Chapter 13 - Midnight
Victor wanted to call federal agents.
Michael said no.
Adrian wanted to go himself.
I said no.
Cassandra wanted to trade the archive.
Everyone said no.
For ten minutes, we were a room full of angry people rejecting one another.
Then my mother said, “Stop.”
We all did.
She stood in the kitchen wearing a borrowed cardigan, her hair still messy from the closet.
“You’re all trying to win.”
Victor frowned.
“This is not a game.”
“That’s exactly my point.”
She looked at Michael.
“My son spent eleven years being moved around like evidence.”
Then at me.
“My daughter has spent one day being treated like property.”
Then at Adrian.
“And you look like you’re about to sacrifice yourself because rich men taught you that’s what leadership looks like.”
Adrian actually lowered his eyes.
My mother turned to Victor.
“Call the police.”
Michael shook his head.
“Charles has judges.”
“Then call federal agents.”
“He has federal contacts.”
“Then call everybody.”
Silence.
She spread her hands.
“Make it too big to bury.”
That was the first plan that made sense.
Copies of Michael’s archive went to sealed servers in four jurisdictions.
An abandoned printing warehouse in Queens.
And because Charles needed to believe he could still control the board.
Michael carried a decoy drive.
So did I.
“I noticed.”
“It already did.”
I touched his tie.
That shut him up.
Charles stood under a hanging industrial light.
The kidnapped investigator sat behind him.
Alive.
Charles looked at Cassandra.
She stepped forward.
He smiled.
“You manufactured them.”
Michael appeared from behind Adrian.
For the first time, fear.
Charles recovered quickly.
Michael held up the drive.
Charles nodded toward the investigator.
The investigator stumbled forward.
“You have no idea what you are carrying.”
“My son.”
His eyes moved to Adrian.
Adrian said, “You will never touch him.”
“I already have.”
He pulled out his phone.
My prenatal records.
My baby’s.
He shook his head.
Adrian went still.
Charles looked at Victor.
Victor’s face turned gray.
“Fine.”
“You were not conceived at a clinic by accident.”
“You were conceived from the same donor line as him.”
Nobody moved.
Charles said, “Adrian and Emily are not strangers.”
May you like
My heart stopped.
“They’re family.”
