Chapter 7 - FORTY MILLION DOLLARS
They locked themselves in Ethan’s office.
Vanessa opened a hidden wall panel.
“You knew that was there?”
“I installed it.”
Inside was a manual override for the security shutters.
Vanessa flipped three switches.
“Graham blocked remote release.”
Claire held up the drive.
“This has everything.”
“Everything what?” Ethan asked.
“Transfers. shell companies. signed approvals.”
“With my name?”
“Yes.”
“Forged?”
“Some.”
“Some?”
Ethan felt something dark open in his chest.
“What did I sign?”
“Land acquisition packages.”
“So?”
“Pages were swapped after you signed.”
He remembered Graham bringing stacks of documents to his office.
“They used your signature authority to move money through fake environmental consulting firms.”
“Where did the money go?”
“Political donations. private accounts. offshore trusts.”
“You know a lot.”
“I moved some of it.”
Sophie whispered, “Dad?”
She was listening to every terrible word.
“Baby, I need you to stay with your mom.”
“Are you mad at me?”
The question destroyed him.
“No.”
“For not telling you?”
“No.”
“For letting Mommy come?”
He pulled her into his arms.
“None of this is your fault.”
He felt Vanessa look away.
The sound came from inside the desk.
Ethan opened the drawer.
“I didn’t put that there.”
Vanessa whispered, “Graham did.”
“You have ten minutes.”
“To do what?”
“Give me the drive.”
“Or?”
“You know the gas line under the west wing?”
Ethan looked at Vanessa.
“He wouldn’t.”
Graham laughed through the phone.
“She still believes in limits.”
Vanessa rushed to the panel.
“Gas shutoff is outside.”
“Can we reach it?”
“Not with shutters down.”
Claire said, “There’s a crawlspace.”
“How do you know?”
“I used it to get to Sophie.”
The sentence hit him again.
His dead wife had been crawling through his walls to see their daughter.
While he slept downstairs beside the woman who helped imprison her.
Vanessa opened a narrow service hatch behind a bookshelf.
“Go.”
“You first.”
“Graham will expect you.”
“That’s why you go.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You trust me that much?”
“No.”
“But I trust that you don’t want Sophie dead.”
Then crawled into the dark.
Seconds later, a scream came through the wall.
Ethan grabbed the opening.
“Vanessa?”
May you like
Then Graham’s voice came through the vent.
“I found her.”
