Chapter 11 - THE DEAD MAN AT THE AIRPORTThe airport security footage was grainy, silent, and worse than any nightmare.
Victoria stood near a private terminal wearing sunglasses and a black coat. Her face was bruised from exhaustion, but her posture remained perfect. She was not hiding.
She was waiting.
At 6:17 p.m., a man entered the frame.
Tall.
Dark coat.
Baseball cap pulled low.
He walked with a slight limp.
Grace made a sound and grabbed the back of Nathan’s chair.
Nathan paused the video.
“Is that Samuel?”
Grace stared.
Her face had gone completely white.
“I don’t know.”
Nathan turned.
“You don’t know?”
She shook her head. “It looks like him. But Samuel is dead.”
Richard leaned closer to the screen.
“Faces can be copied. Gaits are harder.”
Grace’s voice trembled. “He had that limp after a motorcycle accident when he was twenty.”
Nathan replayed the video.
The man handed Victoria a small case.
Victoria opened it.
Inside was something that made her smile.
Then the man leaned close and said something to her.
Victoria’s smile disappeared.
She looked afraid.
Nathan paused again.
“Can we recover audio?”
Mason shook his head. “No audio in that section.”
“What happened after?”
Mason clicked to the next clip.
Victoria followed the man through a private gate.
Then both disappeared.
“No flight plan?” Nathan asked.
“None under her name.”
“Under his?”
Mason hesitated. “The jet was registered to a shell corporation.”
Richard looked at the data and swore softly.
Nathan turned.
“What?”
Richard removed his glasses.
“The corporation was created by Charles Cole.”
Grace sat down slowly.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Nathan’s eyes hardened.
“It does if Samuel never died.”
Grace shook her head.
“I saw the casket.”
“Was it open?”
Grace could not answer.
Nathan already knew.
Closed.
Of course it had been closed.
Grace stood suddenly.
“No. Samuel would never work with Victoria. He loved Lily. He protected us.”
Nathan stepped toward her.
“Maybe he didn’t have a choice.”
Grace’s eyes filled with panic.
“Or maybe everyone I trusted was bought.”
Nathan took her shoulders gently.
“Look at me.”
She did not.
“Grace.”
Finally, she looked up.
“I am not asking you to doubt him. I am asking you to survive long enough to learn the truth.”
Her breathing slowed.
Then Richard’s phone chimed.
He looked down.
His face changed.
“What is it?” Nathan asked.
Richard held up the screen.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
No words.
Just a file.
A video.
Nathan pressed play.
Samuel Reed appeared on screen.
Older. Thinner. Alive.
Grace covered her mouth.
Samuel looked directly into the camera.
“Grace, if you’re seeing this, then Charles’s last insurance policy has activated. Do not trust Nathan until he knows what Lily really inherited.”
Nathan looked at Grace.
The video continued.
“Lily is not only Nathan Cole’s daughter.”
Samuel swallowed.
“She is the legal owner of the company.”
May you like
The room went silent.
Then the video cut to black.
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