Chapter 9 - THE PRICE OF THE TRUTHThe woman on the screen looked almost exactly like Evelyn.
The same pale complexion.
The same dark hair.
The same blue-gray eyes.
But she was older.
A thin scar curved beneath her jaw.
Margaret whispered a name Evelyn had never heard.
“Claire.”
Evelyn’s computer responded.
WHO IS SHE?
Margaret gripped the arms of her wheelchair.
“Your sister.”
The boardroom fell silent.
Evelyn had been raised as an only child.
Margaret explained through tears.
Claire had been born two years before Evelyn. She suffered from a heart condition, and Edward believed she died during surgery as an infant.
But Claire survived.
Daniel Rowe’s father had arranged for her removal from the hospital, intending to use the child as leverage against Edward.
The plan failed when Daniel’s father was forced from the company.
Claire disappeared into private institutions funded through Northbridge.
David found her years later.
He gave her Evelyn’s photographs, her medical history, and a lifetime of carefully edited stories.
“He told her you stole the life she should have had,” Margaret said.
On the screen, Claire accessed the hidden compartment behind the curtains.
The destruction progress reached fifty-eight percent.
Samuel activated the bedroom speakers.
“Claire, David lied to you.”
The woman looked directly into the camera.
“He said you would say that.”
David laughed quietly.
Evelyn turned toward him.
“You stole everything,” Claire said through the feed. “My name. My family. My inheritance.”
Evelyn formed her answer.
I DID NOT KNOW YOU EXISTED.
“Convenient.”
“Claire,” Margaret said, moving toward the microphone. “I am your mother.”
Claire’s expression broke for one second.
Then hardened again.
“My mother abandoned me.”
“No. You were taken.”
“You chose her.”
“I thought you were dead.”
Claire looked away.
David pressed the elevator call button.
“You are wasting time.”
Jessica faced him.
“You used her too.”
“I gave her a purpose.”
“You gave all of us the same lie.”
The destruction reached seventy percent.
Helena studied the system map.
“The command requires Claire’s biometric confirmation every sixty seconds.”
“Then we keep her from confirming,” Samuel said.
“How?”
Evelyn moved her eyes across the screen.
A new command appeared.
SHOW HER THE ARCHIVE.
Samuel transmitted Edward’s hospital records, private letters, and payments made during the search for Claire.
The documents appeared in Evelyn’s bedroom.
Claire read them.
David shouted toward the camera.
“They are fabricated!”
Claire did not move.
A letter from Edward appeared.
TO MY FIRST DAUGHTER, WHEREVER YOU ARE.
It described years of searching and his refusal to declare her legally dead.
Claire’s hand dropped from the control panel.
The destruction froze at seventy-six percent.
David struck the boardroom table.
“Finish it!”
Claire looked at him through the camera.
“You said he never searched.”
“He did not.”
“The payments continued for twenty years.”
“He was protecting his reputation.”
Margaret spoke softly.
“He loved you.”
Claire began crying.
David pulled a small remote from inside his sleeve.
Helena saw it.
“Jessica!”
Jessica grabbed his arm.
They struggled.
The remote fell beneath the table.
David shoved Jessica away and ran toward it.
Evelyn’s chair blocked his path.
For the first time, husband and wife faced each other without a bed between them.
David stared down at her.
“You should have died quietly.”
Her computer answered.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LOVED SOMETHING.
Police officers seized him.
Claire canceled the destruction command from the bedroom.
The preserved records transmitted to federal investigators.
David was handcuffed.
Jessica looked at her mother.
“It is over.”
David heard her.
“No.”
He smiled as officers pulled him toward the door.
“You still think this was about Evelyn.”
Helena’s face tightened.
“What did you do?”
David looked at Jessica’s torn red gown.
“The champagne.”
Jessica remembered the glass she had lifted inside the penthouse.
She had barely touched it.
Or so she believed.
Her hand rose toward her throat.
Helena moved first.
“Jessica?”
Jessica tried to answer.
Her knees collapsed.
Helena caught her before her head struck the floor.
Jessica’s breathing became shallow.
David watched from the doorway.
“I never leave witnesses.”
Helena searched Jessica’s pulse.
“Call an ambulance!”
Samuel grabbed David.
“What did you give her?”
David said nothing.
Helena looked toward Evelyn.
The poison affecting Jessica was not the same compound used against Evelyn.
Its symptoms were faster.
More violent.
And unless they identified it within minutes, Jessica would die before the ambulance reached the ground floor.
David was the only person who knew the answer.
But he smiled, closed his eyes, and refused to speak.
Then Claire’s voice came through the boardroom speakers.
“I know what he used.”
Everyone looked toward the screen.
Claire held up a sealed black case.
“It is the same substance he made me give Edward Sterling twelve years ago.”
May you like
Evelyn stared at the woman who had just confessed to helping kill their father.
And Claire opened the case.
