Chapter 7 - THE BROTHER IN THE CHAIR
Sophie covered her mouth.
Vincent ran.
Marcus tried to stop him.
Too late.
Vincent burst through the steel doorway.
The room was enormous.
Larger than the dining room above.
Banks of old surveillance monitors covered one wall.
Metal filing cabinets stretched into darkness.
The Bellgrave archive.
At the center sat Gabriel.
Still tied to the chair.
Blood darkened one side of his shirt.
But he was alive.
Harold Pierce held a gun.
Victor stood beside a metal table.
Evelyn Hale stood near the surveillance controls.
Darren Cole was nowhere visible.
Hannah Carter sat tied to another chair twenty feet away.
“Sophie!”
Hannah cried.
Sophie started toward her.
Marcus caught her.
Harold swung the gun.
“Don’t.”
Everyone stopped.
Vincent stared at Gabriel.
Fourteen years.
He had imagined this moment thousands of times in dreams he never admitted having.
Gabriel dead.
Gabriel alive.
Gabriel angry.
Gabriel forgiving.
Nothing prepared Vincent for the reality.
His brother looked old.
Not elderly.
Damaged.
Time had carved itself into him.
Gabriel looked at Vincent.
A faint smile touched his mouth.
“You still wear terrible ties.”
Vincent almost laughed.
Instead, his eyes burned.
“You’re alive.”
“Apparently.”
Evelyn spoke sharply.
“Enough.”
Vincent turned toward her.
“You knew.”
Evelyn’s expression remained calm.
“For fourteen years?”
“Not all fourteen.”
“How long?”
“Long enough.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“She knew before the funeral.”
Vincent’s chest went hollow.
Evelyn did not deny it.
Victor said, “This emotional reunion is touching, but we have a problem.”
Vincent looked at him.
“You murdered Daniel.”
Victor smiled faintly.
“Daniel murdered himself the moment he stole from me.”
Sophie flinched.
Hannah screamed at him.
“You killed my husband!”
Victor looked at her.
“He refused three very generous opportunities to stop digging.”
Vincent moved.
Harold aimed the gun directly at Sophie.
“Don’t.”
Vincent froze.
Harold’s voice was almost apologetic.
“That child is the only reason you’re still breathing.”
Vincent looked at him.
“You handled my brother’s estate.”
“Yes.”
“You declared him dead.”
“I completed legal paperwork.”
“You knew he wasn’t dead.”
Harold’s jaw tightened.
“I knew later.”
Gabriel laughed weakly.
“He lies even when the truth would be easier.”
Harold ignored him.
Vincent looked at Gabriel.
“What happened?”
Gabriel’s eyes moved to Evelyn.
“Ask her.”
Evelyn said, “This is pointless.”
“No.”
Vincent’s voice cracked.
“It’s fourteen years overdue.”
For the first time, Evelyn lost patience.
“Fine.”
She turned toward Vincent.
“Gabriel discovered what your father had built beneath Bellgrave.”
“The archive?”
“Yes.”
“He decided morality mattered more than survival.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“You mean I objected to blackmail.”
“You objected to leverage.”
“People were being destroyed.”
“People were being controlled.”
“There’s a difference.”
“Not in our world.”
Vincent stared at the rows of files.
“You sabotaged his plane.”
Evelyn said nothing.
Victor did.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
Victor shrugged.
“The plane was never supposed to crash.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
Victor continued.
“It was supposed to land at a private airfield in Nova Scotia.”
“Gabriel would disappear.”
“Your father would tell the world he died.”
“Then everyone would move on.”
Vincent felt sick.
“Why?”
Evelyn answered.
“Because Gabriel planned to release the archive.”
“He had copied enough material to destroy Charles.”
“And you.”
Vincent stared.
“Me?”
“You were already running three Hale subsidiaries.”
“You signed documents you didn’t understand because your father told you to.”
“Gabriel’s release would have implicated you.”
Vincent felt as if the floor had shifted.
Gabriel looked at him.
“You didn’t know.”
Vincent turned.
“Did you know I was involved?”
“I knew Dad used your signature.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
Gabriel gave a bitter smile.
“You were twenty-nine and thought our father could walk on water.”
Vincent remembered the weeks before the crash.
Arguments.
Gabriel angry.
Vincent accusing him of trying to destroy the family.
He remembered one final conversation.
Gabriel saying, “One day you’ll understand what he made us part of.”
Vincent had hung up.
The next day, Gabriel disappeared.
Vincent looked at Evelyn.
“What happened after the plane diverted?”
Silence.
Gabriel answered.
“Victor changed the plan.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
Gabriel continued.
“He wanted control of the archive.”
“He hired a pilot to reroute the plane again.”
“Storm came in.”
“The plane went down off Newfoundland.”
Vincent looked at Victor.
“You caused the crash.”
Victor shrugged.
“I caused a diversion.”
“Gravity did the rest.”
Sophie stared at him in horror.
Hannah began crying.
Gabriel continued.
“I survived.”
“Barely.”
“A fishing vessel found me.”
“I spent three months in a hospital under the wrong name.”
“Couldn’t remember who I was.”
“When my memory came back, Victor found me before I could reach Vincent.”
Vincent’s stomach turned.
“Fourteen years.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Private clinics.”
“Safe houses.”
“Drugs.”
“Different countries.”
“Whenever I got close to someone who could help, they moved me.”
Vincent looked at Evelyn.
“You allowed this.”
Evelyn’s voice became colder.
“I prevented Gabriel from destroying an empire millions of people depend on.”
“You imprisoned your nephew.”
“I preserved the family.”
Gabriel laughed.
“You always loved that word.”
Victor interrupted.
“We don’t have time for this.”
He pointed toward Sophie’s necklace.
“The card.”
Marcus stayed in front of her.
Vincent said, “You already know what’s on it.”
“Not all of it.”
Victor looked at Hannah.
“Daniel encrypted the real archive coordinates.”
“The memory card contains only the map.”
“The watch contains the key.”
Vincent glanced at the broken watch on the table.
Victor smiled.
“And Sophie knows how to open it.”
Sophie shook her head.
“No.”
Victor approached her.
Marcus raised his weapon.
Harold aimed at Marcus.
Everyone stopped.
Victor crouched several feet from Sophie.
“Your father taught you.”
“No.”
“He loved puzzles.”
“He repaired watches.”
“He used to tell you that stupid lighthouse story.”
Sophie’s eyes widened.
Victor smiled.
“There it is.”
Vincent felt anger burn through him.
“You listened to the Carter house.”
“For months.”
Victor pointed to the watch.
“Open it.”
Sophie looked at her mother.
Hannah shook her head violently.
“No, sweetheart.”
“Don’t.”
Victor pulled a second gun from beneath his jacket.
He aimed it at Hannah.
“Open it.”
Sophie began to cry.
Vincent said, “Point that at me.”
Victor looked at him.
“You always think you’re the most valuable person in every room.”
“Tonight you aren’t.”
Sophie stared at the watch.
Then she whispered.
“I need to hear it.”
Victor frowned.
“What?”
“My dad said you listen to a watch.”
“Bring it.”
Victor gestured to Harold.
Harold carried the watch closer.
Sophie took it with trembling fingers.
She placed it against her ear.
Everyone waited.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
The supposedly broken watch was still running.
Sophie closed her eyes.
Then rotated the crown.
Three turns clockwise.
Two left.
One right.
A tiny compartment clicked open.
Inside was a narrow metal strip.
Not a key.
A sequence of numbers.
Victor smiled.
“There you are.”
Sophie looked at the numbers.
Then at Vincent.
Her expression changed.
Very slightly.
Vincent recognized intelligence in her eyes.
Daniel’s intelligence.
She had understood something.
Victor reached for the strip.
Sophie suddenly threw it across the room.
Harold turned instinctively.
Marcus fired.
The shot struck Harold’s gun from his hand.
Hannah screamed.
Vincent rushed Victor.
Gabriel kicked the metal table.
May you like
The archive erupted into chaos.
And somewhere behind them, Darren Cole locked the only exit.
