Chapter 9
The police said absolutely not.
Dad agreed with them.
Angela agreed.
Claire agreed.
Daniel, after finally being released from questioning, agreed more aggressively than anyone.
Marcus laughed when he heard.
“They won’t destroy it.”
We sat in a private room at the police station.
Marcus wore handcuffs.
A detective stood outside.
I looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because the ledger is leverage.”
“Against who?”
“Everyone.”
Marcus leaned back.
“The people who attacked you aren’t trying to destroy the ledger. They’re trying to own it.”
Dad stood near the window.
“And they want you.”
Marcus smiled.
“Apparently I remain popular.”
Daniel glared at him.
“They want you because you can authenticate it.”
Marcus’s smile vanished.
“Yes.”
Angela sat beside me.
“Who are these people?”
Marcus looked at her.
“You really want names?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
She stood.
“I am tired of men deciding what I can handle.”
I almost smiled.
Apparently we were more alike than either of us wanted to admit.
Marcus studied her.
Then nodded.
“The group I worked for was called Meridian.”
Daniel scoffed.
“It wasn’t a group.”
“It became one.”
Dad looked at Daniel.
“You know them?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“I knew the original network.”
Marcus continued.
“People needed money moved without questions. We moved it.”
“Drug money?” I asked.
“Sometimes.”
“Weapons?”
He didn’t answer.
“That means yes.”
“Yes.”
“Human trafficking?”
Marcus looked away.
My stomach turned.
Dad whispered, “You son of a—”
“I didn’t know at first.”
“And later?”
Marcus stared at him.
“Later I knew enough to run.”
The room went silent.
Marcus looked at me.
“The ledger is why I survived.”
“You mean Mom is why you survived.”
Pain flashed across his face.
“Yes.”
I almost respected the honesty.
Almost.
The plan was simple.
Which meant it would probably go wrong.
Police would secure the flagship store.
Marcus would come with me.
We would appear alone.
Dad and Angela would remain in a command vehicle.
Daniel stayed with them.
I argued about that.
Nobody listened.
At 11:52 p.m., Marcus and I walked into Harrison Jewelers’ flagship location.
The store looked nothing like the place where my day had started.
Three floors.
Marble.
Crystal lights.
Private vault rooms.
The kind of place where celebrities shopped after closing.
Tonight, it was empty.
The doors locked behind us automatically.
A voice came through the speakers.
“Phones.”
Marcus looked around.
I removed mine.
“On the floor.”
We dropped them.
“Kick them away.”
We did.
“Walk upstairs.”
We climbed.
At the second floor, lights came on one row at a time.
A woman stood at the far end.
Maybe fifty.
Black suit.
Gray hair pulled back tightly.
In her hand was my mother’s wedding ring.
Marcus stopped.
“Evelyn.”
She smiled.
“Hello, Marcus.”
I looked at him.
“You know her.”
He whispered, “Evelyn Shaw.”
Daniel had mentioned that name once when I was young.
A donor at some charity dinner.
I couldn’t remember more.
Evelyn looked at me.
“You look like him.”
“I’ve been hearing that a lot.”
She smiled.
“Margaret hated that.”
Marcus flinched.
“Leave her out of this.”
Evelyn laughed.
“She’s the only reason we’re here.”
I stepped forward.
“You opened her grave.”
“No.”
Evelyn’s expression changed.
“I paid someone.”
“That’s supposed to make it better?”
“No.”
She held up the ring.
“But I needed this.”
“Give it to me.”
“Password first.”
I stared at her.
“You don’t have access to the chip?”
“Not without damaging it.”
Marcus said, “You’ll kill us after.”
Evelyn smiled.
“You always were pessimistic.”
“You shot at my son.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“Your son?”
Marcus looked at me.
“Yes.”
Something about the way he said it bothered me.
Not because it was false.
Because he sounded like he believed biology had earned him the word.
Evelyn gestured toward a terminal.
“Ethan.”
A laptop waited on a glass counter.
A tiny adapter was connected.
Inside it was something smaller than my fingernail.
The chip.
“Type the password.”
I walked toward it.
Marcus whispered, “Don’t.”
Evelyn lifted a gun.
“Type.”
I put my hands on the keyboard.
NOTWHILEYOUREAFRAID.
Invalid.
My heart sank.
Evelyn’s expression hardened.
“Again.”
I thought.
Maybe spaces.
Not while you’re afraid.
Invalid.
Marcus closed his eyes.
Evelyn aimed at him.
“One more failure.”
I looked at Dad’s story differently.
Mom said first promise.
Maybe Dad’s exact words weren’t what I remembered.
Maybe Mom had told me the shortened version.
I closed my eyes.
I remembered being small.
Thunder outside.
Dad sitting on the carpet.
Me asking:
Are you going away?
His answer.
I’m right here.
Three words.
I typed:
IMRIGHTHERE
The screen changed.
ACCESS GRANTED.
Evelyn exhaled.
Marcus whispered, “Margaret.”
Folders appeared.
Hundreds.
Financial records.
Scans.
Videos.
Audio files.
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Move.”
I didn’t.
“Move.”
Marcus suddenly shouted, “Now!”
The lights went out.
Total darkness.
Gunfire exploded.
I dropped behind the counter.
Somebody grabbed me.
I swung.
“Ethan!”
Dad.
“What are you doing here?”
“Saving you.”
“Police?”
“Compromised.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“Someone leaked the operation.”
Emergency lights came on.
Chaos.
Evelyn was gone.
Marcus was on the floor bleeding from the shoulder.
Dad grabbed the laptop.
“The chip?”
I pulled it free.
“Here.”
A man appeared at the staircase.
Gun raised.
Dad shoved me down.
A shot fired.
Dad jerked.
“Dad!”
He fell against the counter.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“No!”
I pressed my hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
Dad grimaced.
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been shot!”
“Technically grazed.”
I looked.
The bullet had torn through his upper arm.
Not chest.
I almost cried from relief.
Marcus crawled toward us.
“We need to move.”
I looked at him.
“You’re shot too.”
“Mine’s worse.”
Even then, he sounded competitive.
Dad almost laughed.
Then we heard Angela scream downstairs.
I ran.
“Angela!”
Dad shouted after me.
I took the stairs two at a time.
On the first floor, Angela stood near the entrance.
A man held her from behind.
Gun against her neck.
Daniel stood ten feet away with his weapon lowered.
I stopped.
“Let her go.”
The man smiled.
“Chip.”
Angela whispered, “Don’t.”
I held it up.
“Let her go.”
“Slide it.”
I looked at Daniel.
His eyes met mine.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The man said, “Now.”
Daniel suddenly turned his gun.
Not toward the man.
Toward me.
Angela stared.
“Daniel?”
My blood froze.
Daniel’s face looked empty.
“I’m sorry, Ethan.”
I whispered, “No.”
He raised the gun.
“Give him the chip.”
Everything inside me broke.
Not Daniel.
Not the man who taught me to drive.
Not the man who stood beside Mom’s hospital bed.
Not the man who promised to protect me.
Dad appeared at the staircase.
He saw Daniel.
His face collapsed.
“Danny.”
Daniel looked at him.
“I tried.”
Dad whispered, “How long?”
“From the beginning.”
Marcus came behind him, holding his shoulder.
He laughed bitterly.
“I told you.”
Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.
“Shut up.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“You were Meridian before I was.”
Angela stared at Daniel.
“You killed Paul.”
Daniel didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
Dad looked destroyed.
“Why?”
Daniel’s voice cracked.
“Because Margaret took the ledger.”
“For them?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“For me.”
I stared.
“What?”
Daniel looked at Mom’s wedding ring still lying on the upstairs floor behind us.
“She had proof of everything I did.”
His gun shook.
“She was going to turn it over after she died.”
Dad whispered, “You knew she was sick.”
“I begged her.”
“You threatened her.”
“I never touched her.”
“You let other people terrorize my family!”
Daniel shouted, “I protected your family for thirty years!”
“No.”
Dad’s voice became cold.
“You protected yourself.”
Daniel flinched.
Dad continued.
“Every Christmas. Every birthday. Every hospital visit.”
His eyes filled.
“You sat at my table.”
“I loved all of you.”
“You don’t know what that word means.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
Then sirens sounded outside.
Real ones.
Many.
The man holding Angela panicked.
His grip shifted.
Angela slammed her heel onto his foot.
He cursed.
She ducked.
Daniel fired.
The bullet hit the man in the chest.
He dropped.
Angela crawled away.
For one second, Daniel looked shocked by what he had done.
Then he turned the gun toward me again.
Marcus moved first.
He tackled Daniel.
The gun fired.
Glass exploded.
They crashed into a display case.
Dad grabbed Angela.
I ran toward them.
Daniel punched Marcus’s wounded shoulder.
Marcus screamed.
Daniel reached for the gun.
I kicked it away.
Police flooded through the entrance.
“Hands!”
“Down!”
Daniel froze.
Marcus rolled onto his back.
Blood covered his shirt.
Daniel looked at me one final time.
“I’m sorry.”
I stared at him.
“No.”
He looked confused.
“You’re not sorry.”
Police pulled his hands behind him.
I continued.
May you like
“You’re just caught.”
For the first time all night, Daniel had nothing to say.
