Chapter 7 - THE FATHER WHO CAME BACK
I couldn't move.
The man on the screen stared at me.
He had my eyes.
Not Dad's.
Mine.
“I know this is difficult,” he said.
My voice barely worked.
“Who are you?”
“Daniel Whitmore.”
My biological father.
The man everyone said had died before I could remember him.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere Vivian can't reach.”
I looked at the basement door.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you come for me?”
His face changed.
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Your mother stopped me.”
I felt anger rise.
“She knew?”
“She knew I was alive.”
“Then why?”
“Because Vivian had people watching us.”
He paused.
“Every time I got close, someone disappeared.”
I looked at Dad.
“Is this true?”
Dad nodded.
“Your mother believed keeping you with me was safer.”
I didn't know whether to cry or scream.
Daniel continued.
“I stayed away because I thought it would keep you alive.”
“But Mom died anyway.”
Silence.
His expression hardened.
“Vivian killed her.”
I turned toward the basement door.
Vivian was listening.
“Why?”
“Your mother found the original account.”
“The thirty-eight million.”
“Yes.”
“She knew.”
“She knew everything.”
“Then why didn't she expose Vivian?”
“Because she discovered something worse.”
“What?”
Daniel looked directly at me.
“Vivian wasn't stealing the money for herself.”
I felt a chill.
“Then who?”
Daniel hesitated.
“The people who controlled her.”
Thomas stepped back.
“That's impossible.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You know it's true.”
Thomas went pale.
“What do you mean?”
“Project Lantern wasn't simply medical research.”
I frowned.
“What was it?”
“Money laundering.”
I stared.
“Through the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To hide payments.”
“To whom?”
Daniel looked toward the camera.
“Politicians. Judges. Regulators. Anyone who could make problems disappear.”
My stomach turned.
“Then my mother's death wasn't just about the hotel.”
“No.”
Daniel's voice became quiet.
“She found the ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The one your grandfather kept.”
The room went silent.
“Where is it?”
Daniel smiled sadly.
“You're standing beside it.”
I looked around.
“Which box?”
“Not a box.”
He continued.
“Your mother hid it inside the clock.”
I looked toward the antique clock above the basement stairs.
“The clock in the ballroom?”
“Yes.”
I understood.
The clock wasn't decoration.
It was a vault.
Marcus immediately called someone.
Then the basement door unlocked.
Vivian entered.
She looked strangely calm.
“Enough.”
I turned toward her.
“You killed Mom.”
Vivian didn't deny it.
“She was going to destroy everything.”
“You poisoned her.”
“She was dying anyway.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“She was recovering.”
Vivian's expression hardened.
“She knew too much.”
“And you stole thirty-eight million.”
“I protected the family.”
“By stealing?”
“By surviving.”
She looked at Daniel's face on the monitor.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Daniel smiled.
“You should have told the truth twenty years ago.”
Vivian suddenly pulled a gun.
Marcus shouted.
“Vivian!”
She pointed it toward the monitor.
“You ruined everything.”
Then she looked at me.
“But I can still fix this.”
“How?”
“You sign the hotel back to me.”
I laughed.
“You think I'll do that?”
“I know you will.”
She raised the gun.
“Because I know what happens if you don't.”
She pressed a button.
The monitor changed.
A live video appeared.
Emily.
My younger half-sister.
She was sitting in a car.
My heart stopped.
“Where is she?”
Vivian smiled.
“Safe.”
“If you hurt her—”
“I won't.”
She lowered the gun.
“Not if you cooperate.”
I looked at Dad.
He was crying.
“Lena, don't.”
Vivian turned toward him.
“You have always been weak.”
Then something crashed above us.
Security alarms erupted.
The hotel's emergency lights flashed.
Vivian looked toward the ceiling.
“What was that?”
Thomas smiled.
“Your mistake.”
Vivian pointed the gun at him.
He continued.
“The police have been listening.”
She froze.
Marcus had secretly activated his recorder.
Every confession.
Every threat.
Everything.
Was recorded.
Vivian's face collapsed.
But then she smiled.
“You still don't understand.”
She looked at me.
“The hotel isn't the real asset.”
“What is?”
May you like
She whispered:
“You are.”
