Chapter 14 - THE MAN WHO DIED
The footsteps stopped.
Then the basement light switched on.
A man stood at the top of the stairs.
Older.
Gray-haired.
But unmistakable.
My father.
I couldn't breathe.
“You're dead.”
He smiled sadly.
“That's what your mother wanted them to believe.”
Nathan raised his weapon.
My father looked at him.
“Put it down, Nathan.”
“You knew about me?”
“Of course.”
He descended the stairs.
I backed away.
“You sold me.”
His face collapsed.
“No.”
“The letter says you did.”
“She was protecting you.”
“From you?”
“From Victor.”
I shook my head.
“You expect me to believe any of this?”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“I expect you to hate me.”
Then he handed Nathan a small drive.
“Everything is there.”
Nathan plugged it into a laptop.
Thousands of files appeared.
Bank transfers.
Names.
Photographs.
And one recurring organization:
THE ORCHID CIRCLE.
I stared.
“What is it?”
My father answered.
“The organization that has controlled your family for generations.”
“Why?”
“Power.”
“And my mother?”
“She joined them to destroy them.”
I looked at him.
“Where is she?”
He hesitated.
Then:
“Alive.”
“Where?”
“Prison.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“Your mother has been imprisoned for nineteen years.”
“By whom?”
My father looked toward the ceiling.
“The man who owns half the judges in this country.”
Victor Vale.
Suddenly the lights went out.
Gunfire erupted upstairs.
Nathan shoved me behind the concrete wall.
My father pulled a weapon.
Three shots.
Then silence.
I whispered:
“Where's my father?”
No answer.
I looked around.
May you like
He was gone.
Only blood remained on the stairs.
