Chapter 10 - Harbor House BurnsWe reached Connecticut after sunrise.
Nobody needed to explain why Victor called him that.
Adrien watched the video once.
Then again.
His face revealed nothing.
“Where was he taken?”
“Outside his apartment,” Luca said. “Twenty minutes ago.”
“How did Victor get into the Crown?”
“Service tunnels your father built.”
Adrien swore.
My mother looked at me.
“Final ledger.”
“What?”
“The archive Victor wants is incomplete.”
Everyone turned.
Isabelle walked toward the fireplace at Harbor House.
She removed one brick.
Behind it was a narrow metal box.
Inside lay an ordinary composition notebook.
Black-and-white cover.
Like something a teenager might use for algebra.
“This destroys him,” she said.
Adrien opened it.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Murders.
Bank accounts.
Political favors.
Enough evidence to send powerful people to prison.
“Why wasn’t this with the rest?” I asked.
“Because Victor knew about Harbor House.”
“Then why hide it here?”
“He knew the house. Not you.”
My mother handed me a folded paper.
Another childhood puzzle.
I solved it in minutes.
The numbers in the notebook didn’t represent bank accounts.
They referenced locations.
A second archive.
Digital.
Distributed across servers.
The ledger was merely the key.
Destroying the notebook wouldn’t erase the evidence.
Victor didn’t know.
“We can give it to him,” I said.
Adrien immediately said, “No.”
“Why?”
“Because you are not going near him.”
“I didn’t say I was.”
“He asked for you.”
“He asked for the ledger.”
“Elena.”
I stared at him.
“Don’t become Marcus.”
The words hurt him.
I saw it.
But he nodded.
“You’re right.”
Silence.
Then he said, “What do you suggest?”
That was why he was different.
I explained.
We made a copy.
Not a fake.
A perfect physical duplicate with altered location keys.
Victor would believe he had the information.
Federal agents surrounded the Velvet Crown.
But Victor had hostages inside.
Dominic.
Two staff members.
A bartender.
A cleaning woman.
An elderly club member who had been unfortunate enough to arrive early.
We couldn’t simply storm it.
At 5:12 a.m., I walked through the front doors.
Adrien walked beside me.
Victor waited beneath the chandelier where I had first collapsed.
Life has a cruel sense of symmetry.
Victor smiled.
“You came.”
“Where’s Dominic?”
“Safe enough.”
Adrien’s gaze moved toward a balcony.
Dominic sat there tied to a chair.
Victor extended his hand.
“The ledger.”
I held it.
“Release them first.”
“You aren’t in a position to bargain.”
“Then shoot me.”
Adrien inhaled sharply.
Victor’s face changed.
I continued.
“You need me.”
“Elena.”
“You spent twenty-seven years looking for this book. Kill me and you’ll never know whether it’s real.”
Victor smiled again.
“Definitely my daughter.”
“No.”
His smile faded.
“I’m Isabelle Moreau’s daughter.”
I threw the book onto the marble between us.
Victor looked down.
“Untie Dominic.”
Victor signaled.
One of his men cut Dominic loose.
He stumbled toward Adrien.
Then Victor picked up the ledger.
He flipped through it.
For one second I believed we had won.
Then he laughed.
My stomach dropped.
“You think your mother never tried this before?”
He tore out a page.
“Wrong coordinates.”
My mother had underestimated him.
Victor lifted his gun.
Chaos exploded.
Adrien pulled me behind a pillar.
Federal agents breached the rear doors.
Gunfire thundered.
Guests screamed.
Victor’s men scattered.
I crawled behind the bar.
A hand seized my ankle.
Marcus.
He shouldn’t have been there.
He should have been locked up.
Later I would learn he had escaped during a hospital transfer with help from a corrupt officer named in the archive.
In that moment, all I knew was his face.
“You.”
He dragged me backward.
I kicked.
He slammed my head against the floor.
“You ruined my life!”
“No,” I gasped. “You did.”
Marcus grabbed my throat.
The club disappeared.
Rain.
Apartment.
His hands.
I had lived this before.
But I wasn’t the same woman.
My fingers found a broken champagne bottle.
I drove the blunt base into his injured hand.
Marcus screamed.
I twisted away.
He lunged.
I grabbed a serving tray and smashed it against his face.
He fell.
I ran.
Marcus caught my jacket.
I slipped out of it and kept moving.
For the second time in my life, I escaped him by leaving a piece of clothing in his hands.
But this time I did not run blindly.
I ran toward the police.
Marcus followed.
“Stop!” an agent shouted.
Marcus raised his gun.
Three agents fired.
Marcus fell.
Silence flooded my ears.
I turned away before I saw more.
Adrien found me seconds later.
He didn’t grab me.
Didn’t demand anything.
He simply stood in front of me.
“You okay?”
I nodded.
Then shook my head.
Then laughed and cried at once.
“No.”
He opened his arms.
I stepped into them.
Behind us, Victor was gone.
Again.
But this time the ledger wasn’t.
My mother stood beside the staircase holding the original.
Victor had taken the copy.
A second later every screen inside the Velvet Crown turned on.
Victor appeared.
“You want the truth, Elena?”
Behind him was a room full of explosives.
“I’m done hiding.”
My mother whispered, “No.”
Victor smiled into the camera.
“The final archive is beneath Harbor House.”
My blood froze.
Then the screen went black.
Adrien shouted for Dominic.
My mother ran toward us.
“He’s going to destroy it.”
“No,” I said.
May you like
Everyone looked at me.
“He’s going to destroy the house.”
