.”
I touched the headstone.
“But I understand.”
A car stopped nearby.
Victoria approached slowly.
She stayed several feet away.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
She looked at Rachel’s name.
“I owe her everything.”
“So do I.”
“She saved my life before I ever met you.”
I stared at her.
Victoria explained.
Rachel had uncovered a pending Meridian authorization connected to Victoria.
Another witness termination code.
She warned Victoria.
The meeting Victoria was supposed to attend was canceled.
The car scheduled to take her there exploded on the highway without her.
Rachel had saved her.
Then died weeks later.
Victoria knelt beside the grave.
“I’m sorry I failed her.”
“You didn’t kill her.”
“I didn’t stop them.”
“Neither did I.”
She looked at me.
“You didn’t know.”
“And you didn’t know enough.”
We stood in silence.
Then she said, “I’m resigning.”
“What?”
“After the vote.”
“Why?”
“Whitmore Global was built partly on Meridian money.”
“You’re cleaning it.”
“I’m dismantling pieces.”
“Then finish.”
She shook her head.
“I don’t know if I want this life anymore.”
I thought about Sophie’s bracelet on her wrist.
“What do you want?”
Victoria laughed softly.
“I have no idea.”
That might have been the most honest thing she ever said.
The board vote was two days away.
Without Richard, one director remained undecided.
If Meridian influenced him, we could lose.
Then my phone buzzed.
Message from Richard.
I’M SORRY.
A location followed.
Grand Central Terminal.
Locker 418.
Marcus and I went.
Inside was a laptop.
Evidence.
Richard had copied Meridian communications for years.
There was also a video.
He appeared on-screen.
“If you’re watching this, I’m probably dead.”
Victoria covered her mouth.
Richard confessed.
Yes, he had worked for Malcolm.
Yes, he had accepted money.
But three years earlier he tried to leave.
Rachel discovered his involvement and threatened to expose him.
Instead of silencing her, he gave her information.
That was why she wrote not to trust him.
She didn’t know whether his betrayal was real or staged.
Then Richard revealed the truth about Victoria’s collapse.
He had not poisoned her.
But he had unknowingly delivered the bottle of supplements containing the anticoagulant.
Malcolm’s assistant switched them.
Richard realized after she collapsed.
He panicked.
The final video segment showed Richard inside a hotel room.
Someone knocked.
His face changed.
“If I don’t make it…”
Gunshots.
The video ended.
Agent Ortiz traced the hotel.
Richard was found alive.
Barely.
Two bullets.
Emergency surgery.
Before losing consciousness, he gave agents one name.
The final Meridian director still inside Whitmore Global.
Thomas Bell.
May you like
The undecided vote.
The man who would decide who controlled the company.
