Chapter 14 - JONATHAN’S FINAL RECORDING
Victor placed Jonathan’s phone on a concrete table.
The screen was cracked.
He entered a code and opened an audio file.
Jonathan’s voice filled the tunnel.
“Clara, if Victor gives you this recording, it means I failed to stop him.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
He had not listened to the entire file.
Jonathan continued.
“Victor believes I helped him steal from the Bennett Trust.”
“I allowed him to believe that because I needed access to his records.”
“I moved the stolen money into an account under Clara’s name so it could be frozen and returned to its rightful owners.”
“I did not tell Clara because Victor was watching her.”
“She was never involved.”
Victor grabbed the phone.
I seized his wrist.
He shoved me against the table.
The phone fell but continued playing.
“Charles believes our father stole the original company.”
“Some of that is true.”
“Land was acquired through pressure, hidden contracts, and political favors.”
“Clara must reveal everything.”
“Our family cannot repair what it refuses to admit.”
Victor kicked the phone across the floor.
“You think that makes Jonathan a hero?”
“He lied to me.”
“He was trying to protect you.”
“He was protecting himself.”
Victor stepped closer.
“Jonathan promised we would expose the Bennett family together.”
“Then he chose you.”
“You hated him for loving me?”
“I hated him for pretending love made him moral.”
Victor removed a syringe from his coat.
My pulse accelerated.
“You took his medication.”
“He was already dying.”
“You made sure of it.”
“I gave him an opportunity to tell the truth.”
“He refused.”
Victor moved toward me.
I backed away.
“You were supposed to come alone.”
“I did.”
A sound echoed through the tunnel.
Victor smiled.
“No, you did not.”
Daniel emerged from the darkness behind him.
“I stopped following Clara’s instructions when I was sixteen.”
Victor turned.
I struck his wrist.
The syringe fell.
Daniel tackled him before he could reach for it.
They crashed against the concrete wall.
Victor reached inside his coat.
I saw the handle of a knife.
“Daniel.”
Daniel caught Victor’s arm.
The knife struck the floor.
Police rushed through both tunnel entrances.
Detective Reynolds had placed a tracker inside Jonathan’s phone after Victor sent the photograph.
She had known he would bring it.
Victor was arrested.
The recording survived.
So did several files stored on the phone.
Those files documented decades of corruption connected to our father’s company.
Bribes.
Forced property sales.
Fraudulent contracts.
Families displaced from their homes.
The Bennett fortune had not been built entirely through honest work.
Charles’s claim contained pieces of truth.
But he had used that truth to justify new crimes.
I stood in the unfinished Harbor Point lobby beside Daniel.
“We have to release everything,” I said.
“It could destroy the company.”
“I know.”
“Thousands of people work for us.”
“I know that too.”
Daniel looked toward the city skyline.
“What would Dad have done?”
I thought about the secrets our father carried to his grave.
“He would have hidden it.”
May you like
Daniel nodded.
“Then we do better.”
