Chapter 9 - THE SECOND FIRE
The warning came at 2:13 A.M.
My apartment’s smoke alarm activated remotely.
I was not there.
After discovering the insurance policy, Naomi insisted I stay in a secure hotel suite under my own name, with professional security coordinated through law enforcement.
Thirty seconds after the alarm activated, cameras showed a man entering my apartment.
Preston’s face.
But Preston was in a monitored legal interview across town.
Parker.
He carried a gasoline container.
I watched the footage from a secure command room.
My body remembered before my mind did.
The smell.
The heat.
My scars began aching, though doctors had told me phantom pain could happen under stress.
Gideon stood beside me.
“You don’t have to watch.”
“Yes, I do.”
Parker poured fuel across my living room.
My wedding photographs.
My sofa.
The hallway.
Then he stopped in front of the bedroom mirror.
Looked directly into the hidden security camera.
And smiled.
He knew.
“He knows we’re watching,” I whispered.
Parker held up a card.
On it:
COME GET YOUR MOTHER.
Everything inside me went cold.
I called her care center.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
My mother had been recovering from kidney complications at a private rehabilitation facility in Connecticut.
I had spoken to her that morning.
“She’s seventy-two,” I whispered.
Gideon was already moving.
Law enforcement confirmed it within minutes.
My mother had been removed from the facility using forged medical-transfer papers.
Signed by me.
Parker had taken her.
Then my apartment burst into flames.
He wanted me terrified.
He succeeded.
But terror was not obedience.
That was the difference between me now and me five years earlier.
Parker sent an address.
An abandoned Barrett Development property in Brooklyn.
The same company warehouse where the stolen Ashford technology had originally been tested.
He wanted the encryption chip.
Investigators had already copied everything from it.
The physical device no longer mattered.
Parker apparently did not know that.
Naomi said, “You are not going inside.”
“I know.”
Gideon looked surprised.
I almost smiled.
“I’ve learned.”
Federal agents prepared the exchange.
I remained inside an armored vehicle nearby while a negotiator carried a duplicate chip.
Then Parker called my phone.
“Vivian.”
His voice sounded exactly like Preston’s.
That disturbed me more than I expected.
“Where is my mother?”
“Safe.”
“Let me hear her.”
A pause.
Then Mom’s voice.
“Viv?”
I closed my eyes.
“I’m here.”
“I’m okay.”
Parker took the phone back.
“Bring the real chip.”
“You don’t need it.”
Silence.
“You copied it?”
“Yes.”
His voice changed.
For the first time, calm disappeared.
“You stupid—”
I disconnected.
Thirty seconds later, agents moved.
Gunfire erupted inside the warehouse.
Then alarms.
Smoke.
My entire body froze.
Not again.
Gideon crouched beside me.
“Vivian. Look at me.”
I did.
“You are not inside that building.”
I breathed.
Again.
Again.
Agents emerged carrying my mother.
Alive.
Then another man came out in handcuffs.
Parker.
His face identical to Preston’s.
His expression nothing like it.
As officers pushed him toward the vehicle, he saw me.
He smiled.
“You still don’t understand.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
Parker laughed.
“The fire wasn’t my idea.”
I stopped breathing.
He looked past me toward Gideon.
May you like
Then said:
“Ask your billionaire boss why Ashford wanted that building destroyed five years ago.”
