Chapter 9 - The Last Recording
Dominic ran toward the west wing with federal agents behind him.
Smoke spread through the hallway.
Nathan had set fire to Elena’s study.
He stood beside the open window holding the red book.
A gun rested in his other hand.
The flames climbed the curtains.
“You always arrive after the important decision,” Nathan said.
Dominic stopped near the doorway.
“Put down the gun.”
Nathan smiled.
“Seventeen years.”
“I gave you seventeen years.”
“You stole seventeen years.”
“I built Vale Industries into what it became.”
“You built a criminal network beneath it.”
“Semantics.”
Nathan held up the red book.
“Every person on your board has a chapter.”
“Every judge investigating me has one too.”
“If I fall, half the people protecting your company fall with me.”
“Then let them.”
Nathan’s smile faded.
“You would destroy your own empire?”
“It stopped being mine when fear became its foundation.”
“You sound like Elena.”
“She was right.”
Those three words hurt Nathan more than anger would have.
He had spent years convincing Dominic that Elena was emotional, confused, and reckless.
Now Dominic spoke with certainty.
“Elena saw you.”
“Mia saw you.”
“Harper remembered you.”
“You lost because every person you called invisible kept part of the truth.”
Nathan raised the gun.
Federal agents shifted.
Dominic lifted one hand.
“You came back for the servers.”
“I came back for the original recording.”
“What recording?”
Nathan glanced toward the desk.
The fire had not reached one drawer.
Dominic remembered Elena’s letter.
She said Arthur Bell had helped her.
Arthur possessed a recording proving Nathan was present during the sabotage.
Perhaps Elena had kept another copy.
Nathan fired at the desk.
The bullet shattered the lock.
Dominic moved.
He struck Nathan’s arm.
The gun discharged into the ceiling.
They crashed against the burning curtains.
Nathan drove his shoulder into Dominic’s ribs.
Dominic hit the floor.
The red book slid beneath the desk.
Nathan reached for the gun.
Before he could grab it, Lucas kicked it away.
Federal agents surrounded him.
Nathan pulled a small metal device from his pocket.
A dead-man switch.
“If I release this,” he said, “the server room burns.”
“Every file disappears.”
Serena kept her weapon raised.
“You will die too.”
Nathan looked toward Dominic.
“He knows I would accept that.”
Dominic’s eyes moved toward the device.
Then Harper’s voice came through the hallway.
“Wolf man.”
Nathan turned instinctively.
Mia stood behind the agents holding Harper.
The child lifted something in her hand.
A small digital recorder.
She had found it beneath the old writing desk after escaping the archive.
Nathan’s face changed.
“That belongs to me.”
“No,” Harper said.
“Lady’s voice.”
Elena’s voice.
Mia pressed play.
The recording began with the sound of a garage door.
Arthur Bell spoke first.
“The brake line is ready.”
Nathan answered.
“Claire will follow her.”
“Make sure the gate footage disappears.”
Arthur said:
“I am recording this.”
“You promised Elena would only be frightened.”
Nathan’s voice became colder.
“Elena will not survive the road.”
A struggle followed.
Then Arthur shouted.
“You are not touching that car.”
A gunshot sounded.
Arthur groaned.
Nathan ordered Victor Shaw to finish the sabotage.
The recording proved Nathan had been physically present.
It also proved Arthur tried to stop him.
Nathan stared at Harper.
For the first time, he looked afraid of the child.
His thumb loosened against the switch.
Lucas moved.
He struck Nathan’s wrist.
The device fell.
Serena kicked it across the room.
Agents forced Nathan to the floor.
The fire alarm began screaming.
Firefighters entered through the hall.
Dominic retrieved the red book from beneath the desk.
Nathan looked up from the floor.
“You still need me.”
“No.”
“Your board will collapse.”
“Your lenders will run.”
“Your company will bleed.”
Dominic held the red book.
“Then we rebuild without you.”
Nathan laughed bitterly.
“You have no idea how.”
Dominic looked toward Mia and Harper.
“I finally know how to listen.”
Nathan was led from the burning study in handcuffs.
The same hallway where he had controlled the Vale family for years now carried him toward a police vehicle.
May you like
He did not look powerful.
He looked like a frightened man whose secrets had finally become evidence.
