Chapter 7 - THE SECRET BENEATH MY SCAR
I had an MRI the next morning.
Gideon did not come into the imaging suite.
He waited outside.
That distinction mattered.
Preston would have barged in, demanded answers, then complained about the inconvenience.
Gideon simply asked:
“Do you want me here?”
I said yes.
The scan revealed a tiny foreign object beneath the thickest graft near my left shoulder blade.
The radiologist stared at it.
“This isn’t surgical hardware.”
My hands went cold.
“Can you remove it?”
“Yes. But we should involve law enforcement before altering potential evidence.”
I laughed weakly.
“Of course. Because apparently my back is a crime scene.”
Gideon’s jaw tightened.
“Vivian.”
“I’m allowed one bad joke.”
“You’re allowed fifty.”
Federal investigators were notified.
A minor procedure removed a capsule barely larger than a grain of rice.
Inside was an encrypted storage chip.
For five years, I had carried it inside my body.
My scars had hidden evidence.
I could not decide whether to scream or laugh.
The chip contained financial keys, transaction logs, and audio files.
Dr. Warren had recorded himself.
His voice filled a secure conference room.
If this device is recovered, Parker Barrett has probably found me.
I gripped the table.
Warren explained that Parker infiltrated Ashford’s biometric security program using Barrett Development’s building access.
He intended to steal authentication technology that could unlock offshore accounts and private asset vaults.
Warren discovered the theft.
Then the fire happened.
Warren was called to the hospital because I had suffered severe burns.
While operating, he realized I had unknowingly carried part of Parker’s stolen encryption package into the building.
“How?” I whispered.
The recording answered.
Before the fire, I had picked up Preston’s leather briefcase from his office.
I remembered.
I used it to shield my face while dragging him through flames.
Inside the briefcase was a small drive containing Parker’s stolen data.
The casing melted.
Warren recovered the internal chip during surgery.
He believed returning it to police would expose me to whoever started the fire.
So he hid it inside a temporary tissue pocket, intending to retrieve it later.
Then he disappeared.
The next audio file was recorded six weeks afterward.
Warren sounded frightened.
Parker knows Vivian survived. I believe Preston has made a deal with him.
My stomach dropped.
Preston had told me Parker threatened him.
Maybe true.
But a deal?
Warren continued.
Preston agreed to help his brother search for the missing key in exchange for Parker staying away from Vivian.
That explained everything.
The doctors.
The repeated pressure for cosmetic procedures.
Preston constantly telling me I needed more surgeries.
Had he been searching my body for the chip without telling me?
I felt physically sick.
Then came the final recording.
Preston does not know where I placed the key. But he knows Vivian has it.
I closed my eyes.
Five years of insults.
Five years of him staring at my scars with disgust.
Maybe it had never been disgust.
Maybe he had been looking for something.
Naomi stopped the recording.
“There’s more.”
The chip contained a recent file.
Recent.
Uploaded only three months earlier.
Impossible.
Unless the capsule had wireless capability.
Gideon’s technical team confirmed it.
Someone had remotely activated it.
Three months ago.
The transmission originated from a device inside Preston and my apartment.
The authorization username appeared on screen.
P.BARRETT.
Parker had been inside my home.
May you like
While I was there.
And I never knew which brother I was looking at.
