Chapter 10 - Alexander’s Archive Changes Everything
The vault door stood open.
Catherine sat in a chair beside it.
Alive.
Julian stood behind her.
He looked older than the videos.
Thinner.
Sharper.
But Grace recognized something immediately.
His eyes.
Her eyes.
She hated that.
“Let her go,” Dominic said.
Julian smiled.
“She came willingly.”
Catherine looked at Dominic.
“He’s right.”
Dominic frowned.
His mother stood.
“I needed him to open his side.”
Grace stared.
“You were working with him?”
Catherine shook her head.
“I was finishing what Alexander failed to finish.”
Julian’s smile vanished.
Catherine stepped away from him.
Federal agents waited outside the building, but Dominic had entered first because Julian threatened to erase the archive remotely.
Now Dominic understood the bluff.
Julian could not open it alone.
Inside the vault, an old terminal displayed two incomplete verification fields.
ASHFORD DESCENDANT.
VALE AUTHORITY.
Grace was one.
Dominic was the other.
Julian spread his hands.
“Your parents built a prison around information that belongs to me.”
Grace laughed.
“It’s evidence of your crimes.”
“Some.”
Julian looked at Dominic.
“And his father’s.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Open it.”
Julian blinked.
Grace looked at Dominic.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“If your father—”
“I said open it.”
For the first time, Dominic understood that protecting Alexander’s reputation would only continue Alexander’s mistake.
Grace placed her hand on the biometric reader.
Dominic entered his authorization.
The archive opened.
Thousands of files appeared.
Transactions.
Audio recordings.
Contracts.
Photographs.
Payments.
Julian moved toward the terminal.
Catherine blocked him.
“Wait.”
Dominic opened the oldest ledger.
Alexander Vale had received money from Julian.
Millions.
Grace looked at Dominic.
Julian smiled.
“Told you.”
Dominic kept reading.
Then he saw where the money went.
Not to Alexander.
To accounts under Anna Bell’s protected identity.
Housing.
Medical insurance.
Education.
Legal defense.
Twenty-three years of expenses.
Grace stared.
“My mother…”
Catherine nodded.
“Alexander used Julian’s own stolen money to fund your protection.”
Julian’s face twisted.
“He stole from me.”
Grace looked at him.
“You stole it first.”
Julian lunged toward the computer.
Dominic blocked him.
The two men collided against the desk.
Catherine shouted.
Grace grabbed the archive drive.
Julian stopped fighting.
He looked at her.
“Give me that.”
“No.”
“I’m your father.”
Grace’s expression did not change.
“That is biology.”
The sentence struck him harder than Dominic’s shoulder had.
Grace stepped backward.
“Being my father would have required showing up without trying to own me.”
Julian stared at her.
For a second, Dominic saw something human.
Regret.
Then it disappeared.
Julian reached inside his coat.
Dominic moved.
So did Catherine.
But Julian did not pull a weapon.
He pulled a small remote.
Aaron’s voice exploded through Dominic’s earpiece.
“Don’t let him press it.”
Julian smiled.
“Alexander always liked backups.”
His thumb moved.
Grace threw the archive drive toward Dominic.
May you like
The lights went out.
And somewhere beneath the floor, machinery began to roar.
