Chapter 18 - SIX MINUTES IN THE DARK
The emergency lights flickered red.
I heard Bianca running.
“Police!” I shouted.
The wire had gone dead when the power dropped.
I moved toward the side doors, but something crashed behind me. A table. Then footsteps on the service hallway tile.
I followed.
I know Ortiz told me not to play hero.
I also knew Bianca had the memory card and possibly a weapon.
The hallway opened into the catering kitchen.
A metal door slammed.
I pushed through and found Bianca at the loading dock trying to start an old maintenance cart.
“It’s over,” I said.
She spun around.
“You don’t get to tell me when it’s over.”
“Your brother talked.”
That hit her.
For the first time, real shock crossed her face.
“He wouldn’t.”
“He already did.”
“He needed me.”
“No. He used you.”
Bianca’s expression twisted.
I told her what was inside the East Ridge audit. That her father had stolen the money. That my father had covered part of it. That Adrian had known for years.
“No.”
“His signature is on the acknowledgment.”
“You’re lying.”
“Just like Adrian lied to you.”
She screamed then—not in grief, but rage—and lunged.
I grabbed her wrist before the syringe reached me. We hit the side of the cart. The syringe skittered across the concrete.
Bianca clawed at my face and tried to run.
Then the loading dock doors burst open.
Ortiz and two officers came in with weapons raised.
“Hands where we can see them!”
Bianca froze.
For a second, I thought she might surrender.
Instead, she looked at me and laughed.
“You still don’t understand why I chose you.”
Ortiz cuffed her.
As they led her away, Bianca turned her head.
“It wasn’t your money first,” she said. “It was your father’s name.”
Then she smiled.
“And Martha knew that before you did.”
I stood there in the red emergency light, breathing hard.
When I got home, Mom was waiting for me in Dad’s office.
On the desk was a second sealed envelope.
May you like
My name was written on it.
In my father’s handwriting.
