Chapter 8 - Lauren’s Last ChanceThe crying stopped almost as quickly as it had begun.
Vincent knew it was a recording.
Silas had planted speakers near the clinic to create confusion.
Marco shouted orders while guards returned fire through the boarded windows.
Tessa crouched beside Lauren.
“Stay low.”
Lauren’s hand gripped her sleeve.
“I heard a child.”
“It’s a trick.”
“What if it isn’t?”
“It is.”
“But what if—”
Vincent turned toward them.
“Lauren, trust Tessa.”
She looked at him.
That was the first time since the shooting that Vincent had asked her to trust another woman instead of him.
She nodded.
Marco moved through the corridor.
“Back entrance is compromised.”
“How many?” Vincent asked.
“Ten, maybe twelve.”
“Where’s the armored vehicle?”
“Two blocks away.”
“Get everyone there.”
Dr. Ward handed Vincent a small metal case.
“What is this?”
“Your father’s final instructions.”
“I don’t have time to read them.”
“You may not have time later.”
Vincent opened the case.
Inside was a key and a cassette tape.
A handwritten label covered the tape.
FOR VINCENT ONLY.
He looked at the old machine on Dr. Ward’s desk.
“It still works,” she said.
Vincent pressed play.
His father’s voice filled the dark clinic.
“My son, if you are hearing this, then the people I feared have finally come for you.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“I spent my life believing fear was a form of protection. I was wrong. Fear only teaches people to hide until the danger becomes stronger.”
Gunfire rattled outside.
The recording continued.
“The Corvino empire was built on a secret agreement called the Harbor Compact. Seven families shared control of Chicago’s freight routes. I became the public face because I believed I could eventually dismantle it.”
Vincent looked toward Evelyn.
She listened without moving.
“Silas believed the Compact belonged to him. He began stealing money from the trust and using the Board to control judges, officials, and police officers. I hid the trust beneath the mansion because only a direct heir could access it.”
Vincent glanced at the key.
“The key opens a chamber beneath the master bedroom. Inside is proof of every crime committed by the Board.”
The master bedroom.
Beneath the mattress.
Vincent understood.
The hidden tunnel had not merely been an escape route.
It had led to the archive because his father wanted him to find the first layer of the truth.
“The chamber can be opened only by someone named in the original trust,” his father continued. “I chose someone no member of the Board would suspect.”
The recording clicked.
Vincent waited.
His father’s voice returned.
“That person is Tessa Morgan.”
Every person in the clinic looked toward her.
Tessa stared at Vincent.
“I’ve never met your father.”
“Apparently he knew you.”
“That’s impossible.”
Dr. Ward shook her head.
“No. Your mother worked for him.”
Tessa froze.
“What?”
“She was a bookkeeper at the old harbor offices.”
“My mother died when I was eight.”
“Your father helped pay for your education.”
Tessa’s expression turned hard.
“You’re saying my mother worked for Vincent’s family?”
“She discovered financial records connecting the Board to illegal medical trials.”
Tessa looked at Vincent.
“Was I chosen because of her?”
“Maybe.”
“That doesn’t make me special. It makes me useful.”
Vincent did not deny it.
Tessa stepped away.
All around them, gunfire continued.
“You hired me because someone arranged it,” she said.
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know about the money. You didn’t know about my sister. You didn’t know about my mother.”
“No.”
“But your family knew.”
“My family hid it from me.”
“And now I’m supposed to unlock a room for you?”
Vincent moved toward her.
“I’m not asking you to do anything.”
“You’re asking me to save an empire.”
“I’m asking you to decide what happens to the truth.”
Tessa laughed bitterly.
“Truth doesn’t pay hospital bills.”
“It can destroy the people who caused them.”
“Can it undo what happened to Maya?”
“No.”
“Can it bring back my mother?”
“No.”
“Then what does it do?”
Vincent looked at her.
“It stops them from hurting someone else.”
For a moment, Tessa said nothing.
Then a guard rushed into the room.
“They breached the front corridor!”
Marco pointed toward the back exit.
“Move!”
The group fled through a narrow hallway beneath the clinic. Vincent was pushed rapidly through the darkness. Tessa stayed beside him, one hand on the back of his chair.
At the end of the corridor, a metal door led into an underground parking area.
Their armored vehicle waited with its engine running.
They reached it just as bullets struck the ceiling.
Marco opened the rear door.
Vincent transferred himself inside.
Lauren climbed in after him.
Tessa helped Maya enter.
Dr. Ward remained behind.
“You’re coming with us,” Vincent said.
The doctor shook her head.
“This place still has medicine.”
“It also has men with guns.”
“I’m seventy-two. I’ve survived worse than men with guns.”
Vincent reached for her hand.
“Thank you.”
Dr. Ward squeezed his fingers.
“Find the chamber.”
The door slammed shut.
The vehicle surged into the tunnel.
For several minutes, everyone was silent.
Then Lauren spoke.
“Tessa.”
Tessa looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Tessa’s expression was unreadable.
“For what?”
“For your mother. For your sister. For what my family did.”
“You didn’t do it.”
“I benefited from it.”
“Did you?”
Lauren looked down at the ring on her finger.
“I thought I did.”
“What does that mean?”
Lauren took off the ring.
Inside the band was a tiny seam.
She pressed it.
A miniature memory card slid from the metal.
Vincent stared.
“What is that?”
“The information Dominic gave me.”
“You had it the entire time?”
“I hid it because they searched everything else.”
“Why didn’t you show me?”
“I was afraid the device would be found.”
Tessa looked at Vincent.
“Was the listening device under the mattress before or after you found out?”
“Before.”
Lauren handed him the card.
“It contains copies of the payments. The names of the people who received them. I never opened it.”
“Why?”
“Because Dominic told me it contained proof that you ordered the shooting.”
Vincent’s voice turned colder.
“You believed him?”
“I didn’t know what to believe.”
He inserted the card into Marco’s laptop.
Files appeared.
Bank transfers.
Photographs.
Scanned contracts.
Medical records.
A list of names.
Then one file caught his attention.
PATIENT 044.
He opened it.
The file contained Maya’s full name, her medication history, and a note stating that the treatment had been used to determine how a human body reacted to a compound designed to slow nerve activity.
Vincent’s stomach turned.
The compound had been tested on Maya.
It had then been given to him before the shooting.
The doctors had not merely drugged him.
They had studied how the substance affected his spine.
Tessa read the page over his shoulder.
Her face became expressionless.
At the bottom of the report was a signature.
Dr. Nathaniel Ward.
Not Helena.
Another Ward.
Tessa whispered, “That was my father.”
Vincent looked at her.
Maya’s hands began to shake.
“Your father was involved?”
“He died when I was six,” Tessa said. “My mother said he was a research physician.”
“He worked for the Board,” Evelyn replied.
Tessa closed the laptop.
“Then my family was part of this.”
“Your mother tried to expose them,” Evelyn said.
“She failed.”
“She disappeared.”
Tessa looked up sharply.
“My mother didn’t die?”
“No.”
The vehicle fell silent.
Tessa stared at Evelyn.
“What do you mean?”
Evelyn’s gaze lowered.
“Your mother was placed in a psychiatric hospital under another name.”
Tessa’s breath caught.
“She’s alive?”
“She was alive six months ago.”
“Where?”
“St. Agnes.”
Tessa turned toward Vincent.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“You swear?”
“I swear.”
The armored vehicle passed beneath a bridge.
Ahead, police lights appeared.
Marco looked through the windshield.
“Roadblock.”
Vincent saw the uniforms.
Too many.
Too organized.
The lead officer stepped toward the vehicle.
Marco reached for his gun.
Vincent stopped him.
“Wait.”
The officer approached the window.
Then he smiled.
It was Dominic.
He lifted a phone and held it against the glass.
On the screen was a photograph of a little boy sitting in a dark room.
Noah.
Dominic mouthed the words.
Come home.
A second phone appeared in his other hand.
He pressed a button.
The vehicle’s engine died.
Every door locked automatically.
Smoke began filling the cabin.
Vincent grabbed the emergency release.
It would not move.
Tessa pounded on the window.
Lauren covered her mouth.
Dominic stood outside, watching them choke.
Then he raised the phone again.
May you like
A message appeared on the screen.
THE WEDDING BEGINS IN ONE HOUR.
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