Chapter 6: What Julian Tried to Erase
Claire hurried after her brother, and I followed.
Julian pushed through the emergency exit into the parking garage.
“Julian!” I called.
“That tape belongs to me.”
He stopped beside a black sedan.
“It belonged to your father.
He signed away everything else.”
“You witnessed Malcolm threatening him.”
“I was twenty-one.”
“You were thirty-three when you started courting his daughter.”
Claire reached us.
“You knew who Elena was before their first date?”
Julian opened the car door.
“Father told me her investigation company was getting too close to our accounts.”
The words landed between us.
I stepped closer.
“You married me to control my investigation.”
“I married you because I believed we could help each other.”
“You lied about how we met.”
“I gave you access to a life you never would have had.”
Claire stared at him.
“She owned the companies keeping ours alive.”
“And now those contracts are frozen.”
Julian raised the cassette.
“Walk away, Elena.
Withdraw the evidence, transfer your companies to me, and I’ll make sure you leave the marriage with ten million dollars.”
“You think I can be purchased?”
“Everyone can.
Father purchased your father with fear.”
Claire held up her replacement phone.
“You just admitted the marriage was planned.”
Julian’s hand shot out, but she moved back.
“If that recording reaches the board, I will cut you out of every family trust.”
Claire gave a small, tired laugh.
“You cannot take away what I no longer want.”
He looked at me.
“And Nora?
Do you know where her daughter works?
One call from me could destroy her career.”
“Threatening her family will not save you.”
“It saved my father.”
Julian pulled a lighter from his pocket.
Before he could bring the flame to the cassette, Nora appeared behind him and struck the fire alarm box with her palm.
Sprinklers burst overhead.
Julian cursed as water ran down his face.
Claire grabbed the cassette, but he shoved her against the car.
I caught her before she fell.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.
Get the tape.”
Two bank security officers ran toward us.
Julian backed away, holding up both hands.
“She stole my property.”
Claire pressed the cassette against her coat.
“Check the cameras.”
The bank manager arrived with Thomas.
“We already did,” the manager said.
“They show you removing the cassette from a private room during an evacuation you triggered with an unauthorized device.”
Julian looked at Thomas.
“You have no proof I caused the alarm.”
Thomas raised his phone.
“My upload resumed when the system came back.
Ninety-two percent included the entire recorded threat.”
Julian’s confidence slipped.
“An incomplete file is useless.”
“Not when there are three witnesses and security footage.”
A police officer entered the garage with the bank’s security chief.
Julian looked toward his car, but the officer stood between him and the door.
Thomas spoke quietly to me.
“The officer can hold him for the theft of the cassette, but Malcolm’s lawyers will have him out quickly.”
“Then we use the time.”
“For what?”
I looked at Claire.
“Can you access the original company servers?”
She nodded.
“There is an archive room beneath the Vance headquarters.”
Nora wiped water from her face.
“Daniel hid the partnership ledger there.
I saw him place it behind the old payroll cabinets.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Malcolm will know where we’re going.”
“He already knows,” Claire said.
My phone lit up with a message from Victoria.
COME TO HEADQUARTERS ALONE, OR THE ARCHIVE WILL BE EMPTY WHEN YOU ARRIVE.
May you like
A second message followed with a photograph.
Malcolm was standing inside the archive room, feeding old documents into an industrial shredder.
